Steve Downes, the man behind the steady, reassuring voice of sci-fi shooter Halo‘s Master Chief, decried the White House for using his likeness as part of a video he called “juvenile war porn”.
The voice behind Master Chief, Halo’s iconic protagonist, has criticised the White House for using the character in a video allegedly promoting war in the Middle East.
Downes took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to make his position clear.
“It has come to my attention that there is at least one propaganda video circulating that was either produced [by or] endorsed by the White House that uses images of Master Chief and uses my voice to support the war in Iran,” began Downes.
“I did not participate in, nor was I consulted, nor do I endorse the use of my voice in this video, or the message conveys,” he continued.
“I demand that the producers of this disgusting and juvenile war porn remove my voice immediately.”
War stories
The video itself depicts a cavalcade of figures from US pop culture exhorting the viewer to war and violence. Figures Tony Stark, Saul Goodman, and Kylo Ren are among those featured alongside Master Chief himself. Released with text reading “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY,” the video boasts 63 million views at time of writing.
The appropriation of pop culture icons by the White House, including figures from video games, appears to be routine for the Trump Administration. For instance, on March 6, the BBC reported that the Pokémon Company formally condemned the White House for using Pikachu’s likeness in an online post.
In an earlier video posted on March 4, the White House used footage from Call of Duty alongside images of an aircraft carrier launching fighter jets. The video has been viewed over 50 million times at time of writing and, according to Reuters, is part of an effort to “sell its bombing campaign against Iran to the American public.”
Video games deserve better than to be used as fodder for warmongering propaganda, just as we deserve better than the jingoistic glorification of violence that these videos promote.
