The Advertising Standards Authority is putting Eidos under fire for violent posters advertising Kane & Lynch: Dead Men for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in the UK. Eidos says as soon as complaints were made of the posters, they were replaced with alternative designs. A poster, two magazine adverts and a TV ad received a number of complaints from the public, citing scenes of disturbing violence, which were perceived to condone violence, particularly towards women.

The majority of the 26 complaints were about a poster depicting two men and a woman. The latter was seating the foreground, bound and gagged. One of the men was holding her head back by the hair, wearing surgical gloves and speaking into a mobile phone. The other man held a rifle, standing behind the first. A quote, identified as being from Official Xbox 360 Mag, appeared on the poster, stating: “Grittier and nastier in tone than anything you’ve seen before, the violence here is visceral, brutal and very, very real.”