The brewing controversy over private equity firm Elevation Partners' investment in video game developer Pandemic-Bioware poses an interesting question: how much involvement does rock star and Elevation partner Bono really have in the firm's investment decisions? Even ahead of Elevation's acquisition of the two game studios, Pandemic was already producing the controversial Mercenaries title that has Bono's critics up in arms. The earlier Mercenaries game, which allows players to control a rogue soldier on a battlefield, was set in Korea, where players attempt to overthrow a North Korean dictator who has started a new Korean War. The sequel, which exclusively is slated for Sony's upcoming $500 Playstation 3 game console, is set in Venezuela, which is ruled by a fictitious dictator threatening oil supplies to America. Like the earlier Mercenaries title, which never mentions North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, the new title reportedly will not formally use the name of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The setting — as much as the violence — of the game has liberals crying foul as the game seems anathema to Bono's political efforts to relieve the suffering of the poor. A day and a half after the story first "broke" — the quotes accentuates the fact that the game was announced at May's E3 video game trade show so it was no secret — the rock star has remained tight lipped about the issue. Either Bono knows about the controversial game and doesn't see the alleged hypocrisy — perhaps under the auspices of artistic freedom — or he was only made aware of it by media reports implying he's not very active in Elevation's investments. —Matthew Wurtzel
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