Virtually all video games these days come with a warning message explaining that the flashing lights may trigger a seizure or blackout in those people who have a sensitivity. Even before they get this label, the games are rigorously tested to ensure they meet certain standards, to try and avoid causing people to suffer. While we don't normally hear about it, and the Health and Safety Precautions booklet is often thrown out when the game is unboxed, the warning is something that all game manufacturers must keep in mind.

I'd imagine that Sony will be paying a little more attention to the regulations as their long-awaited PSN release of WipEout has just been delayed - the game failed its recent epilepsy tests, and now requires re-engineering.

...the news comes as a blow to WipEout fans, who were hanging out for game details or an exhibition at last week's E3 Summit. Instead, the racing game was back on the draft table, with the company claiming "technical difficulties".


Those difficulties were elaborated on later - allegedly, WipEout "fails the epilepsy tests so much that it has to be re-engineered." ...of all the game genres to have to deal with this kind of setback, it's not really surprising that a racer woudl have problems, especially when you consider this particular streamlined franchise achieves high in-game speeds with street lights rapidly flashing past the screen.

No details have been released at this stage about how long the delay may be (as the game was apparently all-but finished before the Summit), but fingers crossed they sort out their flashy lights and patterns sooner rather than later, and we can get to downloading some awesome racing action.