Tag Archives: banned

After a stern warning to unscrupulous Everquest players last week, Sony Online Entertainment made good on its threats. Seven hundred accounts were suspended today as Sony’s wrath rang out through Norrath.

“Remember that these suspensions are merely the first wave, and further action is on the horizon. We will not rest, but will instead continue to gather data and take action as necessary on behalf of the entire player base. Don’t cheat – it’s not worth it,” said Everquest community manager Piestro.

Via Massively.

A Dragon Age II player  had his EA account suspended for 72 -hours, causing him to be unable to play EA’s PC games. However, apparently it was just a glitch in the system that caused the entire account ban, according to EA.

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According to a report from PCGames.de, the EU version of Call of Duty: Black Ops has been banned in Germany.

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Microsoft’s confirmed that Kinect won’t be going on sale in China this year. Or at any point, for that matter.

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The Belgian Entertainment Association has clarified reports that game rentals are to be banned in Belgium next month, saying that the issue isn’t with retailers offering games to rent, rather than with retailers buying games for sale then renting them out.

“What’s happening is that video rental stores are declining in popularity, and because of this those stores began to buy retail copies of games and put them up for rent. I can’t think of any country that would allow this. Rental outlets need publisher permission to rent out games, and need to buy them wholesale, just like with films,” Olivier Maeterlinck, Managing Director of the Belgian Entertainment Association, told Edge.

“The point is that stores can still put out rental copies. They just have to get permission to do so. In most countries a rental point must get permission for renting out. We are no longer any different to this system, but that doesn’t mean we are ‘banning’ game rentals.”

Phew. Glad that’s cleared up.

According to this De Standaard piece, games rentals will be banned in Belgium as of December 1.

Gamemania – the largest specialist game retailer in Belgium – says in the piece that rentals make up 10 percent of its revenue.

Apparently the practice has always been illegal in the country, but has been tolerated until now.

No longer. Thanks, NeoGAF.

Pathetic. According to this XboxOz360Gamer story, the Australian OFLC has refused to classify Silent Hill: Homecoming, effectively barring the game from sale in the country.

Apparently Australian people can’t cope with adult videogame content, which is why Australia has no 18 rating for games. Getting 18-rated games from other PAL countries must be really tough for Australians with the immense knowledge of “parcels”.

Sort it out, Australian law people. The rest of the world’s looking on in complete bewilderment.

Eurogamer.de‘s scotched a report that said Dead Space had already been banned in Germany. Basically, it hasn’t.

The site’s spoken to EA Germany, and the game is still with the USK, apparently, so no one knows yet if there are going to be any restrictions on the horror’s launch.

The original information came from Dead Space community manager Andrew Green, who said in a Destructoid story that the game had been banned in Germany, Japan and China.

Thanks, wz!

According to this Destructoid piece, Dead Space community manager Andrew Green has revealed that the EA action horror has been banned in Germany, Japan and China.

There’s no detail there other than that, and no confirmation that EA intends to edit the game to get release in these countries. Maybe someone could change the blood colour to blue, or something.

Frankly, this just makes us want to play it more. It’s out in Europe on October 24.

Whoops. Australia’s trigger happy censor board – the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) – has refused to grant a rating to D3′s Dark Sector.

The sci-fi action game contains, according to the OFLC, “violence that is high in impact and is therefore unsuitable for persons aged under 18 years to play. The finishing moves and most violent game play includes decapitation, dismemberment of limbs accompanied by large blood spurts, neck breaking spurts, neck breaking twists and exploded bodies with post-action twitching body parts. These moves are relatively easy to accomplish and once the player has mastered the moves and is able to get close to his foes, these violent moves can be executed.”

In Australia, the maximum age rating for game is 15. You might want to sort that out, Australia.