Tag Archives: censorship

Gearbox has announced that all territories – including the notoriously censor-friendly Australia and Germany – will receive the same, gore-filled version of Borderlands 2.

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Techland’s zombie survival title Dead Island will sport two different covers: one featuring a hanged figure, and the other the more acceptable upright-and-lurching zombie.

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Eat Sleep Play’s David Jaffe – currently working on Twisted Metal for the PlayStation 3 is no stranger to controversy or his comments being taken out of context.

So in the wake of Insomniac’s Ted Price’s plea for games press to help mobilise the gaming public against proposed restrictions on sale of certain games – borne as it was by Price being misquoted – you may figure Jaffe would be on board too.

Not so.

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The head of Insomniac Games, Ted Price, has taken to his company website to urge games media to focus on the bigger picture.

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The key ministerial roadblock to a R18+ rating for games in Australia – Senator Michael Atkinson – stood down from the front bench half a year ago. Yet Australian gamers of any age still cannot legally play games with content judged beyond a MA15+ rating.

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EA Games boss Frank Gibeau has called out Australia’s Attorneys General to have the introduction of an R18 rating in the country as soon as possible.

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They don’t make zombies like they used to. Pepper their paper skin with a shotgun blast or two and – boom – undead confetti. But not in Australia! Good ol’ Oz builds its zombies strong to last long. Limbs stay on and blood stays in, even when caught in the thickest of crossfires.

Even better, when Australian zombies finally bite the big one, their bodies immediately disappear – eliminating the need for cleanup. No muss, no fuss! How convenient!

There’s a trailer of Left 4 Dead 2′s Australian action after the break.

Thanks, Destructoid.

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World of Warcraft is now almost live in China, but with some caveats. Gama’s reporting that the MMO, which was fully offline for six weeks, is now back up in closed beta but has been visually edited.

MMOsite’s grabbed some before and after screens, and it looks as though the Chinese government isn’t keen on bones and skulls.

Hit the link to see what we mean.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Eurogamer.de’s reporting that almost 30,000 Germans have now signed a petition seeking to stop the banning of both the development and sale of violent games in the country.

Here’s what they’re putting their name to. Translation supplied to VG247 by EG.de:

The German Bundestag should decide against the decision of the interior minister conference from the 5th of June, that aims for a [banning] of action computer games.

—-

As an adult citizen and a person eligible to vote, I beg your firmly…

- to erase the irritating and discriminating term of “killerspiele” [killer game] from political discussion.
- to strengthen the trust of the public in existing national youth protection mechanics.
- to improve and warrant the execution of existing laws, that ensure kids and the youth only get access to videogames and computer games rating according the USK.
- to support parents and educationally responsible persons in the advancement of media competence.
- to promote the computer games and videogames industry in Germany and especially the training of these promising professions.

A ban on the production and distribution of “killer games” in Germany is looking very real, with the country’s 16 Interior Ministers now asking the Bundestag to put the move into effect before elections on September 27.

Speaking to CVG, Bethesda’s Peter Hines has admitted he finds dealing with censorship boards across different countries a difficult business.

“The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different ‘hot buttons’,” he said.

“In one place nudity is a big deal but violence is fine, and in another place drugs are a problem but nudity is fine. I guess that’s the way of the world – not every country is the same. You’re not aiming at one target, you’re aiming at six different ones, worrying about how each one will feel about different things.

“We just go through and make the game that we want to make – We have our eyes wide open, mindful of the things that could be flagged up and how we’re going to resolve them if that becomes a problem,” he added.

Hines told us at Games Convention that the version of Fallout 3 now rated in Australia – after the original submission was refused – couldn’t be classed as “cut” or “lesser” than any other version, as the game was yet to be rated in all territories.

Fallout 3′s out for PC, PS3 and 360 this October.

This is only going to get worse. According to this GameSetLinks piece, US paper-staple EGM has refused to score Metal Gear Solid 4 because Konami attempted to censor certain aspects of the review.

According to the site, quoting from the mag, the decision was made because of “the limitations Konami wanted to impose on our comments”.

This is just the latest in an ongoing meta-row about Metal Gear Solid 4 reviews, which is sending fanboys grade-A crackers on a global level.

Eurogamer’s 8/10 attracted a comments thread over 1,700 posts long, and the revelation that Konami told US reviewers not to mention install sizes or cut-scene length last week has only added fuel to an already exploding fire.

All we’re going to say is, “Oh dear.”

According to this Gamespot report, the only differences anyone’s found between the Australian and European version’s of GTA IV so far is in the way certain aspects of prostitution are dealt with in the game. From the site:

Having just received a region one version of the game, we tested out a few scenarios and only found one difference so far: how the game deals with prostitution. In Australian versions of GTAIV, Niko can indeed pick up prostitutes, but once he takes said sex worker to a secluded area, the game camera shifts to a tight shot of the rear of the vehicle the pair are in and cannot be moved.

In the region one version, once Niko finds a secluded spot, an extra option pops up, asking whether Niko wants the $20 or the $50 service. Once the appropriate “service” is chosen, the act begins, but instead of a static camera, players can freely rotate the game camera around the vehicle.

Neither Rockstar or the OFLC have released details of cuts made to the Australian version as yet.

According to this New Zealand Herald story, GTA IV will be censored in New Zealand as well as Australia.

We’re a little confused as to why, as the game has received an 18 rating in New Zealand, as opposed to the 15 it got from the OFLC in Australia. For the record, 15 is the maximum a game can be rated in Australia, hence the fact the game has to be cut for release there.

“Everyone’s assuming it is logistics,” a retailer told the newspaper. “It just makes sense for them to send us the Australian version.”

More through the link.

A new content filter application called Censorit has been launched in the UK, aimed at helping parents filter the content their children can see on their mobiles, handhelds and iPods.

“Popular games consoles…are all Wi-Fi enabled devices, that, when connected to your home or the public Wi-Fi, offer a completely unfiltered and unsecured web browsing experience unless configured to use a service to filter inappropriate content,” says the product’s site.

“This means your children can access and view the most inappropriate material on the most accessible devices on the market.

It claims that Censorit will provide “a safe, filtered experience for your children” for just £4 a month.

Dr Byron will be pleased. Click the link for more details.

By Mike Bowden

Rockstar has been forced to produce an edited version of GTA IV in order to get a 15 certificate in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Rockstar’s confirmed that the game was edited for release in the country, but hasn’t revealed which parts were removed.

Australia’s Office of Film and Literature Classification has been going through a turbulent patch recently, with increasing amounts of pressure being heaped on it to accept at 18 rating. Currently, 15 is the maximum rating a game can receive in Australia, effectively blocking a lot of adult gaming content enjoyed by the civilised world.

The GTA series alone has constantly run into problems with the OFLC.

In 2001, thousands of copies of GTA III were sold before the game was rated and refused classification because players could pick-up prostitutes. An edited version was later released.

2002′s Gran Theft Auto: Vice City was also edited for Australian audiences.

In 2005, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has its original MA15+ rating overturned and the game pulled from retail shelves after it was revealed game discs contained a hidden “Hot Coffee” sex mini-game. An edited version rated MA15+ was soon back on sale.

More through the link.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures game director Gaute Godager has said that he believes that the MMO’s unique and controversial combat system, which has been scathed by some critics, will be ideal for the conversion of the game to a 360 format.

Speaking at a GDC presentation of the title’s PC version, Godager said that the system had worked through a number of technical difficulties in converting the traditionally PC-bound MMO format to console, and that the 360 version would include even more content than the already enormous PC version. A 360 game should be expected around 12 months after the PC release.

The brutal and bloody Funcom MMO, which takes its inspiration from the original Robert E Howard books rather than the classic Arnie films, has now been four-and-a-half years in development. The version we were shown at GDC is looking markedly more accomplished than versions demoed to journalists in previous months, and the dark world of Howard’s books is now absurdly detailed.

Godager explained that his designers wanted to get across the full depth of Howard’s fiction of ancient, evil cultures. “Hyboria is like a layered, vicious cake,” said the excitable Norwegian, “with layer upon layer of dark culture.”

The impressive Funcom engine will be able to render unique faces for every player, making it possible to recognise friends by their faces, as you might in the real world.

Age of Conan releases worldwide for PC on May 20.

GTA IV is to release in Australia as God intended, according to this.

“No GTA has been censored since Vice City,” said Rockstar. “[Grand Theft Auto] IV has been rated in its entirety, the rating is on the OFLC website.”

Both GTAIII and GTA Vice City were censored for Australian release.

America the Brave won’t be able to see nipples in the upcoming Eidos MMO Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures because they’re evil, or something. German people, also, will have to put up with a censored version of the game, in which they’ll be allowed to see “will have full gore and nudity” but not “decapitation, dismemberment or excessively graphic fatalities”, according to this. Common sense in action there.

Can Americans see male nipples in the game? The rather depressing news was revealed by Funcom community manager Shannon Drake speaking in the official Age of Conan forums.

Eidos has moved to assure German gamers that the Xbox Live version of the Conflict: Denied Ops demo will be released in due course, and is currently in submission.

“The demo has always been planned for release in Germany and will be available on Xbox Live as soon as it is through testing in our internal QA dept,” Eidos UK PR Gareth Ramsay said here. “I hope this clears things up.”

The demo, as reported yesterday, has been held up because of edits made to the full game for violence-shy Germany. The demo released in other western countries hadn’t been cut, hence the delay.

According to Major Nelson, Xbox Live’s Conflict: Denied Ops demo isn’t being released in Germany. A German source this morning confirmed the reasoning.

“It hasn’t been banned here,” he told VG247. “It has an 18 rating, but it seems they made some cuts to it. So they’re not offering the uncut demo here.”

The shooter, releasing in Europe next week, takes the Pivotal-developed, Eidos-published series to the current generation of hardware, and even includes a soundtrack from Sega music favourite Richard Jaques. Fancy.