German video game ratings board indirectly bans Gears of War

D

Dick Tracy

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http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2006/10/18/surprise-gears-banned-in-germany/

Another day, another violent game banned in Germany. It seems that Gears of War -- like Dead Rising before it -- has effectively been banned in Germany. This requires some explanation, as the game isn't technically banned. Basically, the ratings board -- charmingly named Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle -- refuses to dole out a rating at all. As a result, German stores will be unable to sell the game. It sounds worse than it is, though, because real German gamers know they can always import from Austria.

Microsoft could retool the game and make it suitable for impressionable young Germans, but that would cause Live compatibility issues with other versions. Hence, banned.

So, any bets on which game will be banned next? Our vote: Viva Piñata. Seriously, you can beat innocent piñatas to death in that game. It's sick.
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Germany wouldn't want adults to own this, or anything. I mean, adults can't handle fictional violence.
 
Germany's always been very hardcore about their censoring. For example, all these city building board games (Settlers of Catan, the Rails On series, etc) where you dont kill anything come from Germany, because they're not allowed to have war simulations.
 
[quote name='Logain8955']Germany's always been very hardcore about their censoring. For example, all these city building board games (Settlers of Catan, the Rails On series, etc) where you dont kill anything come from Germany, because they're not allowed to have war simulations.[/QUOTE]

I guess that's their way of telling the world "We're sorry for that dude with the funny mustache"?

Kind of silly imo.
 
And that dude with the funny mustache wasn't even German, he was Austrian :)

It's really not that bad that it won't be officially released in Germany. It will be a bit harder to find the game in a mall here but EVERY videogame shop WILL have this game. They already have the UK version for preorder here with ads in all game magazines. I guess Microsoft just doesn't want any bad press for bringing such a violent game here as the newspapers and TV stations here like to talk about such games very onesided, only pointing out how violent they are. But Microsoft KNOWS that this game will sell here like hell :) Just like Dead Rising did, just like God Of War or Manhunt for PS2 did.
 
I thought game nazis was already taken as an alias for EA ;)

No they didn't ban Turok but it was altered for the German market. The human enemies were replaced with cyborgs. But that was only in the first Turok. Since gamers didn't like it for obvious reasons Turok 2 came fully uncut. There are several (sometimes quite absurd and amusing) expamples where a game is altered for the German market if there is a fully localized German PAL version but it's not a problem at all to get a hold of an uncut PAL version from UK or Austria.
 
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