Dead Space To Launch Early, Banned in Three Countries 87
EA Redwood Shores' Dead Space seems to be one of the few games that has its release constantly moved forward. Shortly after news that the game's European debut was moved up to Oct. 24th, the company announced that the US launch date would be moved up to October 14th. Unfortunately, EA's Ben Swanson also said the game has been banned in China, Germany, and Japan. (Announcement here, sound toggle to the upper right of the page.) Previews of the game are available from Ars and Gamespy.
Re:China and Germany could be expected (Score:5, Informative)
I am more surprised by Germany. The Germany of today has seemingly been about freedoms.
Well, I don't quite know how to respond to that. As someone living in Germany's southern neighbor, I have to say that I haven't found the Germans to be about "freedoms" in our field at all. Have you followed the recent laws where even having a copy of Wireshark installed your laptop is a crime? I work in IT security, and I go to great pains to ensure that any security tools and documents are thoroughly encrypted so that I can't be charged.
Re:China and Germany could be expected (Score:4, Informative)
Don't worry, the OFLC is just a little slow. It will be banned, I'm sure.
I doubt it. The OFLC already gave it MA15+ (RTFA). The only time the OFLC bans something is if a) enough soccer mums complain) or b) it involves lots of drugs, gang membership, prostitution, killing civilians, or murder sprees in general. Actual violence level has rarely been a criteria.
Even then lots of things slip through - Fallout 1, 2, Tactics, Half-Life, various versions of GTA, etc.
Australia ain't some totalitarian regime like China, mate.
This story probably isn't accurate (Score:2, Informative)
According to this German news site (link : http://www.eurogamer.de/article.php?article_id=230133 ), Andrew Green wasn't correct, and Dead Space has not gone through the German classification system yet.
However, knowing their past, I would be surprised if it did pass classification.
Re:Hentai and Violent Anime (Score:4, Informative)
The primary reason is likely the increasing incidents of teenagers killing people, and the increase in conspicuous murders like the infamous massacre in Akihabara this year-- and the couple of copycat murders or attempted murders. So instead of improving the ratio of quality of life to cost, education system, and its directionless (and decidedly GOP-like) government, an agency decided to ban a graphically violent game. Essentially, if the LDP don't have an easy scapegoat, they will have to deal with issues they'd rather not touch.
Today's Japan is very much a reactionary culture, where the old continue to govern by striking down that which they fear without careful consideration of the impact of their decisions. And the next in line can't wait to smack down the younger generation, so the cycle feeds itself.
And the "underground" stuff is technically contraband in Japan, IIRC. At least, I can't imagine an old cop letting an "ura" DVD slide.
_Banned_ in Germany? (Score:2, Informative)
Never heard of the game, but apparently it did not go through evaluation, yet. Note that there is a difference between 18+, 'harmful to minors' and banned.
* The first can not be sold to anyone under 18
* The second can not be sold openly and you can't run ads for it (which was great marketing, when I was under 18)
* The third can not be sold at all
I highly suspect it is the second.
Re:China and Germany could be expected (Score:2, Informative)
No, the gp is wrong.
Distributing and trying to obtain "hacking tools" is a crime. Trouble is, nobody (including the legislators!) have any idea what exactly a "hacking tool" is...
Re:publicity stunt (Score:4, Informative)
Germany does have age ratings, and it does have something they call "indexing", which sounds like "banning", but really isn't.
For consoles "indexing" is pretty close to banning, since neither Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo allow an indexed game to be published in Germany, which means you can't buy a German version of Gears of War in Germany and neither can you download demos or add-ons from XBoxLive or PSN. You might still be able to find a shop that imports the game for you from another country and you might be able to create an XboxLive or PSN account with fake data that puts you in the USA, but that are just workaround to what is effectivly a ban. For PC games its different because there is no central authority that stops you from publishing the titles.
Germans don't mind nude models on magazines,
Germany doesn't have a problem with boobies, but hardcore porn is indexed by default, so freedom when it comes to "sex" isn't exactly there either.
Very few games are actually "banned"
True, but it actually does hit major titles, see Dead Rising.
The real issue with the whole "indexing" and "banning" however is that its really just censorship in disguise. We already have rating agencies that can give a titlel a 18+ rating, its hard to find a reason why one would need restrictions beyond a 18+ rating.