Diablo III: Some Versions Will Be Edited

4:30PM August 25, 2009 | Luke Plunkett

The world is a big place. And what’s cool for one part of it may not be so cool for another. Take Diablo III, for example, which will have its violent content edited when its released in certain markets.

In Australia and Germany, two markets where classification authorities (for varying reasons) run a tight ship, Blizzard will “have to change blood if [they're]going to sell there”. We’d presume that means either tone it down or, like other games have done recently, change its colour.

For China, though… things aren’t as easy. In fact, they’re so hard the game may never be released there, Blizzard’s Jay Wilson telling Wired “China’s going to be hard for us. Because a lot of the restrictions there are really… we may not be able to do them. It may not be possible.”

Kotaku AU Note: We’ve checked in with Blizzard’s Aussie office for further comment. Will keep you updated.

Why Designer of Gory Diablo III Lets His Daughter Play [Wired]

Comments

Steve

August 25, 2009 at 9:23 PM

Wow. It’s come to this… we’ve hit the point where companies feel like they need to change the colour of blood for the sensitive Australians.

At least it’s a PC game so there’ll be no region coding issues.

pk

August 26, 2009 at 12:31 AM

Might be able to buy valid US CD key and activate/download via battle net. Hopefully, battle.net will use the cd key for country check and not the IP address.

Jared Mackean

August 26, 2009 at 1:36 AM

you cant call it Jesus eather he was put on a cross and bled out a hole in his side you would need to censor that first.
i want a d3 that is gory as d1 and d2.

mambodog

August 26, 2009 at 3:18 AM

I can’t imagine how something like Diablo could manage to exceed the MA15+ rating for violence alone, when its not even a viceral, first person experience. We can have things like Fallout with body parts exploding, what could D3 have?

News