Seems Sega know that the upcoming Aliens vs Predator is so violent, and packed with so much gore, that they’re not even going to bother submitting it to the USK, Germany’s classification board.
Rationale being that the USK, with a reputation for being sticklers for the ol’ killerspiel, would only force sweeping changes to the game, changes Sega didn’t want to part with, so they’re instead just going to save some cash and not bother localising or distributing the game in Germany at all.
Aliens vs. Predator: Too gory for Germany? [PC Games Hardware]
WaveOfMutilation
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 7:51 PMwonder if game developers will start looking at Australia this way…
Toolboy
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 10:56 PMI’m sure its just a matter of time!
TheTom
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 7:56 PMThis does not bode well for the Australian release…
Steve Kayler-Thomson
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 8:14 PMI pray they don’t decide the same thing for Australia
Akra
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 8:17 PMSame thing will probably happen to Australia :’(
plmko
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 8:31 PMYour fighting Aliens not humans, so this game will be fine.
Braaains
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 10:04 PMWell, if you play as the Aliens or the Predators then you WILL be fighting against humans. So it could still have problems.
Yonas Hindrarto
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 11:07 PMUnless if Australia also caters for the well-beings of aliens, that killing aliens is considered inalien.
Mr Waffle
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 3:05 PMConsidering we’re happy to let real-life aliens (aka boat people) locked up, I don’t think alien welfare is much of an issue. Yeah, I went there…
I think it’ll be ok, because it’s not human-on-human violence (which was the issue with L4D2). An alien killing a human is too fantastical to be considered realistic. Hopefully, anyway…
Julian
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 8:31 PMThanks to the powers that be at Sony for making their games region free.
As long as it comes on PS3, you never gotta worry about a game getting banned or not.
Steven Bogos
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 8:33 PMConsidering that one of Sega’s prior releases, ‘House of the Dead Overkill’ was submitted and passed in Aus, and that it had copious ammounts of violence, i’d assume that they’d still at least TRY with Aus.
Vel
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 11:09 PMI’m tempted to spoil the last boss here but I won’t. Just have to say WTF WERE THEY THINKING when they passed that game.
Newguy
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 10:32 PMI don’t really see AvP3 being censored, in any major way at least. If they don’t bother to sell it in Australia, I’ll cry.
…Then somehow import it from somewhere else.
Steven Bogos
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 11:16 PMPlay-asia is your friend
AndyN
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 11:53 PMI only wish that this does start happening in AUS only to force government to give us R18+
plmko
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 12:21 AMAnd R18+ is suppose to help us how? If that did happen they’ll just rate this game X, and then you’ll be back to square one.
David Putz
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 1:42 AMSo they are going to institute a new rating that is inappropriate for adults so that we can’t get the game?
Even though that doesn’t make much sense, neither does our current system. Damn you Ruddy.
Ryan Fernance
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 1:56 AM@plmko: No they won’t. The only thing I’ve seen rated X is probably the most hardcore porn you can find.
An R rating would ensure games like this, or Left4Dead 2, or GTA or any of the other games that are banned/edited can be enjoyed by Australian adults and also help keep these games out of kids hands.
I guarantee the average parent see’s MA15+ and just thinks, well my son/daughter is nearly 15 so they’ll be right with this. I don’t really think 15 year olds (most, anyway) are mature enough to play GTA or the like anyway. If they see R18+ they think, wow, okay then this game is much more mature than I thought, I won’t buy this. Or if they do it will make them think about how their child would handle such content and force them to become more educated on gaming and content, which is only a good thing.
If they then decide to buy the game it’s on the parents.
Paul P
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 10:14 AMIt’s interesting to note that both Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 were rated 17+ and 18+ in the US and UK respectively. Yet here in Aus, one is Refused Classification outright (and eventually neutered) while the other passes by with a fairly straightforward MA15+.
I’d be interested to posit this to Atkinson, and ask him how he feels about 15 year-olds legally being able to play THAT LEVEL in MW2.
greg
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 10:46 AMi think that is because the ratings board is not stupid they know if they banned modern warfare 2 there is a fairly good chance of violent opposition