Some players of SSouth Park: The Stick of Truth won’t get to see the game in its entirety — a handful of 20-second scenes are censored in the European, Middle Eastern and African version of the upcoming RPG on consoles.
Warning: minor spoilers for Stick of Truth follow.
A review guide leaked by European press — via NeoGAF — reveals that Ubisoft decided to replace a few mini-game scenes in the console versions of Stick of Truth, which is out next week for PC/PS3/Xbox 360.
Here’s the relevant excerpt:
Knowing the creators of South Park, those image backgrounds will be hilarious. In the censored Australian version of the game, some scenes were replaced by images of crying koalas.
When reached for comment by Eurogamer, Ubisoft’s UK office said this was a marketing decision.
Of course, this isn’t the first time the folks behind South Park have had to deal with censorship — back in 2010, Comedy Central censored images of the Muslim prophet Muhammad in the episode 201.
Comments
23 responses to “South Park: The Stick Of Truth Is Censored Outside Of North America”
I was prepared to be pissed off but after seeing what the cuts actually are, I don’t give a shit. I don’t agree with censorship in principle but this is on the same level as the anal probe weapon in Saint’s Row 4. Annoying, but not really worth fighting about. Besides, I have a feeling in this case the censored version is going to wind up being funnier.
I was going to be annoyed but ill just deal. I will just have to download this on my U.S psn account.
I’ve only ever been a casual viewer of South Park so don’t even know if I’ll buy the game, but I guess play-asia will be selling a few US copies now.
How reliable is the play-asia online store?
I used to buy from them before I started getting UK imports, they’ve been around for ages and aren’t dodgy or anything (that I’ve heard about).
They are fine and the only reason I don’t keep using them a heck of a lot still is because I use OzGameShop.
*shrug* oh well, no bigger – I’ll just order the US version from PlayAsia
Does this mean that the version on steam is also censored?
This won’t get people pirating the game. It will also not encourage people to get it from overseas. /s
Nope im gonna get the game overseas or see if the steam version will also be censored
Can you play US games on 360, or only PAL? I’ve only ever imported from the UK before.
Off the top of my head region locking is there, but it’s up to the publishers to decide if they want to use it or not so most 360 games end up being region free. Pretty much all the major import sites will tell you which region the games play in on the product page so just make sure to check it.
This pisses me off and almost guarantee’s that all 360 copies playable on a pal console will be censored in one form or another, maybe some Asian versions will have original content. Will have to wait till after release to be sure.
I will be very tempted to just pirate the thing out of spite if that ends up being the case. IT doesn’t matter if the cut content is minor or if it’s replacement is funnier.
Anyone know if i can just buy it digitally with a US xbox live account and play it on my Aus gamertag? I know they have been cracking down on this kinda thing.
Ubisoft’s twitter has said that the European PC version ISN’T censored, that it’s only console.
https://twitter.com/Ubisoft/statuses/438360936559411200
No idea how this relates to our PC version or to the PC version in general
What a bunch of pussies. I’m very disappointed in them.
Oh well suck it console versions.
So, not real content has been cut… just 7 20 second cutscenes… what ever, I’m sure they’ll be on you tube within a day of release anyhow.
That said, I’m still not a big fan of censorship, we have an R rating, and as much as some people may think otherwise, South Park is not for kids…
I would say 2 minutes of cut scenes and 2 mini games is a lot of content to cut and quite frankly is fucking rediculous. The shit I have seen on a tv show/movie that was rated MA 15+ is typically far more brutal and realistic than even the ver worst R rated games.
I hate this nonsense, I hate that we constantly have old fuggets holding back society with ignorance and stupidity.
I seem to remember them saying that the ONLY scenes cut were the anal probing scenes in the AU release. When did this change?
This isn’t about the AU version, this is censored bits in other countries that object to certain things. Apparently, for once, more than AU itself does.
SSouth Park? I mean, people might say it’s bad but Nazis?! Now that’s just harsh.
If I cant pay for the adult uncensored version then I will pirate the adult uncensored version.
I 100% agree with you…
Lolz @ the government who think their little “classifications” on games matter.
I already import all of my games to save money anyway, either digitally or physically, I never pay a cent for censored content. The laws mean so little to me that I don’t even acknowledge Australian ratings. I have more important things to do than listen to some nanny government drones.