industry news
Thailand Bans More Games In Wake Of GTA Inspired Killing
Posted by Michael McWhertor at 9:40 AM on September 4, 2008
Thailand's Ministry of Culture, fully swept up in the hysteria that has followed an allegedly Grand Theft Auto-inspired murder, has officially banned five "dangerous" games, according to a report from CNET. The Technology Thailand blog writes that the following titles are no longer to be sold or distributed under the threat of legal action: Hitman, 300: The Video Game, Killer 7, Hitman: Blood Money and 50 Cent: Bulletproof.
Curiously, Grand Theft Auto titles don't appear to be on the "banned" list. It cannot, however, be imported or distributed due to its dangerous status.
The Thai government is also spearheading a vague 90-day effort to protect impressionable youth from "dangerous games" and establish regulations for pay-to-play gaming centres that feature such titles.
Thai Ministry of Culture wages war on gaming [CNET via GamePolitics]

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Bayo
Posted September 4, 2008 2:32 PM
i wish Australia would ban 50 Cent: Bulletproof ... that game is so crap
skwca
Posted 10:29 AM 4/9/08
All i need to here now is how thailands crime rate is going down. Then they will say SEE VIDEO GAMES KILL..
and we will all suffer for that.
so when in thailand go kill someone just to get the rate up, ohh after you have sex with a minor of course.
skwca
Warbuff6644
Posted 10:24 AM 4/9/08
I had no idea about the sex tourism in Thailand. I'm tempted to google and find out what the heck is going on. But at the same time.... I really don't want to.
Warbuff6644
Erwin
Posted 10:20 AM 4/9/08
@balls187 upside yo head: If they're willing to come out of retirement.
And that's the only joke I'll ever steal... at the moment.
Erwin
sixonedoesitall
Posted 10:18 AM 4/9/08
@Nirolak:
they make money off child sex tourism.
It's like las vegas shutting down their casinos... why would they do it?
Videogames are a foreign product competing with domestic forms of entertainment (like child sex tourism) which is why it's being banned.
Because they aren't profiting off it.
sixonedoesitall
Hahaue
Posted 10:16 AM 4/9/08
@balls187 upside yo head: As terrible as it is, I lol'd.
Hahaue
snakepliskin
Posted 10:14 AM 4/9/08
Speaking of hitman when am i getting my next fix. This is ridiculous i effing love that game and i havent seen a damn thing on it.
snakepliskin
trogam
Posted 10:14 AM 4/9/08
@EmeraldDragon: Seconded.
trogam
balls187 upside yo head
Posted 10:12 AM 4/9/08
Thailand: We ban video games, but feel free to come here and fuck little kids.
balls187 upside yo head
EmeraldDragon
Posted 10:12 AM 4/9/08
I vote to make this the new Ban Hammer picture.
EmeraldDragon
Nirolak
Posted 10:11 AM 4/9/08
Yes, because video games are the biggest thing effecting Thailand's youth.
If I lived in Thailand, hell even as a foreigner, I'd much prefer that they worked on getting rid of child sex tourism than worrying about what video games the kids are playing.
There are priorities in this world, and it's about time their government started looking at them.
Nirolak
insanejedi
Posted 10:09 AM 4/9/08
Doesn't Tailand have a "State of Emergancy" (No pun... well, actually pun intended) right now?
insanejedi
TheHeeyyy
Posted 10:07 AM 4/9/08
"...300: The Video Game..."
THIS IS MADNESS!!!
TheHeeyyy
IceCold
Posted 10:04 AM 4/9/08
Hahahah 50 Cent: Bulletproof. HAHAHAH/
IceCold
mwoody
Posted 10:02 AM 4/9/08
The government had to take a stance! With all that video-game-playing, young boys had no time for sex with foreign travelers. They DEPEND on those tourism dollars!
mwoody
vid3oman64
Posted 10:00 AM 4/9/08
@Lazlo: I sniff that to be a good starting point for a nice political discussion! (Not meaning that in a blaming way.)
Or not. We could stick to games, here, on Kotaku, the gaming blog.
I think it would be fun though...
vid3oman64
X-Cannon
Posted 10:00 AM 4/9/08
My god there is a whole lot of stupid in that article. Apparently it mirrors the Thai legislative body
X-Cannon
Lazlo
Posted 9:57 AM 4/9/08
You can't regulate morality. Some people are evil fucks no matter what you take away from them.
Lazlo
pandafresh
Posted 9:57 AM 4/9/08
why the fuck do they always list Killer 7, hardly anyone even played the damn thing!
LEAVE SUDA 51 ALONE! [/chris crokcer]
pandafresh
vid3oman64
Posted 9:56 AM 4/9/08
Another chapter in the "governments having nothing important to do" annals of history.
vid3oman64
DaveKap
Posted 9:56 AM 4/9/08
Because being a fascist and banning everything that you think is bad is much easier than trying to support better education and parenting.
*eyes rolling so hard it hurts*
DaveKap
Barbara
Posted 10:54 AM 4/9/08
5555!
Barbara
deathbunny
Posted 10:52 AM 4/9/08
Well, the others, I don't really get, but 300, I can understand. You don't want kids doing 50,000 crunches, and then ramming a spear through someone with a skin condition or deformity.
For one thing, it presents a predjudicial viewpoint toward the handicapped. For another, it teaches kids that they should hang around with other guys with their shirts off. And I think that's sexy.
I mean wrong. Morally wrong.
and so so sexy.
deathbunny
Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.
Posted 10:48 AM 4/9/08
@laser beams: Come on, they had 3 years.
Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.
laser beams
Posted 10:38 AM 4/9/08
killer 7, BANNED???????
WTF, guys? that sucks for the hardcore gamers in Thailand who may not have gotten the chance to play it already :(
laser beams
Chibirazi
Posted 11:21 AM 4/9/08
Funny,can someone explain me what hitman has to do with killing sprees?If anything that game embody´s the total opposite,discouraging you from taking any unnecessary "actions".
I can understand the ban of 50 cent bulletproof though.
No rapper should be allowed to get even near my console without being shot.
Chibirazi
kitsuneconundrum
Posted 11:20 AM 4/9/08
while their government is crumbling into the shits. Great focus of priorities.
kitsuneconundrum
Malloc
Posted 12:10 PM 4/9/08
Wow. I can't help but wonder if the reason Killer7 shows up on so many EVIL lists when these things get complied is just because of what it's called? Word "Kill" in title + M rating or equivalent = Child-Corrupting Murder Simulator.
I guess it makes sense if you've never played videogames.
The rest of them just seem like the quickest handful of violent-sounding games the government could dig up with a 5 minute google search and slap on a list to show how proactive they are. Nice.
Malloc
Shockadin
Posted 12:21 PM 4/9/08
Finally, the perfect adrenaline rush! Smuggling GTA games into Thailand!
Shockadin
Omniel
Posted 12:55 PM 4/9/08
I am personaly tired of random killing games anyway. I am againest censorship, but these games IMO are getting lame.
Omniel
sandwiches
Posted 12:47 PM 4/9/08
And, thus, Thailand's era of eternal peace began...
sandwiches
b.bear
Posted 1:12 PM 4/9/08
Suda 51 obviously has not dealt with many Southeast Asian government officials. Even the smallest bribe would have kept any one of these games off the list. Tsk, tsk.
b.bear
Kenny
Posted 1:34 PM 4/9/08
The 300 game? Seriously? They just banned that because of how violent and popular the movie was.
Kenny
pcypert
Posted 1:33 PM 4/9/08
This is so stupid. I live in Thailand and can't even fathom the levels of contradiction at play here.
1. no one actually buys new games here...well almost no one. They buy illegal copies. Those are still selling far and wide and will continue to sell to any kid that has 120 baht for a 360 game.
2. they have known brothels here. The second they shut those down i'll take stupid crap like this seriously.
3. they have adults bashing other adults heads into the pavement here over political struggles currently. Think there's slightly more pressing stuff going on here right now.
In the end this is just Thailand doing what Thailand does...posturing for the rest of the world to show off how "developed" they are. They miss the heart of why these things go on and just do them because other cities are doing them (like the recent smoking ban, which they let cops take bribes for so the clubs can keep allowing smoking).
pcypert
Do Kesubei
Posted 3:27 PM 4/9/08
Damn... it's always Killer 7.
Do Kesubei
Ira Lazerburg
Posted 4:35 PM 4/9/08
My country also banned 50 Cent: Bulletproof but only because our government has great taste in videogames...
Ira Lazerburg
rianfrost
Posted 4:49 PM 4/9/08
i find the test of a countrie's taste is wether it banns 50 cent bulletproof. thailand passes.
rianfrost
Protector one
Posted 6:37 PM 4/9/08
@rianfrost: But they also banned Killer7. Pass revoked.
Protector one
Sofox
Posted 8:22 PM 4/9/08
I see a pattern to this list, it's closely connected to the "10 most dangerous games" that the Thai government put out a while ago. [kotaku.com]
That list in turn was a direct copy of a list put out by a Detroit Prosecutor a few months before: [www.gamepolitics.com]
PS. Kotaku, please pay more attention to your Tags, I checked them on this articleexpecting to find a "Thailand" tag so I could find the other articles on this issue. Instead, I found an "Only in Thailand" tag which naturally only had this article in it.
Sofox
deadjesterx
Posted 10:47 PM 4/9/08
Not surprising, since Thailand is currently in a political shit-storm crisis right now if the media over here is to be believed. If pcypert is indeed from Thailand than it sounds like that's what's going on.
And like all government bodies, whenever you fuck up, you find a scapegoat to deflect blame/public attention. Kind of like that episode of Family Guy where Mayor West spends a ton of money on a gold Digg'um statue and then bans gay marriage to divert attention from his fuck up.
Yeah it's kind of like that just, you know, on a larger scale...and involving serious issues...hey, it sounded good in my head before I typed it. :)
deadjesterx
Lazlo
Posted 12:48 AM 5/9/08
@vid3oman64:
Not really a political statement, actually. And also I wasn't the one diverting off the video game path. My comment fell directly in line with the topic, so I don't think there was any reason why my comment should be picked out more than, say, DaveKap.
Also, my statement is one hundred percent accurate. They could make a DS game called My Morality Coach and it still wouldn't be able to teach people how to be civil citizens, not in America anyways...
Lazlo
zerokoolpsx
Posted 1:04 AM 5/9/08
Their government really needs to get with the program. Violent videogames doesn't cause violent people, and I thought our media was bad on the subject, but banning? And banning on a 300 game.
What the hell are they thinking, seriously?
zerokoolpsx
angry_gamer
Posted 1:27 AM 5/9/08
Isn't Thailand going through a mass demonstration / potential coup right now?
In any case another one of my awful game related jokes. If customers are learning to murder cabbies from violent video games, shouldn't the cabbies be learning to protect themselves by learning to drive via Crazy Taxi (I know if a cabbie drove that way I'd be too scared shitless to try and attempt to mess with cabbies)?
angry_gamer
crover
Posted 11:18 AM 4/9/08
oh god....that's my country....
this was old news in Thailand but still piss everyone off
by the way....we are NOT fascist....But president and
"Thailand's Ministry of Culture".....both retarded.
300: The Video Game....... /facepalm
crover