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]

Says the publication:

Our reviews are tough, but fair. We will not give up our independent scores for the sake of a timely review. This holds true for “Assassin’s Creed 2″. The publisher asked us to guarantee the score ’sehr gut’ [very good], otherwise we would not receive a review copy, thus we will publish our review in next month’s issue. We’d be more than glad to give the game a ’sehr gut’, but only if it deserves it.

I’ve sent an email over to Ubisoft’s PR to give them the courtesy of a response. Any that comes will be printed here.

But despite the fact this behaviour has strong precedent, keep in mind this boils down to he-said Ubi-said. And it boggles the mind, from what we’ve all seen so far, that Assassin’s Creed II would need such strong-arming to get a good score. But who knows. There is a ton of money riding on a game’s Metascore, providing motive enough.

Ubisoft Demanding High Scores for Early Assassins Creed 2 Reviews? [wearetheinternetz, thanks Lorand K.]

PC Games Hardware benchmarked both the uncut Left 4 Dead 2 and the censored German demo using to a 60-second demo sequence from the second chapter of “The Parish”. The sequence involves a ton of common infected as well as multiple Boomers and a Spitter. The setup: Radeon HD 5870 used to display the demo at 1680 by 1050 with maximum details, “4x MSAA and 16:1.” I can’t quote what that means exactly but “the setting is quite challenging for the CPU.”

Here’s what they found:

The direct comparison between cut an uncut version reveals huge differences in performance. It doesn’t matter if we use a dual-core E6600 or quad-core Q6600 processor, the less violent version of the demo runs about 40 percent faster that the uncut version. Furthermore the difference between the two uncut results (dual-core vs. quad-core) is bigger, too, what indicates a higher CPU workload.

This isn’t just a trivial difference, PC Games Hardware points out owners of the cut version may play on “uncut” servers. So, “a scene that lags in the uncut version might be running smoothly in the cut version — especially in Versus Mode this could make the difference between death and survival.”

That said, someone with a full version may also reduce the depiction of violence through the game’s command console.

Left 4 Dead 2: Unfair Performance Benefits with Cut Version? [PC Games Hardware via Blue's News]

There’s not much more to it than that, other than the name “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney”, so questions like:

“Will it be episodic?”
“When is it out?”
“How much will this cost me?”
“Is there anything new being added to the Wii version?”

Will have to wait for a more official announcement. Judging by the title, though, don’t go holding your breath for a new game, or a collection. This is probably just a straight-up port of the existing PC version of Ace Attorney.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Coming To The Wii [Gamerbytes]

Over the weekend, a German advocacy group asked individuals to bring their “killer games” to the front of an opera house to throw away in a large dumpster.

This comes in the wake of a school shooting earlier this year. The mass media drummed up links between that shooting and counter strike.

The game trashing group used a swastika in its logo, equating that with the image of a CD/DVD.

So how’d the game toss go? By the looks of the above clip, not so well. The footage is from early afternoon — perhaps all the “killer game” trashers showed up in the evening?

Thanks Rafael for the tip!

The site goes on to link the group’s upcoming weekend event to a school shooting that occurred earlier this year.

While I don’t want to disrespect an anti-violence movement that’s a direct response to the tragedy, I have a serious problem with the thought of an activist group trashing video games. The wanton destruction (or junking) of any entertainment media for no better reason than it might have something to do with something people don’t like reminds me of book-burning — something the Nazi party encouraged.

That nasty association only got worse when I read this next paragraph:

GP reader Matthias noted that one image used in the group’s promotion for the event appears to use a modified copy of an image designed to aid Germany in ridding use of the swastika, substituting a CD or DVD for the Nazi symbol.

Really, activist group? You couldn’t think of a more productive thing to do with video games?

German Group Plans Killer Game Drive [Game Politics]

The news, sourced back to 4players.de (translation) attributes a statement to Activision saying that “although it is not a conspicuous element in the normal game … we have decided to take this game immediately from the German market”.

Whether that means the content isn’t in the game but is on a disc for modders to exploit, or if it’s a swastika as part of a background somewhere, who knows. Planet Wolfenstein notes that the Wolfenstein teams from Endrant and Raven already have been laid off, putting a revised localisation into doubt.

We’ve emailed Activision for comment. Should any be provided, it’ll be updated here.

Update: Via twitter, Kotaku reader Spunior pointed me back to one of the sites also linking to 4player.de. Schnitterbericht has a ton of screenshots showing differences in the US and German versions of Wolfenstein. The final one (scroll alllllll the way down) shows a faint swastika at the bottom of a poster. If that really triggered a voluntary recall, Mein Gott in himmel!

Sell Stop in Germany [4players.de, via Blue's News]

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]

Electronic Arts’ top man in Germany, Gerhard Florin (pictured) says enough is enough. In an interview last week with Spiegel, Florin called Germany’s USK rating system “censorship” and called on the country to use the PEGI ratings, used across the rest of Europe.

What we’re doing here [with USK rating] is censorship. And no one complains. When we talk about games here it’s about violence or their alleged addictiveness, and not about their cultural status. The few good studios are asking themselves why they should stay here anyway.

The boss of the USK noted that the government’s (gotta love this title) Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons often is what’s stepping in against violent games before they get to the ratings board.

“It’s hard when half-truths are being used,” said USK’s Marek Brunner. “They say the USK does this wrong, the USK does that bad and why doesn’t this get a rating?”

EA: German Ratings are ‘Censorship’ [GamesIndustry.biz via Game Politics]

Last year’s big German games show, the Games Convention in the city of Leipzig, attracted 203,000 people over the course of the show. This year’s big German games show, Gamescom, attracted more, with organisers claiming 245,000 visitors popped into the show last week.

That’s more than the Tokyo Game Show can manage. Making this the biggest gaming show on the planet. So: success!

There were also 17,000 trade visitors, along with a whopping 4000 people strutting around wearing “MEDIA” badges.