The new South Park game has swastikas in it. For the German version of the game, publishers Ubisoft said they were removing them, so as to comply with the nation’s constitution, which forbids displays of the Nazi symbol. Only… Ubisoft might have screwed that up.
Users are posting on Steam’s forums that the German (and Austrian) versions of the game have been hit with an 11th-hour delay. The reason? That those versions contain “an unconstitutional symbol”, and mean the game’s release in those two markets is TBA.
But…wasn’t the swastika being removed?
Gameswelt says that, according to a source, Ubisoft printed the wrong version of the game for the German and Austrian market, and now need to go and print the right one. The one without stuff that breaks the law. That would certainly explain the mix-up.
We’re asking Ubisoft what’s up though, and will update if we hear back.
Comments
13 responses to “Reports: German Version Of South Park Delayed Because Of Swastikas”
Don’t they have to use green blood too? I suppose at least our games aren’t as censored as Germany.
Doesn’t necessarily need to be green, it just needs to be not red.
But it’s not red! It’s burgundy. No wait, make that electric crimson with a touch of vermilion. Certainly not red though. 😛
I think our games can be as censored, if not more, but just in a different way.
Pretending sex, anal rape and drug use don’t happen really isn’t the same as pretending World War 2 didn’t happen, and that Germany weren’t the bad guys though.
It’s not. My point was about the volume and degree of censorship to your [at least we’re not as bad as Germany for censorship] remark. Swastikas are a fairly niche thing… I’d imagine them in South Park, Indiana Jones, Wolfenstein, Captain America… idk what else? That’s 4 games for now, and how often are you going to see these particular games? Palette-swapped blood sounds like the archaic SNES-swapped-sweat version of MK. Who knows how many games have been affected by that? I just read that they also banned Dead Rising 3.
What about Australia? South Park, Saints Row IV, MK9, State of Decay, ??? I know there are a lot more. Who gets the “shorter stick”? Is theirs shorter, or just “in a different way”? Censorship is like comparing apples and oranges here, but you can still compare volume, and I’m curious as to where Australia stands in terms of worst countries for censorship.
I personally feel that Australia’s archaic censorship needs to change to be less restrictive, and a dismissive comment of “at least our games aren’t as censored as Germany” makes it seem like we get a comparative slap on the wrist when I really wonder if we’re not in the same boat, if not worse off?
Don’t some WW2 shooters contain the same “unconstitutional symbol”?
Not in Germany they don’t.
Huh… apparently Germany censors those too:
http://wiki.ncac.org/Video_Game_Censorship_in_Germany
(Edit: That link’s pretty sparse on any examination or reasoning… just examples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Germany seems a bit more descriptive, but it STILL doesn’t cover the swastika thing.)
I really don’t understand the line of thinking there.
Let’s reconcile ourselves with history by never mentioning it again. Bury our heads in the sand and pretend it didn’t happen and not acknowledging the powerful impact it had on modern civilization and – in particular – media.
How in the hell is that healthy or sane?
“Don’t mention the war!!!
I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right.”
Banning the use of Nazi symbols is not the same thing as never mentioning history. They certainly don’t do the latter in Germany. They’re constantly grappling with it. The banning is a meausure to suppress the extremists who want nazism back: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_section_86a
With this game being censured everywhere they should have just released it in the US and let everyone else in the world import it on the sly………
Then they couldn’t charge people more under the guise of shipping costs.
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