No Gears of War for Germany.

[diskoboy]

Now it appears the USK is at it again. Microsoft has confirmed to GameSpot that Gears of War has been refused rating in Germany, presumably also due to violence. Because of this, Microsoft has decided not to release the game in the country, as per the company's policy with unrated games.

Full article at GameSpot...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6160079.html

God damn, it must suck to be a German 360 owner right now. Dead Rising was practically banned now MS isn't releasing Gears because of the same reason.

[Richter Belmount]

I know s dude , I mean come on! Its not like the game has nazi in it or something or some kind of propaganda. Its a sci fi shooter. Good thing you brought this up diskobo , i was looking at some other sites like gamespot and they couldnt discuss it and it became a political topi c.

[Niku-Sama]

germanys goverment must have seen the kid flipping out over UT2004 and banned everything including cliffy b from the country.

well first off it should have been germanies decision to ban it and not microsofts to even release it.

you know what i am going ot bed this crap pisses me off

[tom]

What do you expect from a country where River Raid (Activision) is on what they call 'the index', eg no sale to minors, no advertising, no display in shops etc....

[yok-dfa]

What do you expect from a country where River Raid (Activision) is on what they call 'the index', eg no sale to minors, no advertising, no display in shops etc....

You do know all Atari 2600 games are on that list? (simply because they never have been rated and thus are treated as 18+ games automatically)

[njiska]

Hey we may not like it, but it's not our country so who are we to say the banning is wrong? After all if games in Canada were rated by a Canadian body we wouldn't have seen an AO on San Andreas after hot coffee.

Yeah i'm sure it sucks for german gamers, and i feel sorry for them, but that's what importing is for. The rating itself, we can't dispute.

[cyberfluxor]

What do you expect from a country where River Raid (Activision) is on what they call 'the index', eg no sale to minors, no advertising, no display in shops etc....

You do know all Atari 2600 games are on that list? (simply because they never have been rated and thus are treated as 18+ games automatically)

So I guess they can't sell those retro handhelds and TV connection units then?

[theshizzle3000]

Hey we may not like it, but it's not our country so who are we to say the banning is wrong? After all if games in Canada were rated by a Canadian body we wouldn't have seen an AO on San Andreas after hot coffee.

Yeah i'm sure it sucks for german gamers, and i feel sorry for them, but that's what importing is for. The rating itself, we can't dispute.

Good point hell half of the games that come out of Japan would get an AO rating if they were reviewed by Hillary and the gang.

[yok-dfa]

So I guess they can't sell those retro handhelds and TV connection units then?

Officially no (at least not to minors. Adults is ok). I do occasionally run into an auction on eBay Germany that states that they will only sell to people outside of Germany because of this. On the other hand, i don't think the police is actively looking for offenders with games/consoles that old so i guess most sellers don't really care about this law...

[itobandito]

this information is new to me. What do you mean they won't rate it? You mean like give it a German version of the ESRB rating? And if so why not, that's really simple to do. Some one please clarify. Even though this affects me in no way since I am here in the states, I like to be enlighted every once and a while.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Du Hasst, Gears of War Deutschland? We'll take yer women then and you can keep....well hell, you don't even have Dead Rising...shit....ummmm okay okay, can you play RE2? If so, then we have a deal

Sucks for you guys, your laws are too harsh.

[diskoboy]

this information is new to me. What do you mean they won't rate it? You mean like give it a German version of the ESRB rating? And if so why not, that's really simple to do. Some one please clarify. Even though this affects me in no way since I am here in the states, I like to be enlighted every once and a while.

Yes - that is correct. The German Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (The German equivalent of the ESRB) won't give the game a rating because of the violent content.

Basically it's the same as a horror movie getting an NC-17 rating. Either the film makers can go back and edit some things out to get an R or release it as Unrated - which many movie theaters won't play because it is basically the same as an NC-17 rating. Therefore no one under 18 gets in, period.

Fortunately - movies, music, and video games don't get banned in the US. If there is an uproar about a game (San Andreas is a prime example) it usually helps the sale of a game. I understand Germany wanting to be a pacifist nation, but banning things is what Hitler did. And we all know where that led....

[jajaja]

Fortunately - movies, music, and video games don't get banned in the US.

Indigo Phophecy got cencored in US tho. The european version Farenheit got more nudity. Just had to say that

[diskoboy]

Fortunately - movies, music, and video games don't get banned in the US.

Indigo Phophecy got cencored in US tho. The european version Farenheit got more nudity. Just had to say that

Yes - games do get censored over here sometimes. But we don't outright ban them. I'd rather play a censored game any day, than have it outright banned.

People in the US have this thing against nudity.

I never understood why..

[jajaja]

Ye its a good question, considering USA is probly one of the largest producers of porno hehe.

[yok-dfa]

What do you mean they won't rate it?

They would rate it if someone would apply for it, but i IIRC you have to pay a €1000 fee to get something rated. This explains why none of the old games have a rating...

[itobandito]

Ahh, I understand now, thanks for the clear up. But yeah, what is the deal with nudity? Who cares? We are bombarded with practical nudity all the time whats a 1/2 inch of fabric removed going to cause? As far as games go nothing should be censored in my opinion. ESRB ratings should be inforced though in the store, Little Johnny shouldn't be able to buy a game and see some of the crap in games these days. However so many parents are so freaking ignorant these days and don't enforce those ratings that they end up buying it for him anyway. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

[diskoboy]

So maybe someone can awnser this - did Germany ban Call of Duty 2 and are they gonna ban CoD3?

It's violent and the Germans are the bad guys. AND it takes place during WW2 - which most of the Germans like to ignore ever happened...

[jajaja]

So maybe someone can awnser this - did Germany ban Call of Duty 2 and are they gonna ban CoD3?

It's violent and the Germans are the bad guys. AND it takes place during WW2 - which most of the Germans like to ignore ever happened...

Both CoD 1 and 2 was released in Germany. Same with SoF 1 and 2, but afaik they censored the blood. You could use a patch tho

[tom]

Nudity is no problem in Germany (more so in the UK), the Hot coffee stunt even appeared on magazine CDs (Bravo Screenfun, Maniac), but violence is still a problem.

As for most Germans ignore the war ever happened, that's not true. Laws (international?) forbade the subject in the past.
I always speak openly about the war, WE WERE BAD MOTHERS, hehehe.