Gaming Bits reports that Germany's software rating organization, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK), would not approve Capcom's upcoming zombie hack-n-slasher Dead Rising. If upheld, this would mark the first instance in which an Xbox 360 game has been banned in any territory/region.As of this post's publishing time, Dead Rising is still listed on the German version of Xbox.com, although the release date (or 'Veröffentlichungsdatum') has been changed to "TBD."



















(Page 1) Reader Comments
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I wonder if there's going to be a special German edition with all the zombies replaced by aliens who bleed green blood. This ploy has worked in the past for other games!
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I think those words are:
Unterhaltungssoftwareselbstkontrolle = Very
Veröffentlichungsdatum = Cool
LOL
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Fear not Germany, thou shall kill zombies.
check out www.play-asia.com
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Isn't it ironic..... don't ya think... Its like raiiiin on your wedding day....
sorry, got carried away.
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The game is not banned though ! Capcom decided not to release it. But it will be avaiable in game stores. The original post is a bit contradictive (from: http://www.gamefront.de/), but Germans (above 18, that's what the lack of approval means [http://helliwood.mind.de/~usk/main/show.php?id=1] Keine Jugendfreigabe means 18+ only, though it sounds like a ban) will be able to buy the Austrian/Swiss version with German subtitles.
I think Capcom has done this, because the game could've been put on the "Index". If put on the Index, a game is basically treated like porn and dead.
Not sure how it will work though, do the game stores import the game ? First I thought it will still be released in Germany, I've personally senn and bought lots of games that weren't approved/had no Jugendfreigabe (Far Cry, Resident Evil 4) in an ordinary electronics store. But gamefront.de is usually a reliable source and they should know the German laws...strange that Capcom decided to do this. On the other hand we still don't have Phoenix Wright, though it's out in the rest of Europe, so who knows what is really going on in the German games industry....
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What has stuff that happened 60+ years ago to do with videogaming in Germany today? Oh, wait, it doesn't have shit to do with it.
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Unless, that is, they have an HDTV. I believe that the HD standard pretty much replaces all other video signals (NTSC, PAL, and SECAM). I may be wrong, though.
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But hey, if ze Germans want to be hopelessly unprepared when the zombie hordes DO attack...more power to them, I guess.
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You're telling me that a country that once supported the attempted genocide of an entire people has a problem with a simple videogame where you kill Zombies? Are they afraid the Zombies represent dead Jewish people?
I mean NO offense to Jewish or German people !!!
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You're telling me that a country that once supported the attempted genocide of an entire people has a problem with a simple videogame where you kill Zombies?"
With the caveat that I'm not readily familiar with contemporary German culture, may I put forth the theory that societies are often shaped by their negative reactions to tragic events in their history? I mean, maybe Germans as a society shun violent media in the same way that people in the U.S. have reacted to school shootings by putting forth all sorts of crazy theories about how violent video games are ruining our kids.
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Oh, what? This is Germany. Never mind.
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I wonder what Capcom will do to release it in Germany. They could remove the blood and the gore, but then the game would only be a shell of what it once were. And I doubt that will sit well with German gamers.
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As ymmv says, in German words are put together frequently to give a specific meaning.
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About the game, it is a little weird that this game is going to be banned, as I understand it, Dead Rising is basically standard fare as far as it's violence quotient. Any solid reason for the ban, Joystiq? Or is Germany just that conservative now?
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Bah. The Holocaust Museum shows images that are ten times worse than any graphics in that game.
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And now in Germany, you can't get either!
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It's just not approved for minors. If you are (or look) 18+ and able to ask the clerk in the video game store of choice, you will be able to get the game.
A "ban" in Germany means all copies of the game would be confiscated and destroyed. That usually happens to Nazi-related material.
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But it's ok when you discuss with a folk who attacks other countries, kills lots of other people and isn't popular in the rest of the world. But wait. This ist America nowadays!
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1. The USK (instituted by the game publishers) got an advance copy of Dead Rising for review and found it violent enough so that it COULD be "indiziert" (don't know the appropriate word in english) by the BPjM (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien - roughly translated "Federal Bureau for protecting the Youth) which is a government organization. If it actually was "indiziert" it would be illegal to display the game anywhere where it was accessible to minors as well as run any advertising for it.
2. Capcom could still release the game if they wanted to take the risk of "Indizierung", it could be presented to anyone, but you had to be 18+ to buy it. They just don't want to take it, it seems.
3. This has happened to other games before that, most notably Resident Evil 4, God of War (both re-reviewed later and released as "must be 18 or over" which means no danger of "Indizierung") and Condemned. Note that none of these games were BANNED, they just weren't released for fear of not being able to advertise them.
4. You may buy imported versions of these games if you are 18+ (have to be an adult since these versions weren't reviewed by the USK).
5. This whole thing has NOTHING to do with the Nazi-past of WWII Germany but instead with a School shooting in the town of Erfurt in which 17 people died. The assailant was reported to be an avid Counterstrike player (later proven wrong) and german politicians pushed for a ban of violent games. The gaming industry instituted the USK and it's binding age recommendations to prevent this complete ban.
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it's been pulled by capcom, because they didn't want to get onto the "index", because if this would happen, not only selling, but also posession of the game would be illegal in germany. By not releasing it over here, the game will not be checked if its suitable for "the index". And to make one thing clear, pornography is no reason to get onto that index, it's just for things like very detailed/brutal content (realistic, not comic brutality) and right wing propaganda. to get a porn movie onto index in germany, it has either to include one of the things mentioned above, or include things considered pervertive in Germany, which as far as i know only includes sex with animals & children
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Just to repeat it one more time:
Dead Rising is NOT banned in Germany. Capcom may choose to not publish it in germany due to the danger of not being able to advertise it and being ignored by some large retailers, who refuse to sell violent games. Its is no problem to import or order this game from online shops (age verification needed).
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as long as they agree to take their fecalfelia movies out of American porn shops. Just the cases on some of those are enough to make you want to puke.
But comeon, zombie slaughter bad, cleveland steamer good? Who decides all this? Sounds like something stupid enough that our own FCC would approve.
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But that hasn't happened. Capcom could have sold the game normally in stores. They were just afraid of it happening. A lot of games get "no rating" and get sold normally in stores. Almost all games which are only about killing zombies or people get 18+ or no rating. I don't know, why Capcom pulled the game. They should have known that they would get this rating. If they didn't then they are just stupid.
And once again the game is NOT BANNED. Please correct this Joystiq.
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Basically you can't have anything even REMOTELY human being killed in the game. Either they have to be changed into alien's or look as far from human as possible.
This is also why games like Turok and some others had "Green Blood" in them.
I think Germany will end up getting a version of the game that has Zombies that look more like they just stepped out of House of the Dead 2 than the american version.
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Dead Rising is not banned (yet)
To my English-language readers and co-bloggers: Dead Rising from Capcom is not banned in Germany. I know, the German system is complicated and unique, so you might get confused - but before you just take a news item for granted, how about asking somebody from Germany to get the facts straight?
USK, the equivalent to ESRB or PEGI, has decided to give Dead Rising no age rating at all because it might, and I need to stress might, get “banned” in the future due to its violent nature. For the time being that only means two things:
1. The game can not be sold to minors and can not be sold via mail order - but it still could be advertised and shown openly.
2. Microsoft does not allow software companies to publish “unrated” games on Xbox 360 (in the US, every 360 game has to have an ESRB rating) - and in Germany we have the unique situation that a game can be denied a rating by USK, making it technically an unrated game. So Dead Rising can not be published in Germany.
Now, what CAN happen is that the BPjM could “ban” the game (I’ll stick with the word “ban” although it is literally wrong, as it is not a real ban of the game but more a ban of the promotion of the game). It can do that with unrated games only. When this “ban” happens, the game still can legally be sold “under the counter” to adults but any kind of advertising, including just showing it in a store, is forbidden. To get such a “ban” though the game must be available on the german market first, then a youth organization can apply for such a “ban” and this whole process can take several weeks. There is no way to “ban” a title before it even is released.
The Catch-22 in this is that BPjM can not “ban” any rated games. So if USK gives the game a rating, it is out of BPjMs reach. This in the past has led to some heated discussions about games that politicians said should have been “banned” but couldn’t. Therefore USK is under the pressure of not rating a game if they see the possibility that somebody will ask for it to get “banned” in the future. And as this dilemma only happens to a minimal amount of games published (less then a handful a year out of several hundred releases), this problem is not high on the agenda.
So Dead Rising could be legally sold in Germany, but won’t be published. Yeah, I know this sucks. Tell our politicians please.
Xbox 360 with its unique parental control system would make titles like Dead Rising permissible even in a strict market like Germany. All it would need is an official age rating of any kind. The situation of a game having no age rating at all is weird and not very customer- or publisher-friendly. On the other hand, Microsoft (in my view) can not loosen the tight rule of requiring every game to carry a proper legal age rating - because that would immediately undermine the Family Settings feature and make the situation in the long term worse rather than better. The Family Settings in Xbox allow adult players to enjoy the content they want while protecting children from inappropriate content. And all that is tuned to the local standards by using the local age rating systems. Now we just need a legal rating for every game and we’re fine.
dreisechzig.de
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