Dead Rising not banned, facing unique 'unrated' status in Germany
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Jul 21st 2006 at 12:25PM }
Over on his blog, Xbox Live Germany's Boris Schneider-Johne breaks down the peculiar circumstances surrounding Dead Rising's status in Germany. Earlier this week, reports suggested that Germany's software rating organization, USK, had outright banned the title. Schneider-Johne explains that it's more complicated than that.In Germany, a game can't be banned until it's released. And it's not USK that bans the game, it's Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (a.k.a. Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons) -- or 'BPjM' for short. But BPjM can't ban a game that's rated, so, in order for a game to be banned, USK must decide not to rate it. In other words, only 'unrated' games can be banned. But again, banning can't be applied until a game is released, and BPjM will only consider banning a title after a youth organization has applied for the ban. However, even if a game is banned, retailers can still sell it legally to adults, they just can't advertise the game. The catch is, Microsoft will not permit 'unrated' games to be published because it undermines the Xbox 360's built-in parental control system. So ... Schneider-Johne concludes, "Dead Rising could be legally sold in Germany, but won't be published." Confused yet?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
.ed @ Jul 21st 2006 12:32PM
"But BPjM can't ban a game that's rated, so, in order for a game to be banned, USK must decide not to rate it."
Shorten this post. Too many contradictory sentences like the one above make it ridiculous.
Kristof @ Jul 21st 2006 12:39PM
I think that's the point. It's all loophole catch 22 stuff.
Seifer @ Jul 21st 2006 12:40PM
I think that was the point, .ed. Also, that is the cutest "confused" picture I have ever seen.
Scott @ Jul 21st 2006 12:41PM
Thank god they lost WWII
Mike @ Jul 21st 2006 12:44PM
Makes perfect sense to me :-)
Jose @ Jul 21st 2006 12:52PM
Yes, it makes perfect sense: this game will probably bomb due to lack of advertising (no magazines, which is not cool for Capcom which holds a virtual monopoly on the back covers of gaming mags) if Microsoft even let's it out the gates. Although the controvercy alone is advertising in itself, so anyone following may be able to import. If something doesn't change within the ratings systems in places like Germany and Australia, there may be many games that underperform in these countries.
shivr @ Jul 21st 2006 12:54PM
"Earlier this week, reports suggested that Germanty's software rating organization"
typo alert! Germany!
wow this is complex... they can't 'unrate' a game till its published and MS won't publish an 'unrated' game?
Calculoid @ Jul 21st 2006 12:55PM
@.ed
There's nothing wrong with the post; I fail to see how that sentence is contradictory. I may be confusing, but that is one of the points of the article. I think the picture associated with the article says it all.
Convoluted laws that try to control what people are exposed to and the stupid groups and governments that try to push them need to go away. I don't understand why people in free countries want their governments to control this kind of thing; a responsible person/parent can figure it out on their own.
Germany, Australia, New Zealand, the US, and I'm sure many other 'free' countries seem to be creeping more and more to this kind of control. It's irritating.
Tush @ Jul 21st 2006 1:14PM
Props to that picture, hilarious.
.ed @ Jul 21st 2006 1:14PM
@comments
I didn't say the post was wrong, or had a flaw. I was saying that it could be shorter (I'm not going to rewrite it, but it CAN be shorter... and shorter posts get more reads), and also noted the contradicting nature of the processes themselves, just like everyone else.
No need to jump on me, I basically said the same thing as anyone.
but I guess people feel better about themselves if they make others look wrong in a comment, seems to be the trend anymore... so to that end, whoever posts under me is an unintelligent cowboy who is wrong about whatever he posts.
sevie77 @ Jul 21st 2006 1:15PM
Um, Who's on first?
Magnus @ Jul 21st 2006 1:22PM
Maybe you should add that Boris Schneider-Johne is Germany's Xbox Brand Manager at Microsoft ;-)
Probot @ Jul 21st 2006 1:23PM
So, USK can't ban a game, but it can refuse to rate it. BPjM can 'ban' a game (i.e. not allow it to advertise), but only the games that USK doesn't rate. And BPjM only reacts to organizations asking for a released game to be banned.
But if MS doesn't allow unrated games to be published, isn't that worse than a ban? Essentially, MS is doing more than the BPjM, because they stop the game from being published at all.
So the game won't come out if the USK doesn't rate it. It seems like the BPjM won't be involved at all.
soco @ Jul 21st 2006 1:34PM
once again, it doesn't matter. there's always a german version for Austria and Switzerland and everyone can just buy those anyways. it's what they did for the cut version of RE4 (was cut because the submitted game didn't include the minigames, so they weren't allowed to publish it with the minigames or some such stuff)
anyway, the Germans will still get their copies no matter what the status :P
Lone Starr @ Jul 21st 2006 1:34PM
This is free advertising for Dead Rising. It's really not so bad for them.
Goobers @ Jul 21st 2006 2:01PM
even after all that "mush" of an article... it's not contradictory"... just a lot of EXTRA wording.
the only thing i get is... if it's rated, everyone is happy.
so just rate it M or AO. then the USK would've done their job. "BPjM" can't do anything about it... and M$ would be satisfied that it got rated.
there's no loophole... unless you WANT to get BANNED.
oh... "Dead Rising could be legally sold in Germany, but won't be published."
shouldn't that be "won't be ADVERTISED"? a publisher still has to produce the media to "be legally sold", even if they don't advertise it.
Geez Man. @ Jul 21st 2006 2:07PM
All I know is that there are two things in this world you can always count on killing in video games. Nazi's and Zombies. So if they wont release it with zombies. The only other option is Nazi Rising. Would that get a rating and then be safe from banning?
Hot Nazi mod?
Anthriel @ Jul 21st 2006 2:25PM
Nazi games are even more problematic in Germany than gory games are. There is so much ridiculos stuff concerning violent games in Germany, that I already stopped laughing about it. Let's just say that there have been a lot of robots with green blood in them.
On the positive side, Germany is not endangered by nonsense like "Nipplegate".
Goobers @ Jul 21st 2006 2:30PM
scratch that last part of my comment about the advertising.
Zachary N @ Jul 21st 2006 2:37PM
I'm with Tush, nothing like a simple picture to sum up a page filled with arguments about Nazis. Plus he kinda looks like me when I was little.
Judd @ Jul 21st 2006 2:46PM
I just checked my Xbox Dashboard and there is a choice for "allow all games". Now if the choice on the top said "allow all games rated AO and under" then releasing an unrated game would undermine the Xbox 360's built-in parental control system. But it doesn't. Even if they came out with a new rating system the "allow all games" options should not prevent any discs from being read.
The question is, why didn't Microsoft put in a choice saying "play all unrated games"? And the answer is the same reason why they put in "allow all games" instead of "allow games AO and under." THEY DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO RELEASE UNRATED OR AO GAMES.
With this whole hot coffee scandal, Microsoft didn't even wanna put themselves in a situation of mentioning AO or unrated games, for fear of giving publishers permission to publish games with that rating. Hopefully if publishers have the balls to release an AO or unrated game and not be afraid of the ESRB or Congress, this would force Microsoft to change the Family Settings page in their next auto-update.
P.S. But it'll never happen in America because stores like Wal-Mart, and Gamestop won't sell games rated AO or unrated.
P.P.S. Geez Man- Somehow how I feel like a game where you kill Nazis won't sell that well in Germany.
Sagan @ Jul 21st 2006 5:30PM
Actually it's not that confusing for me - That's because I live in Germany and I'm used to it :). To answer a few questions from the comments - WWII games are no problem in Germany. I believe they sell pretty well, but I don't have any numbers to back it up. But they have to remove all swastikas because swastikas must not be shown unless they are shown historically correct. (or something like that, I don't remember exactly) And 99% of computer games are not historically correct - But that's a very small problem for localization teams.
About the robots or green blood thing - yeah that was ugly. In the German version of Half Life 1 you fought against Army robots, and if scientists died they just sat down and didn't actually have a death animation because the publisher was afraid of the BpjM. But since then the laws have changed a little bit (and the BpjM can only forbid advertising if a game receives no rating) and I don't think I have seen something THAT ugly in a few years. The last thing I remember is, that the publisher of Quake IV removed the scene where the Strogg modify you in order to get past the BpjM. I believe you can still buy the unmodified version if you are over 18, but it should be hard to get (because of no advertising, thus no shelf space and thus low amount of produced DVDs)
And I think that the German of binding ratings actually makes more sense than the American. I know it should be the parents job, not the states', but most of the times the parents don't even know what their children are playing. And if the parents do their job and actually control what the children are playing they can still buy their children each 18+ game they want to. And at least the USK actually PLAYS the games they rate, and they don't make stupid decisions like re-rating GTA or Oblivion or give Fahrenheit AO.
Ciaran Gallagher @ Jul 21st 2006 7:08PM
So basically those poor Deutschen-Leute won't get Dead Rising mostly because of Microsoft.
Microsoft should rate it themselves then publish it, therefore buyers will be fully aware of the content. Buyers of this game should be made aware (in Germany) that this game hasn't been rated officially because of its content.
Therefore, the parental control won't be undermined, the Xbox gamers of Germany will be able to enjoy Dead Rising and no children will be harmed by the sight and interactivity with zombies!!
Melito Marcelo @ Jul 22nd 2006 1:51AM
That's the best photo I've seen all day (after 10 hours of the San Diego comic con).
Ghetto Levis @ Jul 22nd 2006 1:55AM
So essentially the deutsche Gamer will have to get it in his or her neighbor country - like Austria, Switzerland or the UK. Every time something like that happens, we get a lot of german customers here in our gamestore in Austria... and I've already met some german gamers that now live "in exile" in Austria, because of gaming. :)
kukamore @ Jul 22nd 2006 12:16PM
The reason why USK does not dare to rate the game is, that in the past it has rated games which should have been "banned" according to certain interest groups. But since the games have been rated already, they couldn't be taken out of the shelves legally. This happend mainly after the political rush after our 'columbine'.
Now, since the USK has, lets say, a 'feeling' that dead rising might be a candidate for "banning" they didn't rate it. So what's going to happen is, that on the release day some youth organisation will complain about the game, its violent nature and the disrespect of human beings and ask for it to be "banned".
By "banned" I mean, you still can buy it LEGALLY, if you're of legal age, and find a store which sells it. - I have found such a store. - So, this is still a FREE country!
This whole "procedure" of not rating the game, is the consequence of political pressure comeing from politicans and interest groups.
Of course you can argue about this system, and of course it has its weaknesses. But those weaknesses can be found in most legal systems. E.g. US: Why am I allowed to buy a gun and not get drunk? - At least you're sober when you shoot others! Cheers! ;-)
Sidius @ Jul 23rd 2006 10:54AM
Ok, I'm German and maybe I can clear some things up, regarding the USK and the BPJM. The USK is a private controlling department for games in Germany. As they are private and not working for the goverment, they have to do their job correctly and can not just rate every "brutal" game as 18+ to prevent it from being banned. Otherwise the german government - in this case the BpjM department - could just withdraw the rights for the USK to rate games. As a result a goverment department would overtake the controlling process, which would aggravate the whole situation.
So, the USK checks brutal games and if a game contains to much violence (especially violence against children, women oder sadistic violent actions against humans) they do not rate it.
From now on, the game can be checked again by the BpjM which is a goverment department (if a youth organisation apllies for it). Originally this department was inventend to ban media like child pornography, pro Nazi media etc. They are checking all media types like books, films and also videogames. So, if a game is unrated by the USK and
the BpjM also checks the game, it might get banned.
This whole controlling process is rather complex and seems partly ridiculous for outsiders.
Some years ago, this controlling system has been changed (before that the BpjM was concerned with all games and all games could be banned in advance which lead to green blood and roboters in german game versions) and is now much better than before. Games are released usually uncensored and if a game is censored (like german Quake 4), it was the publisher in order to get a better rating (in this case 16+ instead of 18+ or unrated).
The one thing, which pisses me off is that MS won't publish unrated games in Germany. And I'm sure, the original publishers like Capcom with "Dead Rising" are mightily pissed off by this politics as well.
However, as there are enough Online Shops in Germany, importing Games from Austria and UK, it's no probleem to get all the games you want.
GermanGamer @ Jul 24th 2006 7:43AM
@Ghetto Levis
I don't believe that somebody would move to another country because of the gaming issue. In Germany you can buy all video games that you want. Only exception are games that contain Nazi Symbols like swastika. For example the English version of Call of Duty can't be purchased in Germany. All other games are legal to buy here. You might not find unrated games or games that are on the index, in the big stores like Media Markt. But there are online stores that sell those games legally. All you need to do is send them a copy of your passport (to prove that you are over 18), and you can buy any game you want. No matter if rated or not.
So there is really no need to go to Austria or UK to buy a computer game (unless you live very close).
I also want to add something about censorship in German games. If something like this happens (e.g. green blood), then it is because the publisher censors their own games, to avoid a rating that is 18+. The reason is, that for example Amazon doesn't sell media that has such a rating (although they could).
Jim @ Aug 4th 2006 7:21PM
#27. two comments (I'm from Austria BTW)
This whole controlling process is rather complex and seems partly ridiculous for outsiders.
If you remove the word "partly" from above sentence it would make perfect sense.
--
However, as there are enough Online Shops in Germany, importing Games from Austria and UK, it's no probleem to get all the games you want.
Ok, so basically Germany has two organizations: the private USK and the goverment department BpjM which bove do stuff nobody really cares about because you can easily get games by just ordering them from an online shop over the border.
So both organizations are USELESS.
As Austrian, I'm pretty pissed of by the German over-sensitivity on violent games - because often I've to look out for an UNCUT version or the UK version.
Just put a "18+" sticker on the game, make sure nobody sells these games to minors and as long as they don't promote stuff that is strictly against the law - let customers/parents decide what they want to get.
I mean how hypocritical is it that you have movies like "The Hills Have Eyes" in German cinemas, yet when somebody releases GTA and Co. everybody gets aggrivated - over nothing.