Germany says NEIN to Gears of War

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 18th 2006 at 11:00PM }

Entschuldigung Cliffy B, aber dein Spiel ist verboten! VERBOTEN!

Germany's Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle (USK), the German version of the ESRB, has refused to give the upcoming Gears of War a rating due to the game's violence. This doesn't outright ban the game in the country, but puts it in a state of limbo. This is the second time in recent memory that the USK denied to rate a game due to violence, they used the same tactic on Capcom's Dead Rising. German gamers currently need to import Dead Rising from another European country to play.

German politicking and regulations on video games has always been strong. Despite the Wolfenstein series' anti-Nazi message, images of swastikas and Nazism are still banned in the country -- unless in a historial context -- and therefore no Wolfenstein for the Germans. It is understandable that Germany might be a little sensitive on that whole Nazi thing; however, the USK not rating a game, whatever the reason, as a tactic to passive aggressively ban it is an insulting move against the German people. Doesn't the USK trust German gamers, especially adults, to make up their own minds?

Tags: gears of war, GearsOfWar, germany, microsoft 360, usk

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

moominsean @ Oct 18th 2006 11:20PM

Germany is just plain sensitive to the whole violence thing...after slaughtering millions of jews, I guess they are still a bit nervous about man's possible inability to distinguish right from wrong.

Hey, first post!?

Matthias @ Oct 18th 2006 11:30PM

Well, violence has always been an issue in Germany, in videogames as well as in movies. Don't think it comes from "slaughtering Jews", at least we don't mind if someone says "shit" and we also couldn't understand "Nipplegate" or the affair arousing because of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski.

Of course, as a German I think it is too strict, but compared to the old days... Today you surely would not have to import a game like GoldenEye and in Turok soldiers wouldn't be replaced by robots.

minus_273 @ Oct 19th 2006 12:10AM

umm, this is europe, The government owns you. I doubt the germans mind though, this is the progressive society they wanted

minus_273 @ Oct 19th 2006 12:12AM

#2
"the affair arousing because of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski."

Wow, lying under oath is legal in germany? how do you guys have trails? Maybe you need to fingure out what the scandal was.

MED @ Oct 19th 2006 12:22AM

#5
Trails? Fingure?
(trials)(Figure)
maybe you should learn proper english.

Twokinds @ Oct 19th 2006 12:34AM

#6

Oh yes, criticizing the spelling of a post you don't agree with is the perfect argument. After all, what better or more mature way is there to respond to something you don't agree with then to mock its spelling instead. Yes, the spelling has so much to do with what he was talking about. Obviously, if he made two spelling errors in a post, on a blog located on the internet, then his original point was undoubtedly void.

People like you make me sick.

Durg @ Oct 19th 2006 12:35AM

Yeah, don't worry. The USA is only a few years behind with this kind of stuff.

GOLD5 @ Oct 19th 2006 12:35AM

Those pesky germans wont let us use their car designs for Transformers anymore, either. No more VW beetle or Mercedes in either toy or film form. Way to turn the opposite way 60+ years later. That will really make up for yer grandfathers misdeeds all right!

xsuprem@gmail.comsupremthor @ Oct 19th 2006 12:46AM

#3 translated "My head exploded in annoyance over this censorship! The German laws and regulations are very strict over the swastika symbol. The Second World War plays like "Medal OF Honor" and so on is to be played more badly, when historical contents parts are removed. I like gladly censorship-free American video games!"

i agree with him

superNovaCharged @ Oct 19th 2006 2:18AM

good move germany. this game is bull and keeping it out of germany is neccessary for me and all the sony fanboys happyness. microsux can't even make their own killerapp they had to go beg epic who makes some of the worst single player campaign mode ever.
gears is basically unreal but with an actual story. look at the main guys armor its the same that those unreal bots wear.

theinvisiblemooseman @ Oct 19th 2006 2:49AM

@#11 This means they will ban equally violet ps3 games

quickie @ Oct 19th 2006 3:39AM

Hey, just to clarify this issue. A game does NOT need a USK rating to get published. It was Microsofts choice not to publish it. When the the is no rating given by the USK board, this means they see a very high rate that the game might get "indexed". Indexeding again does NOT ban the game, it just prohibits advertisments and putting it on public display. It can still be bought by 18yr+.

sooo, to recap. Microsoft was problably afraid the game might get indexed and so they decided not to release it. Not shelfspace + no advertising = no sales.

Joerg Benne @ Oct 19th 2006 3:57AM

The USK is like ESRB, right. They have special rules to follow concerning, violence and so on... BUT: it is not true, that it is some tactic they use. They didn't rate Cold Fear last year because it was to brutal, Ubisoft published it anyway and it was put on the famous german index after some weeks. Anyway, Microsoft could release the game without a rating, they just don't want it.
Besides, many publishers make special versions for germany, like Dark MEssiah of Might & Magic or El Matador for example. Microsoft refused to do so...

Anyway, you may mock about germany because its censorship of violence, but don't forget Hot Coffee Mod. NO ONE cared about it in germany. In prude US it is ok to kill civilians just for fun in games, but if there are bare breasts in a game, it is removed from retail. You have the same censorship in games like we have, but think about what is more comprehensible, the ban of needless cruelty in games or the ban of something natural like womens breasts in games?

Sagan @ Oct 19th 2006 4:52AM

This is not the USKs fault. You can buy non-rated games in the stores here. No problem. This is Microsofts fault. They don't want non-rated games on their console.

You should correct that in your article.

Mastertoad @ Oct 19th 2006 4:55AM

This isn't so much of a problem for Germans as you may think. Sure, they won't be able to go down to their local game store and pick it up, but in the EU importing is extremely easy and common, so much so that they could just order it online.

It's not as if noone in Germany is ever going to play Gears of War, it will have reduced sales for sure, but not so much as the article implies.

TheBard @ Oct 19th 2006 5:02AM

I want to make something clear which is often misunderstood:

##There are no bans of Videogames in Germany.##

Well... there are a few. The last that I remember was Manhunt, which was way over the top. But let me explain:

Germany has a youth protection program which is based on a rating system. This works just fine in most cases. Games can even receive an 18+ rating, which is the age of adulthood in Germany. These "normal adult games" are sold and advertised like any other game.

But very violent Games like Dead Rising, Condemned and Gears of War are rated as some kind of danger for youth. I can't really translate "Jugendgefaehrdend". These are marked as "unrated", which means they are still legally treated like 18+ games. But these unrated games are im most cases examined by another ratings board and eventually put on the infamous Index. Here the fun, and misunderstandings, begin:
These games still can be legally bought by every adult! The only restriction is, that they may not be openly advertised.

This is a problem for publishers. No shelf space (which would be this "openly advertised" mentioned above) means less sales... but most games are released here, anyway.

Microsoft does something different. Boris Schneider-Johne, product manager of XBox here in Germany, once explained the problem in his Blog: Microsoft decided that they won't release ANY game which is unrated. It's a youth protection thing. And because the Xbox 360 has a nice youth protection feature based on ratings built in, publishing games without a rating just works against that.

To make it short:
Gears of War isn't banned in any way.
The USK didn't give GoW a rating, but it may still be legally sold here, and may be eventually put on the Index, which only means that you cannot advertise it. Nothing more. But Microsoft has a policy of not releasing unrated games, so they won't publish it in Germany.

I hope this helps to clear this up ... it's really annoying to read everywhere that Germany bans games and whatnot. German media is really very liberal and open minded. Also: Tits on free TV! ;)

Tim @ Oct 19th 2006 5:16AM

As already stated, the article is incorrect. It is in fact much more complicated.

There are tw organizations, the USK (comparabale to the ESRB) which is maintained by the Games industry itself. And there is the BPJS that actually maintains the german index of media that must not be advertised or sold in public. There is also the pan-european PEGI rating on each game, but that has next to no relevance.

Now, as soon as the USK rated a game (recommended age groups are quite similar to, the BPJS is no longer able to put it on their index. It is a little bit of a strange process, but the structure is quite complicated.

As stated correctly, Gears of War did not get a rating from the USK as they fear that the BPJS may put it on the index. Microsoft may now opt to publish the game anyway without a rating (meaning all carrying stores would have to not publicly advertise it, but may sell it to people older than 18) but they principially opt to not do it for economic reasons: If it's out in stores and gets on the index, a lot of the inventory is immediatey dead stock. They could, though, which means it is not "verboten".

Dead Rising is a different matter - it didn' get an USK rating and major german store chains were importing it from Austria and Switzerland. In September, the USK put it on their index preliminarily and finally in the beginning of October, giving the game the official status "banned". It's still not "verboten" as adults may get their copy, but it may not be publicly displayed, advertised or sold.

Confusing, but the system is actually kind of beautiful. I will have no problems obtaining the game and have the warm and fuzzy feeling that it will be very hard for a minor to get a game that may have bad effects on the not so stable kids. I know the endless discusssions, and I do not think that is very wise to just live with 10 year olds playing Gears of War. Most of them will be stable and smart enough, but some not. And if something goes terribly wrong with those kids, you don't want to have video games blamed for it.

Tim @ Oct 19th 2006 5:16AM

ME again. Two things in reactions to earlier posts:

1) I think (but this may be due to my English) that having a game on the BPJS index DOES mean it is banned. Indexed games are either "banned" (resulting in lack of public display) and "seized" (effectively meaning that all copies are

2) I know Boris Schneider-Johne's explanations as well and I do not think that Microsoft decided to not release unrated games for youth protection. It is just an economic decision. id deliberately launched Quake 3 in officially in Germany, knowing they would have only a few days it would stay on sale. That didn't go too well, and landing on the index is usually a bad thing economically.

Dennis @ Oct 19th 2006 6:18AM

Just to summarize:
USK gives game rating
-> game is protected from indexing/banning by the BPjM
-> game may be advertised and sold to anyone old enough

USK denies game rating
-> BPjM examines game (on request of several government agencies) for content that is considered dangerous to minors (e.g. if it glorifies war and killing, making people suffer)
-> if indexed the game is banned from advertising which includes display in shops and sadly reviews are considered advertisements too. Any adult may buy it.

11010010 @ Oct 19th 2006 6:19AM

#14,#17,#18
thanks for clarifying that. as a german i wasn't really sure about all the differences

and i agree to you guys: i think it is a good system. i think younger people shouldn't play such violent games. and seriously: do you really need swastikas in your game just to be more immense? not me..

Vinyl Fanboy (cd sucks) @ Oct 19th 2006 6:23AM

Germany comited lot of crimes against humanity ruling suffering of millions inocent people.

Lord Ludicrous @ Oct 19th 2006 6:56AM

@23: No, the Nazis commited crimes against humanity. You cannot blame the people of Germany for what their older generations did in the past.

YLA G @ Oct 19th 2006 7:03AM

well.. i think ebay.de gone sell alot of copies :)

in either way.. this is very very stupid. Do you know that it is history is repeating every xx years?
For example.. rock & roll was bad, marihuana (its defently not worse then alcohol) was bad, you can keep going..

culture is a strange thing.. if older people are not involved then the younger generation has always a big problem.

Gnomicide @ Oct 19th 2006 7:22AM

#2 : So, in Germany it's ok to bang an intern working underneath you, and then lie about it under oath? What a great country!

Europeans always whine about americans being "prudish", but when they can't stand the sight of blood and swastikas they either deny it or say it makes them "sophisticated".

Matthew @ Oct 19th 2006 8:46AM

Dude, ken, your German is shit, where the hell you pick that up or was it Google Translator?

Anyways in Germany we do have Wolfenstein or is it Return to Castle Wolfenstein? Anyways instead of the Swastika we have some stupid other logo, forgot what it was. WE do have a debate over wether Games are "art" enough to be allowed to depict the Swastika, till now nothing has come from it except "no for the moment". We wait to hear more.

The dude who mentioned the Hot Coffee mod, let's not forget this fact about GTA:
In the US version you shoot a person and you get money
In the German version you shoot a person and you don't get a reward for it
The USK basically bases most ratings on what they think the psychological consequences are. So I wonder why Barbie games and Teletubbies isn't rated higher, or even indexed.
Stores aren't allowed to display games without a rating, but they can still sell them.

ken @ Oct 19th 2006 10:39AM

Mein Kopf hat in Ärger über dieser Zensur explodiert! Die deutsche Gesetzen und Vorschriften sind sehr streng über dem Hakenkreuzsymbol. Zweite Weltkrieg Spielen wie "Medal of Honor" und so weiter sind schlechter zu spielen, wann historische Inhaltteilen abgenommen sind. Ich mag gern zensurfreie amerikanische Videospielen!