Activision pulled MW2 'No Russian' scene in Russia on advice of 'local counsel'

by Alexander Sliwinski on Nov 17th 2009 11:00AM

Activision has confirmed that it decided to remove the controversial "No Russian" scene from Russian versions of Modern Warfare 2, noting that there was no influence from the Russian government to do so. In a statement to Eurogamer, the publisher explained that Russia does not have a formal ratings board and that the company decided to block the scene "after seeking the advice of local counsel."

The publisher's statement went on to explain that the console versions of the game had never been released in the region and that the alteration would only affect the PC version, which was released on November 10 -- which wasn't too long before hackers turned their attention to the other things that had been removed from the popular shooter.

Source

Tags: activision, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, fps, infinity-ward, modern-warfare-2, no-russian, russia

Reader Comments (40)

In Soviet Russia, Activision block YOU!!!

uhhhh damn that never gets old does it?

+1

Wait...it applies in America too.

In this case, America just like Russia!

In Soviet Russia, Bathwater drinks Megan Fox.

There, I made it get old, happy?

In Soviet Russia, DSG love me?!?

No?

Sadness face emoticon for me.

In Soviet Russia, this is an underused joke.

In Soviet Russia, Activision hates YOU!

Wait a minute.......

so they removed that....do they at least explain what happened? I mean its kind of a plothole....I didn't choose to skip that part so I dunno....but someone who ha(and will admit to it) what happens when you skip it? does it give you a summary of said events or play a video or something?

I skipped that scene, in fact, I skipped all scenes...
Not a whole lot happened.

They kind of reiterate it if you play through the mission. They talk about how they were one step ahead and the only person left on the scene was an American. Probably won't be as gritty as you playing it but that's like news and everything else. You can hear that 5 people got killed in Afghanistan by an IED but unless you were there to see it. The images are nowhere near as compelling.

The story makes no sense anyway, they won't miss anything
Consider this:
Why would the CIA agent not kill the dudes before the massacre at the airport? Isn't that why he was sent into deep cover? Its not like Makarov is a mid level bad guy in an organization, he is at the top. The agent can't be trying to stay with this crew to get to a bigger fish, because he is in the biggest fish. And to stop massacres like this is exactly why he was sent! Why would he join them at the airport instead of killing them first? I don't understand...

yea I don't get why it wouldn't let me kill the bastards....I mean shit...he's a badguy...I'm a good guy....he knows who I am....why can't I kill his ass?

Well I guess theoretically the guy you play isn't supposed to blow his cover so he can find out more about the organization, but still. It's unconscionable to not do anything or join in when tons of innocent people are getting killed like that. The game should give you the option to try to kill the bad guys, the end result would be the same anyway.

u guys there is a reason for all that but its a spoiler, did u beat the game?

Yes, I found the scene deeply offensive, just because it was so fucking dumb.

Dark Wayne has done a great job deconstructing the scene in previous posts, but these are the highlights:

* As rv noted, the obvious play is to take out Makarov at the beginning of the scene rather than help him kill hundreds of civilians. The game does not give you that option.

* The next chapter begins with the US fretting about how they need some piece of evidence to tie the massacre to Russian terrorists. Oh, I don't know, how about the fact that at least one of the Russian terrorists was left dead at the scene!

* Russia's response's is so heavy-handed and unrealistic that I completely lost all sense of immersion.

It feels like an episode of 24, where it is all too complicated yet too dumb. It makes no sense except to set up the next stupid plot twist.

Basically, IW decided they'd try to create a bad 80's action film.

Also, did IW just learn about those two terms right before making this game? You know the ones I'm talking about.

Copa,

I guess we're assuming that the dead guy is in fact a Russian national. If he's not, and there's only circumstantial evidence to suggest that he is, then maybe they just assume he's working for Allen.

As for Russia's response being unrealistic, well, what would we do if a KGB agent massacred hundreds of civilians and dozens of police officers at LAX? Especially if we had something like the ACS module and could bypass most of their security systems. Also, the Russian government in the game is an Ultra-nationalist entity that declared Zakhaev a hero and a martyr. I think it's pretty well set-up that they're a little nuts.

Also, there's always someone at the top. No way Makarov is the head guy, he's just the face of the organization. Someone is financing him and that's why you can't blow your cover.

Anyway, that's my piece. I'm just excited to hunt Makarov down in Modern Warfare 3.

The next time someone says something stupid like "lol story in COD?" I'm going to point them to all of these posts. The story's stupid, and it's not supposed to matter in this game...yet it's driving some of you completely mad. I love watching all of the arguments over it.

If Makarov was just a pawn of someone higher or a vast organisation of Terror Cells just like him. Yes it would be good to tail the head guy so you know what's going to happen next. If you kill him then someone else will come up and you have to start the whole process over again of infiltrating a Terror Cell.

What's better being next to the head guys of a vast majority of Terroroists and blocking their actions when they effect your country.

or

Take out the organisation leaders and have another random pawn come up.

Honestly to me CIA (or some other government entity) has the job of influence. Infiltrating the bad guys and keeping them in power like pawns so bad things don't happen. For instance in the Middle East it's been found that CIA sponsors some of the Opium Drug Lords there. If you don't know what Opium is search it up and ask why would our government sponsor an Opium Drug Lord. The answers simple.

Information and Prevention...

Freedom isn't Free

Freedom costs a $1.05.

I don't know what airport you guys go to, but I do know the many airports have CAMERAS!

There is also a reason they left him. They were all speaking English, and could probably pass as an American.

You are also forgetting that Russia had been taken over by the Ultra-nationalist party, which was the "evil" bad guys you faced in the game. They would make any excuse to invade the US.

The reason you don't get it is not only because of the horrible job in the story-telling department, but because no one pays attention to the mission briefs before each mission which explain a lot.

If it was down to any local counsel in Ireland it would have been banned as well...... where they expecting any different?

I believe Joystiq made a huge error in the article. Russia does have a Video Games Rating board. Its called the KGB.

In completely unrelated news, Bobby Kotick of Activision has gone missing during his trip to Siberia. The Russian authorities have declined to comment.

You mean the FSB...right?

And nobody but Activision stockholders would give two shits about Kotick disappearing.

No, I mean KGB. The FSB is too legitimate.

Yeah, I guess having a website does legitimize them a bit.

http://www.fsb.ru/

There's no KGB in Russia... It was in SU, but raplaced by FSB in RF.

@Exsor:

Ok this is just crazy now. Obviously there isn't a KGB anymore--that was the point/joke of my post that the KGB is now their ratings board....

Also, I'm guessing you meant to say 'replaced' not 'raplaced'

Exsor is Russian, give him a break on his English. He types better than a lot of regular commenters.

Meanwhile, spooks, phantasms, and spectres everywhere are boycotting the game due to the unceremonious murder of one of their own kind in the game.

Remember... No Russian...

Am I the only one who sees the person with wings in the middle background.

Eastern Europe and Russia sure do love their PC gaming, just like Japan loves its console gaming.

One last chance to shoot your wad on this subject if you haven't already!

those guys are seriously shooting guns at an Evangelion?

This is campaign. The AI is as handicapped as stumpy the two legged mule.

Honestly guys, if the mission was a Russian soldier infiltrating a US terrorist group to attack the US, and you were in an US airport shooting US citizens, then I don't think it would of released here. There are very, very few times I support censorship, but this is one of those times where I can understand it.

Seriously though, this isn't Australia/Japan/China/Germany. They're not randomly banning games for the the sake of pretending to protect children or claiming the content to be inappropriate. I can understand the ban here.

"if the mission was a Russian soldier infiltrating a US terrorist group to attack the US, and you were in an US airport shooting US citizens, then I don't think it would of released here."

What?

@ arcter

It's not logical, but it's the flip side of what happened in MW2. You were a US soldier infiltrating a Russian terrorist group that was attacking Russia, and you were in a Russian airport killing Russian citizens.

I don't blame the Russians for having a hard time swallowing a false flag terrorist operation on their own soil, even if it is just a video game.

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Activision pulled MW2 'No Russian' scene in Russia on advice of 'local counsel'

Reader Comments (40)

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