Dead or Alive: Dimensions yanked in Sweden, Norway and Denmark

by Alexander Sliwinski on May 23rd 2011 1:55PM

Dead or Alive: Dimensions won't be available in Sweden, because it potentially violates the country's child pornography laws. The title will also skip Norway and Denmark as a result -- all three territories are covered by the same distributor, Bergsala. Eurogamer Sweden has a joint statement from Nintendo and Bergsala in which they claim to "have decided not to release the game in Sweden, for various reasons." However, neither company wished to list the reasons.

Allegedly, the genesis of the drama involves a forum poster noting that three of the DoA characters are under 18 years of age, which could violate Swedish law when placed in risque situations within the game's "Figure Mode." Animated images have been subject to child pornography laws in Sweden since 1980.

Source: Eurogamer

Tags: 3DS, Bergsala, dead-or-alive, dead-or-alive-dimensions, denmark, ds, nintendo, norway, porn, pornography, sweden, tecmo-koei

Reader Comments (53)

derp

Umm... ok

Ooh, culture clash between Japan and Scandinavia!

Huh, I didn't see that coming.

@baby sea tuna

Oh, behave.

Japan making animated child pornography?? Unheard of!

@acefondu

When they're not loligagging.

Wait a second... how old is the guy in Minecraft? Notch never said....

So was Dead or Alive Paradise or Extreme Volleyball blocked? hmm...

Time for a re-code unless Tecmo isn't keen on getting some Euros in their pockets.

@CaptainProtonX
They'll only need to change the ages. Seems to me that would be a matter of translation... How do you tell the age of a fictional character anyway?

@Vagn Henning

Yeah, changing the ages in each character profile seemed like the obvious solution to me as well. "Ayane, having aged two years since DOA3, is now 18 years of age." Problem solved.

Although I suppose this solution could negatively impact sales in Japan. ; )

Censorship is never good. But at least we didn't lose anything of value.

@Mehbah

"Censorship is never good."

We should just forbid perverts to be creative.

What kind of "risque situations" are we talking about here?

@supersonic124

Groin punch.

@Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En

"She kicks high"

@supersonic124

16-year-olds with double Ds kicking the crap out of each other.

Well over due for Japan really...

If the DoA girls are children, then they are the most well endowed children in history.

@R Planteer

I blame BGH in school lunches.

@baby sea tuna

Well, to be honest, is the idea of a future generation of skinny large breasted woman really a bad one?

Now what region do these 3 territories fall under?
Could they import from another Europe territory?

@Jawmuncher Yes that is no problem. (Norway)

Wait, didn't they retcon the ages of the characters when making the move from Japan to Europe/America? Or am I just hallucinating?

that's weird, all the other DOA games have been accepted here. lol, I actually thought of getting this after IGN gave it a 8/10, but I guess that won't happend.

The reason this game isn't getting released while the other DOA's were is because there's a child pornography case pending in the High court where they'll settle whether or not animated "pornographic" images of children (below 18, technically) is against the law or not.

@dynilsson
trust me it will become illegal(which i think is a good thing) also when robots become more advanced I think they will come to the same fate

@dynilsson

Thing is, these aren't real people. They're animated characters. So really, their age is fiction just like the character.

So my "devil's advocate" point here is - what is the the value of the arbitrarily assigned age? Imagine if one of these characters was in a skimpy outfit and looked 12 but the game creators said the character was actually 150 because she was some sort of vampire. Would that be ok in Norway then? Doesn't it matter more how old they appear to be, than the arbitrarily assigned age?

@Dizazter

By today's law, yes, it's all depending on the assigned age. Hopefully the case in the High court will go against what the lower courts has said and state that animated images can't be illegal.

But they're not 17! They LOOK 17 because they spent the last 200 years in a cryonic tank. They're, in fact, 217 years old.

At least that's how Japan explains every anime loli.

@KazamaSogetsu

Or are goddesses/aliens. Can't forget that one.

@KazamaSogetsu
sounds like twilight

@NoksukowN

Nah, full on nudity, from the back that is, is ok. It's just that the game has a mode where you can view the characters from various angels, and that is what got the game banned since some of them are 16-17. Not that I was getting it anyway :)

Did the DOA volley ball games ever make it to Sweden, Norway, or Denmark? While no fighting was involves it was boob jiggle city in that game.

@Stevetrop Man of Mystery Yes it did :)

@Stevetrop Man of Mystery Yeah, but in this one you have a mode where you can change the camera to zoom in on the reportedly underage bodies. Unlike DOAX.

I thought Sweden was cool with this kind of stuff. I mean, is it pornography if characters are covering (most) their naughty bits and not doing anything particularly sexual?

If it's really about the viewer mode, though, maybe just nix that. It's not like it's a vital feature. Or better yet put the mode, but make Kasumi and whoever else is always wear a pantsuit.

Somehow I want this game more now. Oh, and a new, non-portable console version of DOA would be great too.

Jesus Christ Sweden, this is fiction, ages are arbitrary.

Did you guys ban Mortal Kombat for child pornography? They put Mileena in a bandage outfit and technically she's not even 1 year old yet.

Is this because Kasumi-Alpha is playable now? She's in the same situation and she's so naked she's transparent.

Not a big loss but still: 3DS desperately needs games!

@That One Guy

Right? Is that really all it takes? Is it all just hinging on whatever arbitrary age Techmo "says" they are? Seems really dumb.

@Dizazter
I might be showing my age here, but I remember the American release Dreamcast version of DoA listing their ages as ?? However, the Japanese Demo that came on a disc packed-in with magazines, showed most of the girls being underage. So yeah, as silly as it sounds, it really is just a matter of tecmo assigning/not assigning an age to the fighters.

@Dizazter
Based on my observations of trends in Japanese media, the Japanese sales from advertising underaged girls far exceeds the sales gained for advertising adult women.

I've avoided many anime because of this trend.

@Noksukow
I have never seen a soap commercials with full nudity and i live in Norway. (aka awsomeland)

@Dizazter That's what happens when you legislate social-moral concepts based on statistical-quantitative concepts.

@Cole Phelps
Actually no one in DoA, atleast from the characters I know of, are under 20.

I'm almost certain that in the Dreamcast doa had unknown by the age cause they were ninjas the other non ninja females were 18+

Pssth, 16 is legal in my state. I can ogle without guilt. Take that, prudes!

@The Aquacharger - Ayane, Kasumi, and a few others I'm neglecting are under 18 in the lore, but as far as I'm aware, they are legal age in Japan (legal enough to run around in bikini's anyway).

Why these countries feel the need to ban depictions of extremely buxom pixels for an arbitrary age set by the developer is beyond me. It seems to me like they could just say "They're 18 in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark now" and get the game back on the market.

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Dead or Alive Dimensions

Dead or Alive: Dimensions yanked in Sweden, Norway and Denmark

Reader Comments (53)

Posted: May 23rd 2011 1:56PM Grey said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:00PM Faenix said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:03PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:16PM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:06PM acefondu said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:42PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:09PM Edge of Blade said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:14PM Stockonepiece said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:14PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 4:30PM Vagn Henning said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 6:27PM Ruinkind said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:15PM Mehbah said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:17PM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:28PM supersonic124 said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:31PM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:33PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:55PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:34PM Qehb said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:35PM R Planteer said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:58PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:59PM R Planteer said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:35PM Jawmuncher said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 6:13PM Bounceball said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:35PM Darklink2009 said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:38PM RetroGamer said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:44PM dynilsson said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 3:13PM Yisrael said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 4:48PM Dizazter said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 5:07PM dynilsson said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:49PM KazamaSogetsu said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 3:09PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 3:17PM Yisrael said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 2:52PM Cole Phelps said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 3:47PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 6:17PM Bounceball said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 6:42PM Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 3:48PM Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 4:20PM Cafecito said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 4:34PM onan said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 4:39PM JulianRoss said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 4:51PM Dizazter said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 5:58PM antv said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 5:59PM Lerkero said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 6:12PM Bounceball said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 6:22PM Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 6:39PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 11:02PM killahfam69 said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 11:42PM Red Runner said

Posted: May 23rd 2011 11:58PM BananaBoat said

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