Here are a few of the recent games that were announced via early ratings by the ESRB: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, The Last Guy and Earthbound for Wii. A change in the ESRB's submission form will likely plug up those leaks, according to a memo leaked to Next-Gen. When publishers submit their game for rating, they now have the option to choose a date when the title is eligible to be uploaded to the ESRB's website. If left blank, the game will be eligible for display 30 days after it has been rated.

The ratings board hopes that publishers don't overuse the new option. Said the memo, "The ESRB system will not work for consumers if publishers arbitrarily select dates bearing no reasonable relationship to consumer interest in the product." Our sights now turn to Australia's OFLC, Germany's USK and Britains's BBFC for early game leaks.

The German Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) is no stranger to revealing unannounced titles and Xblah.net points out they've done it again. The highlight for fans of XBLA board game translations like Catan and Carcassonne is that Zug um Zug Ticket to Ride is ready to build railways on Xbox 360.

Other games rated by the USK are Penny Arcade's OtR-SPD, RooGoo, and Golf: Tee it Up! None of these ratings mean the games are coming out soon, but at least they're on their way.

[Via X3F]

While attending the Gamerscore Blog Meet-and-Eat this evening we were fortunate enough to run into Boris Schneider-Johne, part of Microsoft Germany's Xbox team and an all around amiable man. After a long conversation about the cultural differences between German and American gamers (they love their Catan over there), we eventually settled on the topic of the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK), Germany's software ratings organization. While it's often hard to wrap one's head around the particulars of the USK, one difficulty outweighs all others: how exactly do you say Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle? Boris was kind enough to set us straight in the audio clip below. Just don't ask us to repeat it.

The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle (USK), the German version of the ESRB, is not rating the upcoming first-person shooter-horror game Jericho and therefore it's practically banned in the country. We've gotten used to this with the Germans, the same fate was bestowed upon Gears or War and Dead Rising, although The Darkness made some changes to become acceptable.

Given what we've seen of Jericho, it was probably the violence and gore that made it receive the un-rating. At least this might bring a little bit of attention to the game which Codemasters seems to be putting almost no effort in promoting -- which is par for the course by the publisher. Like we said before, as long as the squad AI holds up in the game, we saw potential in the title. The game releases at the end of October, Germans can hop in their car and take a quick drive to another country for their copy. We hear Austria is lovely that time of year, have a cup of gluvine for us while you're there.

We love getting to use this word ... the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle (USK) has decided that a few changes need to be made to The Darkness before it releases in Germany. Key elements that need to be changed are Nazi symbols and a finishing move showing a human heart being ripped out. Before the Americans in the room get all First Amendment happy, the Germans have never allowed Nazi symbols in games (all the way back to Wolfenstein 3D) -- they're a little sensitive about that stuff. These requests for changes are also a very tempered move by the USK instead of just outright passive aggressively "banning" the game by not rating it, like they did with Dead Rising and Gears of War.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 version of the game will now release on July 27 to satisfy the USK's demands. The PS3 version was delayed a week ago for unspecified reasons across Europe until July 20 - so Germany will need to wait an extra week. This did not affect the UK launch or content of The Darkness which occured today.

After Britain, the United States and Ireland, where do Australia and Germany stand on the issue of Manhunt 2? Australian officials are saying a release in their country is doubtful, meanwhile an official for the German USK ratings board has told Joystiq that game has not been submitted.

Insiders in the Australian government reportedly told Smarthouse (via GamePolitics) that the game is likely not to be released down under. "We don't want to preempt the decision of the Office of Film and Literature Classification Review Board but it is looking very doubtful," they said. The Office of Film and Literature Classification was closed when Joystiq tried to reach them for comment, but Jason Hill of The Age reports that as of yesterday, the game had not been submitted for a rating.

In an email correspondence with Joystiq, the USK's Christine Schulz told us as of this morning there was no application submitted for the game. Should Take Two and Rockstar forego submitting Manhunt 2 for any country, it would not be surprising.

Both German and Australian ratings boards are notorious for banning games, by refusal of rating, with too much violent content. For the German USK, past titles to not get rated have included Dead Rising, Crackdown and Gears of War -- and the banning protocol is rather confusing.

Australia's OFLC has Restricted 18+ ratings, but they are not applied to video games, so the highest rating for a game is Mature 15+ age. Hence, if a game were to be deemed too inappropriate for MA15, then it would be refused classification and the game must either be edited and resubmitted or just not sold. Games who were refused classification include Reservoir Dogs and Marck Ecko's Getting Up.

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 games 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?

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?