Dead Island: Riptide has been banned from Germany due to the country’s infamously strict censorship laws.
The news comes from the game’s creative producer, Sebastian Reichert, who is particularly upset about it being German himself.
“It feels f**king awkward to have one of the most successful games in years and nobody in your country knows it,” he said.
The game’s banning isn’t a surprise however, as the first Dead Island was also blocked from release due to the country’s low tolerance of games containing violence against “human-like characters”.
“It doesn’t matter what [the enemies] are, as long as they’re human-like then you have a problem.
“For Dead Island in particular it was a problem that you could attack the zombies when they are dead, because that’s mutilation of corpses.”
Reichert makes no secret of the fact that he thinks the censorship rules are questionably applied, citing Gears of War as a confusing exception.
“At the moment I’m really confused that you can buy Gears of War 3 in stores in Germany, but not Dead Island. Because where’s the difference? I mean, [the enemies in Gears of War] are human-like.
“That flamethrower finisher; he rams the flamethrower into the body, pulls the trigger and the flames come out of every body part. That’s in stores.”
Source: CVG
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Long live censorship.
Can’t help but wonder if Germany’s insecurities toward violent media is because of their history.
I know, I’ve invoked Godwin’s Law a bit early but it really seems like they have this kind of bizarre belief that censoring violent media somehow lets them pretend that violence doesn’t exist and helps them feel better about the violent atrocities they committed a century ago.
Madness. Move on, Germany, and stop trying to tell your citizens what they may and may not expose themselves to.
I doubt hacking off zombie limbs is going to create another Hitler.