Here's a shocker for you: Clive Barker's Jericho, the ultra-gory horror FPS from Codemasters, is facing a ban from censorship-conscious Germany as its USK ratings board refuses to issue it a rating.
Update: Codemasters has told CVG: Following a review by the USK ratings board, which declined to give an official rating, Codemasters has decided not to change the artistic vision of the renowned author and filmmaker Clive Barker through cuts and extensive changes.
"Codemasters respects Mr Barker's creative ideas, despite the German distribution and marketing consequences for the title. Therefore Codemasters will release only the PC version of Clive Barker's Jericho in its original form on the 26th of October for adult gamers and Clive Barker fans." Update ends
The ESRB-equivalent ratings board's refusal to rate the game means it won't be permitted for sale in shops or on the internet.
However, unlike the Manhunt 2 ban ordeal which saw Rockstar forced into making changes to the game to receive an acceptable rating, Codemasters remains defiant in the German ruling.
Meanwhile, no such problems are expected here in UK, as the demo is due for PC and 360 tomorrow, and for PS3 here in Europe next week.
I think you can still buy these "banned" games in the shops, they just aren't allowed to be displayed and are under the counter and you need ID to buy them.
Clearly Codemaster couldn't care less about Germany and good on them for not being held to 'ransom' I think Germany are getting ridiculous with their censorship laws and need to step into reality and look at all the horror films etc that get pass the censorship. Moves like this will only push people to piracy if they want the game bad enough.
I think you can still buy these "banned" games in the shops, they just aren't allowed to be displayed and are under the counter and you need ID to buy them.
Still, just get it from the UK
No they are actually banned, the copies that retailers sell (Mainly independant retailers) are just copies they've had imported in. You wouldn't get a banned game in say HMV or Virgin etc.
The implications of releaseing the PC version uncut and canning the console versions are quite interesting - someone obviously thinks PC games are for grownups and console games are for kids.
Uhm...no the game isnt banned yet. There are two independent rating-boards. Now without the rating of the usk the "BPJM" can test the game and put it on the index. You can put the game into your store shelfs and advertise for it, until its on the index. It may be just a matter of time for jericho, but until now its not "banned", its not even restricted (just the age restriction for ages 18 and up). If its on the index you can find the game in certain stores/websites, where you have verify your age before you enter, or at video-rental-stores wich are usually just for people over 18.
The implications of releaseing the PC version uncut and canning the console versions are quite interesting - someone obviously thinks PC games are for grownups and console games are for kids.
No, not really. Microsoft and Sony just dont allow these games to be published. Just the same with AO ratings in the us. At PC, you dont have this kind of "content-supervision".
About the references of horror films not been censored in Germany. That's not exactly true. I don't know it of horror films itselfs, but I do know it from the LotR movies. Even the movietheater versions had about 30 minutes or more cut out of them (every single film) in comparison to the version released in other countries, even in the dvd-releases
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
