Games That Were Banned or Censored.

List of games that have either been banned or censored by country.

[thorstein]

I have it by the way!

[Megaton]

I used to sell bootleg copies of Thrill Kill to people at school back in the day. Really not a bad game. Simplistic, but fun. I'd like to see it get released with updated graphics. EA would really have to sack up, though (assuming they still own it). It's pretty tame compared to some of the things we've seen since then.

[HolyOrangeCows]

"China:
Football Manager 2005
Banned for recognizing Tibet as an independent country. An edited version globally was later released"
lol

"United Arab Emirates"
Anything good.

[Motorola]

Source at the end is Wikipedia?! Are you freaking serious?

[TheFreak]

Man Australia sucks. I feel bad for gamers over there

[rroded]

freaking gaming nazis speaking of which Germany aint far behind...

when communistic totalitarian governments are more lenient you know you have issues....

ps thorstein whats Thrillkill like remember seeing it ages ago in a mag never tried it...

edit found this http://www.youtube.com/watc...
splaterhouse on crack?

[Drac]

Luckily for us Kiwi's our games that Aussie's ban or edit are source else where like UK ;).

Even worse is what the Aus gov are doing to the internet, talk about a nanny state.

[mastiffchild]

@rroded-Thrillkill was hardly anything on crack unless you mean the pixels were better looking once and ended up in that state because they had a massive habit. Seriously, my mate had a crusade to play it and when he finally managed to get hold of it found it was just a biot crap. Sure, there was plenty of red stuff and plenty of violence but the best reason to ban the game was because, plainly, it was pants. Fugly, too, even for PS1, when anything went as long as it had aspirations of not being 2D!

[danmachine]

Banning is Bad.

[Falloutxii]

No banning videogames here.

[unknown100]

neither in mother russia

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

Does Australia not understand the whole point of the ESRB or something?

edit:

Okay well that explains it thanks Panda.

[Pandamobile]

Australia doesn't use the ESRB.

[Theonik]

And they don't have a mature rating for games. Their scale ends at 15+ but the goverment refuses to change it due to certain people in key positions objecting.

[kingdavid]

Actually 1 guy was holding it back. All but 1 state supported an R18 rating and you need everyone to agree for it to pass.

This guy is gone now and the new attorney general who took his position said he supported an R rating so hopefully something gets passed in the next couple of years which should happen.

[mastiffchild]

Yeah, it was a real "leave my legacy" BS movement by one clueless geezer as far as my mates out there made out. One works for a fairly important Aussie developer and reconed the ratings system was even hurting the development industry ion Australia and now, hopefully, their govern=ment and supporting cast willl be more suportive of gaming overall as there;s some great talent down under-shame that the con/lib government in the UK has scrapped the Labour plans tro try and keep our games industry alive and at home as wit the amount of talent WE have it's a joke that every other country in the world treats their game devs better. We'll end up with ALL of them going abroad just like in every other industry.

[davidmccue]

Venezuela

In November 2009, the Government of Venezuela announced that it would ban all video games in which the objective was to shoot people. The ban was due to widespread violence in the country.
The bill was later published in the public journal of that country on December 3 and gone into effect 3 months later, March 3, 2010, making Venezuela the first country to successfully ban violent videogames in the world and making their manufacturing, distribution, selling, rental, exhibition and use illegal. Even though the proponents were not from the Venezuelan Government's political party, Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), President Hugo Chávez supported the ban,claiming there are some Internet games featuring him so players can "kill him"; and even calling video games consoles, including Nintendo DS and Sony's PlayStation, "poison" and values of the capitalism, which he considers "the road to hell".
According to reports of the Venezuelan National Guard, more than 13,000 objects, including violent video games, were destroyed to the date in the states of Lara and Portuguesa.
The ban is criticized by gamers and experts alike for its ambiguity and lack of clarity on its penalties, asides from being too harsh. On the other hand, Sony expressed their hopes for the government to make changes for the law for good.

[Darkstorn]

Chavez is a bad apple, but that doesn't mean the rest of the left-leaning leaders on the continent are the same. Lula, Morales, Correa, and Kirchner are all fair leaders with little to no desire of curbing the rights the people of South America. While I think Chavez is often misrepresented as a nutcase by American media, he's still a poor president.

[mastiffchild]

Cbhavez key problem isn't even that he doesn't like games but more that, as a lefty leader he also fails to grasp the basic tenets of Marxism. He doesn't even talk the talk that well and though I doubt he's actually mad(not the full shilling, mind)I think he's possibly just a bit too dim to be in the position he is.

Any leftist government in the current world economy, esp in a continent with the issues and reliance on the US as a market and as an export force, has to realise that being hardline unilaterally only harms the standard of living in your country tight now. I often feel he rails against games because he feels powerless against more obvious symbols of US capitalism which fill the store shelves and, in many cases, provide employment for his workers. IDK the specifics in his case but a lot of SA employment comes from big US multinationals with factories etc in SA nations making US products under license and franchise conditions to sell throughout SA. In the face of that it's easier to pick on games that it would be, say , Coca Cola(for example)as they , and their ilk, will give a lot more back to the economy out there than a non existent gaming industry in the region. 6the ban was more a vanity project than anything and aimed at his frustration at feeling a bit toothless.

Obviously, there is a tendency for Venezualan leaders to get a bit more bullish because of the fact they have a few more natural resources than most countries in the region and I have to agree with Darkstorn that he's just a crap president more than anything. Right to point out some of the better and more forward thinking leaders in SA aas well. I think it's important that we still have leaders in the world not solely concerned with themselves or looking after only big business-it's just a bit sad that none of the really powerful countries in the west have a left leaning leader of any substance. Don't, by the way, tell me Obama is anything but a conservative, mind, as that's all there is in US politics.

[Dsnyder]

.

[ChronoJoe]

Yet you still had numerous games censored, because no one will sell an AO game.

What's the difference between an indirect beach of your ammendment, and a direct one? the result is the same. You should be able to buy an entirely uncensored version of Indigo Prophecy... but alas, you can't.

[JakemanPS31994]

u shouldnt blame america for that blame sony,microsoft, and especially nintendo because they are the ones who dont what the games on there system. you can get the ao ratiing version of indigo prophesy on the computer and u can also get the more violent version of manhunt on the pc.

[Holeran]

The guy game, pulled from shelves because 1 of the naked girls was 17 at the time she was videotaped.

[XactGamer]

"No games have been banned in the United States due to excessive violence or nudity because of freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution"

:)

[Redempteur]

yep no censorship in france ... but sometimes some editors want a european only version an thus release a cut version if at least ONE country find problems with the title ..

the last one i remember was no more heroes 1 ( wii ) released censored in europe because of germany

[backcourt2000]

When I saw the picture, all I could think of was 2 Live Crew's "Banned In The USA."

[AlienFodder]

I love my country! (Canada) :)

[jakethesnake]

I can give bubbles to that!

Although some people disagree that you love our great country.

[PirateThom]

This may well be the lasziest article I've ever seen, it's LITERALLY just a copy and paste of the Wikipedia article.

"Source" means nothing when you copy the whole thing word for word and offer no additional insight into why certain games were banned.

[Red_Phoenix]

"Banned because of violence cruelty and blasphemy against Islam."

I honestly never noticed God of War 3 as being against Islam in anyway. Anyway, this was an interesting read through. I like to see how other countries respond to different games and state their reasons. I did not know so many games were actually banned in the first place.

[ravinash]

Either its because its portraying another religion other than Islam, or it has images of the gods.
I don't think its because GOW3 ever said anything about Islam.

[Xx Ziyad xX]

no its not against Islam , but u play as god .. but srsly all the games in saudi arabia say ban but Actually nothing ban exepet COD4 and GTA4 not the series ..
@ravinash:
what ? no its nothing like that at all , the ban bucz u play as a god .. and its not hurt islam in any way and islam say there one god so images of the gods? theres no gods in islam only one , and by the way the game say ban but Actually its sell everywhere like Greer and Extra, Tokyo games and Games Master .. etc

[davidmccue]

It says that God of War 2 was banned not God of War 3.

[kraze07]

Governments need to sit the fuck back and chill when it comes to film and gaming entertainment. I can understand some countries have a mix of state and religion in their government and don't want negative attention brought towards whatever religion they are because it'll weaken the power they have over their people but these so called "democracies" are somewhat worse. I never voted on giving some old political geezers the power to ban anything they feel is inappropriate for me.

[bjornbear]

God of War II
Banned because of violence cruelty and blasphemy against islam.

lol wut? Its more cruelty and blasphemy against Greek Mythology =P not Islam xD

[llMurcielagoll]

They did not mention that Saudi Arabia also banned Red Dead Redemption and most likely same reasons as GTA series plus there is gambling in the game

[Xx Ziyad xX]

no Red Dead Redemption not ban in Saudi Arabia , and the gambling in any game not proplem , the ban only in UAE

[Johandevries]

Rapelay.