Naughty Dog Finally Acknowledges Censoring The Last of Us’ Multiplayer in Europe

Since the release of The Last of Us there have been complaints from European gamers about a completely unannounced amount of censorship in the multiplayer mode of Naughty Dog’s latest masterpiece.

In the European version there’s no sign of dismemberment on survivors (while they can lose head and limbs in the North American version of the game), and there’s also a lot less blood. Naughty Dog never officially acknowledged the cuts, until now.

[ShugaCane]

The SP can remain untouched but the MP has to be censored ? Wth ? That's stupid IMO. In that particular case, European rules are weird. Anyway, I didn't even know my version was different. Fortunately the SP is uncut, that's what matters the most to me. Good move from ND replying to that user.

[Abriael]

SP is completely uncut, yeah. And the rating problem probably has to do with Germany (which is very quirky with rating), even if honestly publishers often get lazy here, selling everyone in Europe the same version censored for Germany instead of making a version for Germany only. It's a big enough market to warrant it.

[ShugaCane]

Yes, true, especially if it only applies to the Multiplayer. But according to ND, "various countries" are subjected to those regulations, so I guess it's not only one of them.

[Abriael]

@ShugaCane: to be completely honest, even living in Europe, I never heard about any other country having problems with gore in the continent.

[Vitalogy]

I don't get it. We're talking about a country (USA) where a freaking perfume advertise is censored (I think it was one with Eva Mendes) because they thought they saw a nipple that nobody can understand if its actually visible and then they allow games where you see people completely set to pieces. Yet in Europe is "censored" -.-

I never heard anything before about this censorship in Europe, first time for me and I don't even understand why this happens.

[majiebeast]

Yeah and im sick of getting screwed by the dictatorship of Merkel. Why does everyone have to get gore cut because Germany cant handle it.

Wait they pmed a user not even said it on forums? I made a forum thread awhile back that asked this exact thing and Naughty Dog didnt respond which is pretty disapointing.

[DOMination-]

Europe is more liberal than NA. Especially when it comes to sex but when it comes to violenc,e Germany is famous for censorship.

Nornally it's not a problem because the publisher localises content (partly why EU gets most things so late) but in this case seemingly the publisher was lazy and just released one version for the whole of Europe. I've not played it but it doesn't really sound like a big deal in this case.

[morganfell]

Get it right. Naughty Dog didn't censor the game, the authorities in the EU were responsible.

You cannot solve a problem if you will not properly address the issue. Get it right.

[Abriael]

@morganfell:you're the one that are getting it wrong mate. The "EU Authorities" censored nothing. As a matter of fact, rating boards aren't even "authorities".

Naughty dog did censor the game. They did it for a reason, but the fact that the act of censoring has been done by then is completely beyond any doubt. The "EU authorities" didn't barge in their offices and didn't do the cuts at gunpoint.

[LonDonE]

its starting to bug the hell out of me, why should the bloody German government dictate what content we consume in the rest of Europe? its like with the wii u at launch, i couldn't even view any videos about games with a adult rating unless the time was between 11pm and 3am, WTF?? and that restriction was in place regardless of your nintendo network i.d age, hell i am 30yrs old, and should be allowed to buy dlc which is for adults or view ninja gaiden videos,AT ANY TIME! LMAO, luckily they rectified these issues, but still these companies need to stop treating Europeans like second rate citizens, its annoying as hell! bloody German laws, are retarded!!!

[morganfell]

You don't understand 'mate' that ND preferred to do their work as few times as possible. They knew there would be an issue so they dodged the bullet up front. You also did not understand to whom I was referring when I said 'authorities'.

[Conzul]

US freaks out about nudity; EU doesn't care.
EU freaks out about violence; US doesn't care.

Been that way for awhile now...

[pixelsword]

What?! If you can't donkey-punch a teeny-bopper in a game in Europe, then what's the use of having the Magna Carta?

[Knushwood Butt]

It's censored in Japan too. Decapitations are a big no-no.

Doesn't change the gameplay though.

[GribbleGrunger]

That headline makes it sound like they've admitted they censured it, but before they denied it, when in actual fact it didn't have anything to do with either Sony or ND

[Buuhan1]

I guess there's stricter content ratings when online is a factor? I believe that's why Resident Evil 5 and 6 is tamer in their player death scenes over 4 because of the online co-op.

I'm actually surprised to hear the multiplayer has dismemberment, as I went my entire singleplayer without witnessing human dismemberment, and have only actually seen it once on someone elses game. The infected on the other hand can't seem to wait to blow into bits.

I figured Naughty Dog, for whatever reason, just flat had to censor the graphic violence on humans. I dunno why, but it definitely seems like it. One of their earlier trailers showed humans getting torn apart by a nail-bomb, but this scene in a later trailer had those replaced with infected.

Maybe the human violence is still in there it just has a decreased chance of occuring?

[Abriael]

Nope, not there. Not even a little bit, I'm afraid, at least for what dismemberment is concerned.

[Master-H]

Yo i got a region 2 version , u better patch this s**t out soon ND, i needs my blood and gore , also please fix the crazy lag , i know my internet is sh**ty but not this much, sometimes i hear the match going on around me but i'm stuck and can't move, Sometimes the opposite , i can move but all the other players are non-moving corpses on my screen lol what the hell is up with that ? does the multiplayer require high speed connections or something ? i'm not gonna tell u guys my internet speed because u are just gonna laugh at me , but i can play CoD and other games online ok, they'd be a lil laggy but nothing crazy like what happens to me on TLOU, i heard uncharted 3 had similar lag in mp , any thoughts ?

[Rhythmattic]

I havent tried TLOU Mp yet.... But I gave up on UC3 MP with its totally crap latency.
Issues I never have with UC2 MP.

UC3 was so bad I sent ND complaint emails regarding the issue...
A total waste of time, and in my case , a total waste of its MP component.

If its the same with TLOU I will be pissed off.

[Salooh]

I'm having the same problem . I even get kicked for not moving even though i can't move lol .

@Rhythmattic
You missing half the game.

[THC CELL]

Silly, not even mortal combat online got cencerored

[talisker]

ND are super busy. Ohhhh whyyyyy? ;)

[Salooh]

Hint : 4

[Dunpeal]

so having a mature rating for parents to see before deciding whether or not to buy it for their kids is not enough?

pretty lame, europe

[Harmonizer]

Blame Germany. ND was just too lazy to make different EU versions and decided to give us all the German version.

[SkullBlade169]

No then we should just blame ND for being lazy... just about any other developer manages to release fully non-censored versions outside of Germany...

[TheObserver]

Ha! Germany.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[KingKevo]

Lol, I was talking to a friend about this yesterday. You should also check TF2 (the cut is actually hilarious when there are toys and stuff instead of body parts flying around) ( http://youtu.be/zQKnOUhs6KY ) and Turok - Dinosaur Hunter (robots instead of human and demonic enemies and even the robots in level 8 have been changed to other robots in the German version) ( http://youtu.be/P6AZawnBBeg ). It's ridiculous.

[PrimeGrime]

What the fuck? Censor what? They already ruined Manhunt, what are people seriously complaining about this now too? Jesus christ we can't have anything good anymore. Death and violence are apart of the universe we live in..

As Microsoft would say deal with it.. but seriously that is never going to change. This place would have violence with or without us. It all depends on how a person views it that is the problem or what that persons life experiences were that led them to view it negatively. It has nothing to do with it existing but a persons perception.

[KingKevo]

Well I'm German and the situation here has been way worse than it is right now, the German rating board (USK) got a lot more tolerant in the past few years. Games like Dead Space, GoW III, GTA 4, Black Ops 2 (especially Zombies) and most recently Saint's Row 4 and the (cut) version of TLoU would not have made it here at all or only with plenty of cuts a decade or so ago, and keep in mind that graphics got far more realistic than they used to be in the past.

And now the reason why it is cut is relatively simple, it's MP. In the SP the violence is justified, relativized and supplemented by the story, the setting and by the other stuff you can do (you don't just kill primarily) and that is not given in the MP which is basically just about killing at the core of it and they (the USK) doesn't like to see a mode where killing is the main motivation at such an explicit level and the fact that you are not playing against the AI but other real people controlling these characters that you kill doesn't help either.

I should also add that I think that censoring is stupid and that an adult can and should very well decide what to play or nor and not be 'protected' and patronized by it's government or an institution implementing their laws. But yeah, since WWII Germany is still quite sensitive when it comes to violence (and extreme violence in particular) which you can clearly see in all kinds of media that is cut here. It's getting better but they should get rid of it entirely, but it's a still that relict of the past and Germany just likes it's laws from the past and also likes to do stuff their own way (that's why the don't use the PEGI system like the rest of Europe).

[slivery]

In the Last of the Us the same concept in single player is the same that is played in multiplayer. The Last of Us is all about survival.

So whatever is depicted in the single player should be just fine for what is in the multiplayer. What just because now there are real people behind the characters you can't do the same thing? You now have to put everyone to sleep with a pillow nicely?

I don't get it?

[KingKevo]

I think I did explain it good enough. You could say that the MP has a kind of story and setting, but it's just the same thing over and over again and the main objective no matter how you try to defend it is to kill people to match your goal and win the game, get enough supplies and get unlocks.

The SP however is set in an entire world with a strong story behind it that manages to justify and relativize the gore in order to be realistic and it does a good job making clear why you have to kill these people and why they are bad (because you actually only kill bad guys and never anyone who is innocent). The MP doesn't do that sort of stuff. As I said it's only about killing other humans who try to do the same thing for the sole reason of winning and leveling up.

Keep in mind that this is just me trying to explain why the cuts were probably requested by the USK and made by ND. I guess for those who rate the games with the German laws in the back this was just too gory in that context that it's set in, that's it. (I guess Sony could have requested another rating by other people of the board and another one and then go to a committee where they could have discussed the standpoints and the violence if they had not succeeded earlier, but that might have caused a delay or just cost too much money and they did not care and since only one version is made for Europe they might have even cut it beforehand to be safe). And yes, in Germany and for the rating it does make a difference if it is SP and you're fighting bad guys and infected or SP where you fight other bad guys who do the exact same thing that you do with the only motivation is to a game and now beat you in your 6th match together on the map you were playing on just three matches before.

I do get it and I'm pretty sure most people will also understand why that cut was made, but I hope everyone thinks that it's unnecessary and stupid.

And whoever voted me down is a f***ing c**t. Gosh why do I even waste my time with s****d f***s on N4G, NeoGaf really is the place to be, where people do at least think and care about and appreciate stuff. N$G is just full of i****s and whiny w***ers

[KingKevo]

They, and in this case the directors of the game, did already acknowledge this in the AMA on Reddit recently.

They said that they have no plans on patching it for the territories in which they could have released it uncut, simply because they apparently can't (which is bulls*** btw, because they could very well release an uncut DLC in the Store, patch the version by checking for the IP and only include countries in which they can patch or check for the country of the account.)