Germany Kiboshes Dead Island: Riptide

[Andy Chalk]

Germany Kiboshes Dead Island: Riptide

The developers of Dead Island: Riptide are none too happy that the game won't be released in Germany.

Nobody seemed too worked up about it when Dead Island was banned [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114427-Dead-Island-Banned-in-Germany-But-Nobody-Cares] in Germany last year. A rep from developer Techland said the decision wasn't unexpected, and that both it and publisher Deep were "aware of such a possibility from the very beginning." But now the expansion Dead Island: Riptide has also been given the thumbs-down, and Creative Producer Sebastian Reichert sounds a little more irritated about it this time around.

"We have no censored version of the game, so we cannot release it in Germany. It feels fucking awkward to have one of the most successful games in years and nobody in your country knows it," he told PC Games N. Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide are both published by Deep Silver, a division of Munich-based Koch Media.

The problem, it seems, are German laws that frown upon violence against "human-like" characters, which of course includes zombies. Making things worse, players can attack zombies when they're "dead," which apparently contravenes regulations against the mutilation of corpses.

Reichert also pointed out that while Dead Island is verboten, plenty of other violent games have been given the green light. "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?" he said. "I mean, [Gears of War enemies] are human-like, and the things you do to them... They really have nice finishers! 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."

Reichert added that despite the restriction, he hopes German gamers are scoring copies of Dead Island anyway.

Source: PC Games N [http://www.pcgamesn.com/article/dead-island-riptide-dev-you-can-buy-gears-war-germany-not-dead-island-whats-difference]


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[FEichinger]

As far as I remember, they never even bothered to present Dead Island itself to our ratings board. Playing the victim card now just feels ... wrong.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

As a german i can tell you: Don't even try to make sense of which games are and are not banned in germany. As far as i can tell there's no understandable pattern to it. To me it seems like every once in a while the USK likes to tell the german public that no, they still don't respect artistic freedom. But then it's not that hard to aquire foreign games here.

 

[N3squ1ck]

I'm from Germany and just wanted to say: we are well aware that this game exists, it's just like everywhere else in the world: we know it isn't all too good.

I would find it good if more devs would complain about the system here and not just swallow it (and censor their games so they can be released (and be able to make their money back) here, i.e. Borderlands, All the CoDs up until BO2, GTA 3(also Vice City, San Andreas, Vice City Stories, Liberty City Stories), Team Fortress 2, Fallout 3,... )

 

[Deshin]

The German censorship board really are crazy. I mean most of the imposed censorship was done shortly after WW2 but surely some of that stuff can ease up a bit now? Do they really think that stopping people playing Dead Island is going to protect them from having a sudden inexplicable urge to invade Poland?

We all know the whole thing is political. No one wants to be "that" person who tore down the censorship laws imposed after WW2. Lord knows Merkel doesn't need any more negative attention if she hopes to win the next election so it won't be done on her watch.

 

[mad825]

I would find it good if more devs would complain about the system here and not just swallow it

...The polish didn't resist too much last time.

 

[Coffeejack]

Why doesn't the government do a countrywide poll to ask Germans what they think of the censorship or banning of video games? have they done that already? I would be surprised if the majority didn't see these laws as overprotective and outdated.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Make a decent game and people will start caring. Dead Island was shoddy. Pretty, but shoddy.

 

[FEichinger]

Why doesn't the government do a countrywide poll to ask Germans what they think of the censorship or banning of video games? have they done that already? I would be surprised if the majority didn't see these laws as overprotective and outdated.

Because our current federal coalition is very likely to have one party drop out of the parliament entirely while the other has no other coalition partner after the elections next year - and the opposition is in control of the senate. The result is pretty much this: Anything major our government tries to pull ends with it either being vetoed by the senate, or being only done if the opportunists see it as a way to get more votes. Catering to a controversial topic like censorship could be fatal.

 

[FEichinger]

I would find it good if more devs would complain about the system here and not just swallow it

...The polish didn't resist too much last time.

Very qualified comment, I applaud you for being so thorough and insightful.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

As far as I remember, they never even bothered to present Dead Island itself to our ratings board. Playing the victim card now just feels ... wrong.

Yeah, that sort of thing has happened a few times with the Australian Classifications Board (formerly the OFLC)... and if I remember correctly one dev/publisher claiming they were refused classification when they didn't actually submit their game.

 

[Coffeejack]

Why doesn't the government do a countrywide poll to ask Germans what they think of the censorship or banning of video games? have they done that already? I would be surprised if the majority didn't see these laws as overprotective and outdated.

Because our current federal coalition is very likely to have one party drop out of the parliament entirely while the other has no other coalition partner after the elections next year - and the opposition is in control of the senate. The result is pretty much this: Anything major our government tries to pull ends with it either being vetoed by the senate, or being only done if the opportunists see it as a way to get more votes. Catering to a controversial topic like censorship could be fatal.

That sounds like a sad state of affairs, but at least I have some idea now. Like FelixG said, I guess you can still pick up controversial games more expensively from neighbouring countries or overseas, which is better than nothing.

 

[FEichinger]

That sounds like a sad state of affairs, but at least I have some idea now. Like FelixG said, I guess you can still pick up controversial games more expensively from neighbouring countries or overseas, which is better than nothing.

Oh, sure we can. But Dead Island kinda sorta proved it wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[Bindal]

Not much of a loss if it's similar to the original game as that was dull as hell and the PC-Port really had some issues (e.g. low FoV)...
I think, we can survive without it.

Regarding the GoW-argument: There is a difference between "Aliens" and "Zombies" - former, even as close as they are to humans in GoW from a physical point of view (two arms, two legs, ect...), they are NOT humans, period. Zombies, even not "actual" humans can be seen as such to some degree (or maybe even mistaken for one). THERE is the difference.

 

[Legion]

"The game isn't that good, so the archaic censorship laws are okay this time" is what I am getting from half of the replies.

So it's okay for people who want to play it to get screwed over by people with immature and backwards thinking, because it's not a product that you personally would enjoy?

It isn't about the game, it's about the fact that people are not allowed to buy it for nonsensical reasons. Killing fictional zombies is not going to cause you to suddenly have the urge to become a mass murderer. Games such as Gears of War are more likely to be damaging because although the enemies are non-human the violence is a lot more casual, and a lot more glorified.

 

[Bindal]

"The game isn't that good, so the archaic censorship laws are okay this time" is what I am getting from half of the replies.

So it's okay for people who want to play it to get screwed over by people with immature and backwards thinking, because it's not a product that you personally would enjoy?

It isn't about the game, it's about the fact that people are not allowed to buy it for nonsensical reasons. Killing fictional zombies is not going to cause you to suddenly have the urge to become a mass murderer. Games such as Gears of War are more likely to be damaging because although the enemies are non-human the violence is a lot more casual, and a lot more glorified.

Guess what: Nobody stops them from buying it! If they want to buy it, they can buy it - just not in stores directly.
Want to buy it on Amazon UK? Alright, do it.
Gift via Steam? Fine.
Went over to Austria and bought a retailcopy there? Okay.

People, who are interested in the game already know about it because of pages like this, gaming magazines, ect. And people, who are not might still stumble over those articles (if they would buy it or not probably wouldn't affect it) as it is a VERY VERY small amount of people, who SPONTANIOUSLY decide to buy a 50? game they see in a store, that this loss is unnoticable.



Also, I don't see how "Gears of War" glorifies violence while Dead Island does not. Either they do it both, or neither. Just in different ways.