Doom Will be Released Uncensored in Germany

[Steven Bogos]

Doom Will be Released Uncensored in Germany

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Bethesda's upcoming Doom reboot will launch uncensored in Germany - a franchise first.

Germany, along with Australia, have a long history of being Doom [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114427-Dead-Island-Banned-in-Germany-But-Nobody-Cares] reboot will launch in the country completely uncensored.

"We're pleased the game can be released in its entirety in Germany without the need to edit or change anything," Bethesda vice president of marketing Pete Hines told Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2016/2/24/11105336/doom-uncut-german-release]. "Perhaps not all that surprising given how other titles have been rated there recently, but still a cool thing to see given that Doom and Doom 2 were banned in Germany and were delisted a few years ago."

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Before recently, uncut games in the Doom series were restricted from sale in Germany, do to being initially banned when they were first released. Bethesda acquired the rights to Doom in 2009, and managed to successfully lift the ban on Doom in 2011.

Fallout 3 was also lifted off the German restricted games list just last week, after Bethesda argued that it wasn't any more violent and gruesome than the recently released Fallout 4 (which wasn't banned).

Either Doom is going to be less violent than we thought, or Germany is finally easing up on its restrictions.

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2016/2/24/11105336/doom-uncut-german-release]

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[mad825]

And yet Half-life 2 is still censored. Germany, you are so not geil.

 

[fractal_butterfly]

And yet Half-life 2 is still censored. Germany, you are so not geil.

That's the strange thing: the laws are very strict and decisions are final. They actually would have to re-evaluate the title to give it a new rating. Which would be "the correct way". Germans like to do things "the correct way" ;-)
They already did it with several older indexed game, among other the first Doom games and the old Wolfenstein. So there actually seems to be some progress.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I guess this means there's no secret Wolfenstein level...

 

[Bindal]

It's not correct that Doom 4 will be the first uncensored Doom in Germany, Doom 3 was also uncensored for sale (but its addon wasn't available at all) and Doom BFG was equally censored worldwide.

Still, good to hear that it's coming.

And yet Half-life 2 is still censored. Germany, you are so not geil.

So is Half-Life 1, but there you can turn off the censorship simply by setting the game and Steam itself to english.

 

[Metalrocks]

that is surprising to hear. they usually censor anything when someone as much gets a paper cut. looks like germany may have noticed how idiotic their policy is. but i better dont hold my breath. the next title could be heavily censored that may less violent than this upcoming doom.

 

[Zhukov]

... and of course games with deceptions of Nazis [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94909-Wolfenstein-Recalled-in-Germany-UPDATED].

Did you mean "depictions"?

 

[Airon]

Thank the evil imaginary gods.

I won't have to jump through hoops to play uncensored games any more. I got Prototype 2 on a sale and had to mess around with patches and play it away from Steam to get an uncensored experience.

I wonder if Steam will convert my Fallout 3 New Vegas low violence version to the normal one now.

 

[Bindal]

Thank the evil imaginary gods.

I won't have to jump through hoops to play uncensored games any more. I got Prototype 2 on a sale and had to mess around with patches and play it away from Steam to get an uncensored experience.

I wonder if Steam will convert my Fallout 3 New Vegas low violence version to the normal one now.

Well, New Vegas Ultimate is uncut, so easiest would be to contact Steam, ask for them to disable the normal key, buy the Ultimate Edition, activate that key (if it's retail) and call it a day.

 

[Thaluikhain]

... and of course games with deceptions of Nazis [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94909-Wolfenstein-Recalled-in-Germany-UPDATED].

Did you mean "depictions"?

Well, games about denying the Holocause would probably be banned as well.

Actually, I don't really have a problem with that.

EDIT: Actually...remember the Doom movie? The one that had to remove all the demons from hell stuff, and just turned it into a super soldier program gone predictable, cause otherwise there'd be a fuss?

 

[Bindal]

Actually...remember the Doom movie? The one that had to remove all the demons from hell stuff, and just turned it into a super soldier program gone predictable, cause otherwise there'd be a fuss?

That was more because Hollywood thought "Movies about demons won't sell" and forced that change.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

How!?! Is is because you don't chainsaw the limbs off people specifically? I mean the new doom is cringe levels of blood and gore and Germany cringes very easy. I imagine this is a case of technicalities.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

How!?! Is is because you don't chainsaw the limbs off people specifically? I mean the new doom is cringe levels of blood and gore and Germany cringes very easy. I imagine this is a case of technicalities.

ID software told them the Demons are from France, and Germany was like 'oh ok, that's cool then'

 

[Steve the Pocket]

And yet Half-life 2 is still censored. Germany, you are so not geil.

Valve is probably just too lazy to appeal.

Valve is too lazy to do a lot of things.

 

[Vigormortis]

This...is quite surprising. I would have expected it to be censored to hell and back.

Valve is probably just too lazy to appeal.

Valve is too lazy to do a lot of things.

So they should go through the process of appealing the rating, probably spending a lot of time (and likely money) to achieve...what? Getting permission to show some blood in a 12 year old game?

That seems like a brilliant use of resources. Fuck all the work they're doing on VR, Vive, Source 2, Unity APIs, Steam, and all of their other software and hardware projects. They should worry about getting blood splatters put back into the German version of Half-Life 2.

... and of course games with deceptions of Nazis [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94909-Wolfenstein-Recalled-in-Germany-UPDATED].

Did you mean "depictions"?

I dunno. Maybe he meant what he said. Perhaps he's referring to games with faux depictions of Nazi's?

I can't really think of any, but there are a LOT of games out there, so who knows?

Clearly Steven does...

 

[PurplePonyArcade]

Odd news, but indeed good news to learn of!

 

[Strazdas]

see, you are saying its going to release uncensored in germany and what i hear is that its going to be censored everywhere to the point that even germans arent taking offense.

Well, games about denying the Holocause would probably be banned as well.

Actually, I don't really have a problem with that.

on the other hand i would really like to see a game explore conspiracy theories that are different than just "muh evul guvernment"

 

[Thaluikhain]

see, you are saying its going to release uncensored in germany and what i hear is that its going to be censored everywhere to the point that even germans arent taking offense.

Well, games about denying the Holocause would probably be banned as well.

Actually, I don't really have a problem with that.

on the other hand i would really like to see a game explore conspiracy theories that are different than just "muh evul guvernment"

Huh, actually yeah. There's some potential there.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

This...is quite surprising. I would have expected it to be censored to hell and back.

Valve is probably just too lazy to appeal.

Valve is too lazy to do a lot of things.

So they should go through the process of appealing the rating, probably spending a lot of time (and likely money) to achieve...what? Getting permission to show some blood in a 12 year old game?

That seems like a brilliant use of resources. Fuck all the work they're doing on VR, Vive, Source 2, Unity APIs, Steam, and all of their other software and hardware projects. They should worry about getting blood splatters put back into the German version of Half-Life 2.

I'm not sure how appealing a legal decision regarding their games (and it's not just the one; pretty much all of their games, including the still-getting-regular-updates TF2, are censored in Germany if I recall) requires the resources of any of their programmers, let alone all of them as you seem to be suggesting. Pretty sure that stuff is the domain of their legal team, who probably have some extra time on their hands now that they don't have to try convincing the EU to let them keep their no-refund policy anymore.

 

[Vigormortis]

I'm not sure how appealing a legal decision regarding their games (and it's not just the one; pretty much all of their games, including the still-getting-regular-updates TF2, are censored in Germany if I recall) requires the resources of any of their programmers, let alone all of them as you seem to be suggesting. Pretty sure that stuff is the domain of their legal team, who probably have some extra time on their hands now that they don't have to try convincing the EU to let them keep their no-refund policy anymore.

Yet, it still wouldn't be worth the time or effort to un-censor a game more than a decade old, just so the German version could have some blood splatter.

The game's well past its prime. It's already sold most of the units it's going to sell. And as there've been workarounds for years, it would be a fruitless endeavor to achieve a goal that virtually no one cares about anymore.

There are more than enough criticisms to levy against Valve nowadays. Not making a request to allow the uncensored version of Half-Life 2 in Germany isn't really one of them.