We all have experienced those games in our life that bring us Joy, happiness, sadness, anxiety, as well as other emotions that make us remember the special moments in games. Well, developers of this generation and with the technology included, are now able more than ever to create games than can involve almost anything and everything you can and cannot imagine! Regarding the topic of “censorship” can be a very touchy and sensitive subject when it comes to the actual substance in video games.
Developers of course have their set vision for a game when making it from pre-production all the way through to post production and releasing the product to the market. However the reality of the situation is that there are just some games that cannot be presented to the public as it is too unpleasant and not suitable for the community to experience. It doesn’t matter if the censorship is justified or to say what’s fair from what’s not, the matter is that some games just have to be pulled off the shelves and cannot be presented to the public due to the explicit or strange content that the game has to give. Some of these touchy subject have to do with the genres or subject matters of graphic sex, intolerable violence or intense violence, as well as other miscellaneous ideas related to these two prior ideas. Anyways let’s get to some of these games that were banned and why they got banned!
RAPELAY was developed by Japanese Studio Illusion and was released in 2006. The name already rings a red flag as the game of RAPELAY has you play as a s*xual predator. Not only are you a s*xual predator, but the point or objective of the game is to stalk and have s*x with a mother and her two daughters by r*ping them. RAPELAY was immediately banned in multiple countries after its release and became illegal to sell in Indonesia, Argentina, and New Zealand. However in the United States, it was rated AO meaning that it is possible to get it online but retailers were not allowed to have it in stock.
The second game is manhunt 2 and this is a game developed by famous company Rockstar Games (Studio responsible for GTA franchise). Already with having Grand Theft Auto having its controversy for its extreme violence and language, the game is still able to sell publicly as the actions in the game are not forced as players are free to choose what to do in the game without Rockstar Games forcing them to do so. However for Manhunt 2, the studio took a risk by adding a very extreme amount of gore. This caused a shift in the pushback of the game is New Zealand as well as other nations. The game also was claimed as “refused classification” in the United Kingdom (meaning it didn’t even deserve to be rated). The game ended up being banned in Ireland, Kuwait, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea.
This game was specifically banned in Mexico for the games poor execution of how they displayed the city of Ciudad Juarez in the first opening mission. The mayor of Mexico wasn’t familiar happy with the game’s depiction of Juarez, and so through a little convincing the game was forbidden to be sold in Mexico.
The Portal series drove its reputation into the wall by having their game’s bad sense of humor go a little too far. The amount of violence in this title caused places such as New Zealand to quickly ban the game. There is even a policy that you can fined for $1400 if you’re found with a copy of the game.
Now even though this game was released in 1982 for the Atari 2600, the game’s objective of having you play as a h*rny General trying to poke a Native American woman tied to a pole with your pixelated boner. The game was developed by an adult movie company and having public prob playable did not sit well with certain people. When the game released it caused panic and problems with anti-s*x feminist Andrea Dworkin. Dworkin claimed the game generated the mass gang r*ping of Native American woman. Oklahoma City was the only place to pass a measure of making sales.
Surprisingly this game made the list. Now you must be thinking, who would possibly ban Pokémon and why? Well, that country is none other than Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia banned both electronic and physical copies of the game from entering the country. Apparently Pokémon were considered a threat towards their national security and therefore it needed to be banned. One of the very specific examples why it threatened their national security is because the energy symbol resembles the “Star of David” and is connected to Zionism. Promoting of Zionism is forbidden in multiple Middle Eastern countries and thus is Saudi Arabia.
Mentioned earlier above from Rockstar games, here we have Grand theft auto. Now the country to ban every game from the series is Thailand. They banned it because of a real life incident where a guy stabbed a driver to death instead of paying for his taxi ride. The man blamed Grand Theft Auto for his actions. The government quickly responded by banning all GTA games.
Developed by Electronic Arts in 2006, this game caused controversy by starting off with having a nuclear device detonate and blow up the Three Gorges Dam in Beijing. The destruction of the precious Chinese Landmarks made the government so upset that they issued a ban on the entire series (with this being the seventh installment).
Again from Rockstar Games, this game was banned in Brazil seeing as how the setting of the game would be potentially harmful in a school. Anyone who sells or distributes the game can be fined a total of 1000 Brazilian reals per day!
This game was banned in Denmark. Apparently the game was banned over energy drinks. EA Sports MMA featured advertisements for sugar and caffeine concoctions before bouts. That’s is against the law in that country and thus the game was banned. In game advertisements could’ve been removed but EA decided to just have it banned.
This game was banned in the United States because the company was in violation of child p*rnography statutes. The game rewarded players with FMV footage of young woman taking their shirts off and letting b*obies bounce freely.
That’s it for my post, stay tuned for more amazing content.
Video Games are often threatened with a possibility to get cancelled. There is a tonne of games that would’ve been very successful in the gaming industry, but weren’t, simply because they just got cancelled. I myself have been hyped for games to come numerous times, but in the end, there’s just bitter disappointment. Here’s a list of 10 Cancelled Video Games that could’ve made millions.
TimeSplitters is one of the video games that bring back great memories to every gamer who has ever played them. All three games in the series were great, and Timesplitters 4 would’ve been too, had it been released. Unfortunately, it never was, and the main reasons behind that was Free Radical, being being bought out by Crytek.
Six Days In Fallujah sounded like one of the most awesome games to come when it was announced based on its title alone. This cancelled game from Atomic Games promised the six days to be very eventful, and was set in Iraq. However, it was ultimately cancelled by Konami.
Dirty Harry was set for a release back in 2007. It was rumoured to be set between the original movie, and the sequel Magnum Force. However, The Collective, Inc., who were the developers for the game, eventually, for some reason, thought the game shouldn’t go any further, and after years in development, the project was eventually cancelled.
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