Australia and Germany want to be pussies about videogames, and unfortunately studios are going to have to account for such pussification if they want to sell their games in those territories. Blizzard is one such studio, confirming that the Australian and German versions of Diablo III will be edited in order to comply with strict censorship regulations. As for China? Well, that's another matter entirely.
"Regions like Germany and Australia, we will have to change blood if we’re going to sell there. And that’s fine," says lead designer Jay Wilson. "Those are the standards for those regions, and we don’t really have a problem with catering to what they need and what they want. But China’s going to be hard for us. Because a lot of the restrictions there are really… we may not be able to do them. It may not be possible.
"With our relationship with NetEase, we recently got new information about what China really wants, and it’s a lengthy list. It’s really hard for us to cater to. We’ll try. There’s no reason we wouldn’t want to go there, but there is a certain point where we’d have to redo so much of the game that it’s not viable anymore.
"We could have a lot of trouble with China, but it would be our goal to go there. We haven’t decided what regions we’re going into, obviously. It certainly would be our goal to go there, but we will struggle to go to China."
Blizzard is no stranger to Chinese restrictions, with the government doing what it can to stamp out World of Warcraft. With Germany and Australia, it's same sad story -- gamers out there having to pay more money for less content. It's amazing that, in this day and age, such backwards nonsense still goes on.
Contest:
5:20 PM on 08.25.2009
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Anyway, analyzing the news for what it is...I can't decide if I'm happy for Germany/Australia or not. Happy they'll get their game, but unhappy that it has to come to this. Hopefully the blood is the only significant thing that gets changed, that's no big deal. From the gameplay vids, I kind of thought they were overdoing it anyway.
If the bitch wants to get payed he will.
It's not like lead designers have some affinity for their games like a painter to a painting. The relationship is very different.
ps3 version? what are you smoking? o right...
Since Bliz seems to force b.net on every aspect of games recently. Without local servers I think even if you import the game you got crap performance. Besides, here in China a full price new game usually sells at RMB49-79, which is about USD 8-12.Import at price intended for western can be a burden.
I don't blame our government for video game censorship particularly ....that's because they are a bunch of general douchebags who had done much worse thing
A much bigger problem is the DLC though, like the Versus thing for RE5, which was not released in Germany. As stupid as it sounds, but bypassing country restrictions is actually harder on the net then with real discs.
The third reason is (what MunkyRiver said) that the games are cheaper....cause they had to make a special version = more work and more ppl who will buy it because they have no choice.
and the fourth reason: i think u never heard it, but Quake 4 was so heavy censored..even the whole Level was missing where u have been shaped into a Cyborg..and not only that. the game source code was so different that we germans were not able to play with other ppl of other countries online. very nice, very nice.
Its easy to get for us uncensored games by three common ways:
- ebay.co.uk: advance search> check AVAIABLE to Germany and search ya game.
Ofc there are only english games...but idc..
i do this with every game what was censored, put on the index or banned.
- get it from austria: this is the most expensive way, cause the austrian webshop got higher prices ofc...because they sell versions in german language, but 100% uncut. so...if you cant speak english very well, perfect for you.and thats why our Guvnoment (its a word game: guvno means shit in polish) wants to cut the online trade with Austria.
- Going to ya fave game seller: a friend of mine who has a shop around the next corner here can order me every version of the game..and when i pre-order a US version of a game, i will get it at the same day as the US ppl will get it.
so....Federal Ministry for Families in Germany suck my dick and play with me Postal 2 MP.
This is from ausgamers (a very legitimate source)
"We've contacted Blizzard Entertainment's Australian contingent for further clarification. Let's hope it was just an on-the-spot slip up that lumped us in the same boat as Germany on this one.
Update: Blizzard have let us know that it is indeed a slip up - "Jay was just lead by the question". Diablo 3 shouldn't need any special treatment for the Aussie Classification Board."
Maybe you should research a little Jim? You know, to adhere to journalism standards?
A little bit of following up on the story for clarification would have been good. Cause the news pissed me off (that diablo was getting cut). Finding out it wasn't being cut and was a mess up would have alot of the Aussie community here relieved
And if I had to guess there's a lot of religious references in the game and they could be off-limits too.