censorship posts

After swirling rumors regarding Fallout 3 potentially missing an Australian release due to drug-related content, a re-submission to the Classifications Board has resulted in Bethesda's post-apocalyptic RPG getting a green light to release in the land down under, but with some of its content edited.

Published by Zenimax Europe Ltd., Fallout 3 will receive an MA15+ rating due to "Strong violence, drug references and coarse language." The extent to which the game's content has been edited is not known. The reevaluation process is known to last several weeks, but it appears as though the Classifications Board made their decision in just a few days.

An edited version of the game was the subject of other recent rumors, and while not ideal, it's certainly better than not receiving Fallout 3 at all.

Vincent Scheurer, founder of business consultancy Sarassin, recently spoke on video game censorship at the Develop Conference & Expo held in Brighton. GameIndustry.biz reports that, according to Scheuer, the costs involved in Rockstar's overturning of the British Board of Film Classification's (BBFC) Manhunt 2 ban were so great, an independent developer wouldn't have been able to foot the bill.

"The costs of the Manhunt 2 ban to RockStar were massive - an independent developer would be out of business," said Scheurer. "It makes the business of making games that much harder."

During his talk, Scheurer revealed the specific reasons behind the BBFC's ban of Rockstar's execution-laden Manhunt 2. Specifically, the game's lack of humor, puzzles and, most importantly, its realism, were what caused the Rockstar title to disappear from stores. With those reasons good enough to prevent players from experiencing Manhunt 2, could a BioShock 2 ban be out of the question?

Not if you ask Scheurer. "The next game to be banned could be BioShock 2, and then where would we be?" Scheurer then lauded Tiga for speaking out against the ban, realizing that more than just Manhunt 2 was on the line: today Manhunt 2... tomorrow, BioShock?

GamePolitics has confirmed that New York Governor David Patterson has signed a video game bill passed by the Senate and Assembly into law. According to a press release received by GamePolitics, the bill, among others, is directly aimed at protecting children. Specifically, the video game bill "establishes an advisory council to conduct a study on the connection between interactive media and real-life violence in minors exposed to such media."

Additionally, the bill also mandates that all video games must feature parental lock-out features by 2010, as well as all retail outlets disclose video game ratings obtained from the industry's ratings system. This particular effort is most likely to cease perpetuation of retailers' reliance on parents to view a game's rating, which is always displayed on the title's packaging.

Obviously concerned with the government treading on their turf, the Entertainment Software Association has issued a response, using Senior VP of Communications Richard Taylor as a mouthpiece. Collectively, the ESA sees the bill as an intrusion that "has ignored legal precedent, common sense and the wishes of many New Yorkers." The ESA believes the bill will end up costing taxpayers even more money, and will "impose unconstitutional mandates for activities and technologies that are already voluntarily in place."

Furthermore, Taylor raises a good point by asserting that the bill unfairly singles out the video game industry out of other forms of entertainment. Too true: Target ceased sales of Rockstar's Manhunt 2 last fall due to gratuitous violence, yet continued selling the Saw movie trilogy.

Taylor closes the ESA's reply by postulating the future of entertainment censorship. Could the government next turn to movies and the oft-censored book? "One wonders where this overreach by government in New York will end," he writes.