Germany has very stringent laws against the depiction of ultra violence in media, including video games, but isn't all that worried about sex. The USA doesn't mind violence, but having any sex in it can kill a video game there, because many retailers don't carry "Adult Only" rated games. Being European myself I have an easier time understanding the German position, after all you'll probably want your children to have sex one day when they are grown up, but you'll don't want them to decapitate people at any age. :) Anyway, via Joystiq I read of Funcom's official announcement that Age of Conan would ship in different versions, censored according to the sensitivities of the different markets. So Germans will get a version of AoC gold without decapitation, while Americans get a version of AoC gold without nipples. Living in Belgium apparently I have the right to see decapitated females *with* nipples. Isn't freedom of speech a wonderful thing?

[EDIT: Apparently Funcom accidentally sent their uncensored version with nipples to the ESRB and got away with a Mature rating, so nipples (but not full nudity) are in the US version. But that might not matter. Leaked info from the beta (via Common Sense Gamer) says that Age of Conan is currently so bad, even Britney Spears in full frontal nudity couldn't save the game.]
- posted by Tobold @ 1:37 PM Permanent Link  Links to this post
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Funcom have announced that their upcoming MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will be censored for...wait for it...the German market. The German version won't feature excessive violence, such as dismemberment and copious amounts of gore. It will, however, be the only edited version: contrary to reports from earlier today, the US version of the game will ship uncensored, and that includes lady-nipples. As for classification, it's got an M rating in the US, while it'll carry an 18+ rating in Europe