Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Age of Conan censored versions by country

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 without decapitation, while Americans get a version of AoC 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.]

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