Another game bitest the dust in Germany - Cliver Barker's Jericho

[Zeus]

According to a German news outlet, Codemasters upcoming Cliver Barker's Jericho has been denied a release in Germany by the official ratings board due to what they describe as brutal scenes. As a result, this title will not even be available in the region to purchase from retailers, nor the internet and banned from promotion and advertisements.


It's a fact. Horror author and director Clive Barker knows splatterpunk like Mario knows plumbing. Whether we're talking about Pinhead eviscerating some hapless individual with this flesh chains or some Irish psychic witch hunter exorcising ghosts and toying with Black Magic, when you're talking Clive, you're talking blood.

No surprise, then, to learn that upcoming 'Marines vs creepies in a dark crypt' shooter Clive Barker's Jericho might just be a little too graphic for Germany. As German news outlet Heise confirms (in German) the upcoming Codemasters release has been officially denied a rating by the USK -- the German version of the ESRB -- on account of "brutal scenes".

As a result, the game will be unavailable for purchase at retail, unavailable for Internet purchase and even unavailable for promotion and advertisement. In fact, if you live in Germany, the only way you're getting near this game is if you happen to own a PC and can prove you're 18 to some shadowy back-alley vendor. For its part, Codemasters has declined to modify the gore content for a German release, stating that they would prefer to "respect the creative vision of author and film producer Clive Barker."


News Source: <A href="http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163187" target="_blank">1UP</a>

[miserabillis]

is germany THIS strict? any1 of you live there?

[XxBigP123xX]

they can kill over 6 million people but cant have a violent game!?!?!?

[StoneCut]

they can kill over 6 million people but cant have a violent game!?!?!?

Ignorant fool !

Has it ever occured to you that laws in Germany are this strict because of that ?

And yes, I live in Germany.

[mozzer999]

By some cruel irony their strict censorship could make them a fascist state, whilst trying to avoid becoming a fascist state.

Then again, they let Hitler be chancellor and that ballsed things up.

All I know is that i always want to watch\read\play anything that has been banned.

I am waiting for uncut wii manhunt 2 to be released on the newsgroups :)

[Trashcat]

is germany THIS strict? any1 of you live there?
Yes it is as bad and retarded as it sounds. You could still buy Gears but no German media was allowed to even mention the title by name, also I heard police removed Dead Rising from the stores after it was rated for the 2nd time.

[MadMax31]

LOL, at least they can play viva piñata :D (or is it too violent :confused:)

[So-Unreal]

Does Jericho mean anything? And does this have anything to do with that TV Show Jericho?

[miserabillis]

Does Jericho mean anything? And does this have anything to do with that TV Show Jericho?

Jericho is originally a Hebrew word meaning MOON because of the city that they worshiped the moon deity in

the game:

Before Adam and Eve were created, God fashioned the Firstborn. Neither light nor dark, both terrible and beautiful to behold, it disturbed the Almighty who banished this flawed creation into the Abyss. There, it waited and watched until it was able to reach out with its power into our world. Seven Sumerian priests met its arrival and fought to contain it, successfully entombing the place of its escape within a great ziggurat. Ever since that time, there would always be a secret order that would train seven warriors to await the Firstborn's attempts to escape. They would always disappear into the ruined city of Al Khalid that had been built atop this bedrock of strife and somehow succeed in banishing the Firstborn back to the Abyss. However, none of these teams have ever returned from their mission.

The Firstborn would make four attempts to escape, each time taking back a piece of the earth to add to its domain. Fragments of time and space would form layers around Al Khalid, entrapping pieces of history within its walls from the time of the ancient Sumerians to World War II. Over time, other conquerors would arrive to claim the city as their own but eventually, the city was forgotten and buried by the sands around it.

The Department of Occult Warfare was created in the 1930s to combat the unexplained and meet Nazi Germany's own research into the paranormal. One of their most brilliant members, Arnold Leach, was recruited in 1962. However, his unscrupulous behavior and nature would eventually have him expelled. He was marked for assassination, and although the operation appeared to be successful, it seems he may have survived.

[firaX]

I am from Germany, and while i agree that our agencies are getting a bit too strict and are going overboard, let me allow to make a stupid comment too, as some of the ppl earlier:

Germany is that strict about violence to avoid things from happening, that are happening in the USA. Thats also why we cant go into a shop and buy guns etc. Some people call it restriction, some call it protection, some countries are too lax, and some are too strict.
We actually had a college shooting as well, a few years ago, and after that people went super sensitive about anything violent in media.
Do gamers care? No, ppl who wants the game get the game, its quite easy, most game shops simply carry UK or AT versions that anyone above 18 can buy. It's not as bad as it sounds really.

Edit: Just read the 1up source again, they have no idea... As i said you dont need to go into a back alley to get games that got denied a rating...god. Everyone i know was perfectly able to buy gears of war when it came out, and that got denied too. It really only affects people that dont know how to enter a game store and get all their games from a shopping center or so.

[Slowking]

Games that get a "keine Jugendfreigabe" e.g. 18+ can be freely sold in Germany. They just aren't allowed to advertise it or put it on shelves. The customer has to go to the person at the counter and ask for it / write an email to the online shop. It's that simple and a much better solution than to cut/edit games just to achieve a 16 rating, imho.


PS: A game would be banned if it would be "indiziert" but that hasn't happened, afaik, since Mortal Combat 2

[schawur]

they can kill over 6 million people but cant have a violent game!?!?!?

We learnd and paid untill today for our mistakes. And idiots like you made it difficult for us to be proud of our nationality.

[Slowking]

I wonder if he's american. I mean they have their very own Konzentrationslager on Kuba right now...

[grapeape]

I am from Germany, and while i agree that our agencies are getting a bit too strict and are going overboard, let me allow to make a stupid comment too, as some of the ppl earlier:

Germany is that strict about violence to avoid things from happening, that are happening in the USA. Thats also why we cant go into a shop and buy guns etc. Some people call it restriction, some call it protection, some countries are too lax, and some are too strict.
We actually had a college shooting as well, a few years ago, and after that people went super sensitive about anything violent in media.
Do gamers care? No, ppl who wants the game get the game, its quite easy, most game shops simply carry UK or AT versions that anyone above 18 can buy. It's not as bad as it sounds really.


When I was a kid my family was stationed in West Germany (that was back before the fall of the berlin wall), frankly you wont meet a more remorseful country in the world. If anything the people there tended to punish themselves constantly over the wrongs of prior generations. I did find that some of the restrictions put in place to "protect" tended to have the opposite effect on some people who took it as oppression rather than protection...the skin heads were becoming a big problem when I was there, hopefully its better now. Oddly enough they seem to suffer from the same problem as Israel but from the opposite end. In my own military career I was stationed in Haifa Israel and found that it had similar issues with moving beyond their history. While I agree its not something that should ever be forgotten, to make the horrible events of the past the cornerstone of your society tends to have a repressing effect on the future.

[Zilluss]

the skin heads were becoming a big problem when I was there, hopefully its better now.

Yeah Skinheads are still there (much lower quantity than in the 80's and 90's) but they are the fools of the media and everyone. It's just like every country has it's people who blame someone else for their poverty or anything alike.

Still back to topic, I feel like I'm in some communistic country that tells me what I'm allowed to see and what not. What's the matter banning games from being mentioned so nobody knows about them? It's kind of ridicolous that there are two ratings for people of legal age. The one is allowed to remain in shop windows and so on and the other one mustn't be mentioned. Still you can buy games rated in either rating only if you're 18

[majin]

OMFG damn man total bullshit whats happening there. It must suck big time if you like games and live in Germany.

[slammerjam]

It does suck. So you basically have two options: you buy the German game und download the International and use the German key (works with Bioshock). Or you order it from the UK, Austria or whatever. It's not really a problem but it is damn annoying that you cannot go into a store and buy the uncut, if you don't live an big city like Munich with the nice little game shops.

[Trashcat]

It does suck. So you basically have two options: you buy the German game und download the International and use the German key (works with Bioshock). Or you order it from the UK, Austria or whatever. It's not really a problem but it is damn annoying that you cannot go into a store and buy the uncut, if you don't live an big city like Munich with the nice little game shops.
German versions are **** anyway if its not censored the translation is still crap. Like the time I bought Final Fantasy X in German worst piece of **** ever, never bought a translated RPG ever since.

[So-Unreal]

PC demo http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/49159