14 DAY TRIAL // The idiocy of videogame banning is still alive and well. Just a short while after having reported that Fallout 3 could be banned from sales in Australia because of its drug references, it seems that another long awaited title, Dead Space, could be banned in China, Japan and, most surprising of all, Germany.
Andrew Green, who is a community manager at Electronic Arts, said that the game was reviewed in those countries by the respective authorities and that it was considered to be too violent to be sold in retail stores.
Electronic Arts games have not, traditionally, been targeted because of the levels of violence they display, as the company usually tries to make its products interesting to all age groups. But Dead Space, which is part of the company's new strategy of promoting original intellectual properties, is described as a space survival horror title and the gameplay features some dismemberment and a lot of creepy creatures which die in pools of their own blood.
Electronic Arts has got two ways to deal with this. On the one hand, it can try and censor the game so that it adheres to the violence levels that the authorities consider appropriate. The game would need to be modified and then re-submitted for reviews, which will probably take a lot of time. On the other hand, they could say that Dead Space would not be offered for retail in Japan, China and Germany, much to the dismay of gamers.
The game was initially scheduled to be released on October 31 but Electronic Arts said that development was done and that the release would be pushed to an earlier date so that gamers can enjoy Dead Space before Halloween. The new release date is October 14 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and October 20 for the PC.