Yesterday we mentioned a Destructoid report which said that EA's upcoming space-horror-survival title Dead Space had been banned in Germany, Japan and China. Destructoid sourced the info to Dead Space community manager Andrew Green.

Right away, the story didn't pass our smell test:

• Germany, perhaps. They've been tough on game violence of late. But Japan? The home of Resident Evil?
• Does EA even distribute console games in China (due to piracy concerns)?
• No announcements from the individual censorship bodies of the three nations?
• All three bans come in simultaneously?
• Also of note, Australia's notoriously censorious OFLC cleared Dead Space with MA15+
• And the BBFC, which banned Manhunt 2 in the U.K., cleared Dead Space with 18
• No official press release from EA on the alleged bans?

GP immediately contacted EA, with distinctly unsatisfactory results. The top PR dog didn't respond to our e-mail. Later in the day we tracked down the EA guy who is handling Dead Space PR, and put the question to him in two e-mails and a live phone call. Never got an answer one way or the other. EA doesn't know if one of their high profile titles managed to get banned in three countries? Sorry, not buying that. Or, they know but aren't saying? Unacceptable.

GamePolitics reader Afirejar posted a comment to yesterday's story which argued that the supposed German ban was bogus:

I can confirm for a fact that Dead Space has not been banned in Germany. Under German law it's not possible to ban products before they are actually available. The game isn't out yet, so it can't be banned, it's that simple. It's just not possible under German law.

 

This seems to be nothing more than a marketing stunt, German gaming paper GameStar even has official word from EA, that it's a hoax. The USK ratings process isn't even finished yet.  (Sorry, German only)
 

Later, Videogaming247 cited a German language story by Eurogamer.de, which negates the report of a Dead Space ban in Germany:

Eurogamer.de’s scotched a report that said Dead Space had already been banned in Germany. Basically, it hasn’t.

 

The site’s spoken to EA Germany, and the game is still with the USK [ratings body], apparently, so no one knows yet if there are going to be any restrictions on the horror’s launch.

GP: It's time for EA to put an end to this nonsense. If there is a multi-country ban, gamers deserve to know about it. If there's not, gamers deserve to stop having their chains yanked...

UPDATE: Hey, I want to point out that I'm not faulting Destructoid here. They were not the only outlet reporting this, just the first. If the info is wrong, it seems that it somehow originated with the community managers of Dead Space.

The Edmonton Journal reports that a pair of Canadian teenagers have been barred from playing violent video games after they pleaded guilty to killing a family cat by placing it in a microwave.

The boys, now 16, were placed on probation for one year, must perform 100 hours of community service, will see a therapist, can't stay out later than 9 p.m. and must pay $250 in restitution. The grisly killing of the elderly cat named Princess followed a Christmas holiday break-in and vandalism rampage at a local home.

GP: Clearly, these are troubled kids. But what did video games have to do with it? Why the game ban? That's not so clear:

According to court ordered psychological asessments, video games were not found to have directly encouraged the boys' actions. But barring their access to such games was nonetheless a recommendation put forward in the assessments. It was also suggested that the teens' cellphone access be limited to work and calls to family. But youth court Judge Shauna Miller said that condition would have served no purpose.

 

Two more suspects have declined to plead guilty and have trials pending.

CTV has more on the original crime...

THANKS TO: GP reader Georg Zoeller for the tip!

Perhaps the video game industry is taking environmental concerns raised by Greenpeace last year to heart?

According to Walmart’s official blog, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and a few publishers such as EA and Activision recently attended a green gaming summit where they discussed various ways to be more environmentally friendly.  Here are a few suggestions reported by Joe Muha, Walmart’s gadgets and gaming guy:

• Switching to cardboard packaging would be like taking almost 4,000 cars off the road in terms of equivalent green house gas emissions. 
• Working with console manufacturers on coding and power usage design can reduce the power consumption when we use our devices for media playback. 
• Focusing on the next generation of consoles would allow the machines to be built from the ground up to use less power while providing an even better experience. 
• Developing software and hardware that allows us to save the game so we do not have to leave it on would allow us to turn it off during a meal break or overnight without loosing our place. Additionally, come clever programming would allow the console to go into a lower power, standby mode when not in use.

Muha elaborates on the game save issue in his blog’s comments section:

Not every game allows us to save whenever we would like. We even discussed the idea of an "autosave" if the game is left alone after a set period of time and the console would go to a low power mode.

Via: Kotaku

-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics Correspondent Andrew Eisen

Police in Watertown, Wisconsin believe that an attempt to imitate Halo may have played a role in the death of an 11-year-old boy from an accidental gunshot.

As reported by the Watertown Daily Times, Joshua Nimm apparently took the day off from school to do some gaming:

[Police] said it appeared... that after playing a combat video game called “Halo,” Nimm took the gun and tried to recreate some of the things that had occurred in the game. With an automatic rifle, [Sgt.] Lee said there can sometimes be confusion over whether it contains a magazine or not, and this confusion likely led to Nimm's death.

 

“He took the magazine out and forgot to eject a round that was in the chamber. He probably thought the gun was unloaded,” Lee said.

The other day I called out God of War creator David Jaffe for a vlog in which he referred to Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin as "the perfect definition of a MILF." (see: God of War Designer David Jaffe Reduces Sarah Palin Candidacy to Lowest Common Denominator).

Apparently, Jaffe took notice - and took the heat. He has posted a new video which addresses the MILF issue:

There's this website out there, pretty good website in terms most of the content it covers. Pretty smart and I'm glad it's out there. But it was like... this accusatory tone of me being sexist or crass when I called Sarah Palin a MILF. I'm like, Oh my, god! ...Your Victorian sensibilities are very easily offended... I'm not sexist. I have two little girls. I respect and love women. I think we're all pretty much equal...

 

And I think that's just really f*cking nit picking and ultra-politically correct to the point of just being absurd to assume that because I look at a woman and I say the only thing I can see she's good for is f*cking... It's not sexist because I'm not saying that's what I see in all women when I look at all women. I'm saying when I look at her, that's the only redeeming quality I can find in her...

While I concur with Jaffe's position that there are more questions than answers about Sarah Palin, he and I will have to disagree on this one. Referring to Palin in public statements as a MILF reduces her - reduces any woman - to the level of a sex object.

I certainly don't think he's a bad guy - far from it. But Jaffe needs to realize that the level of candor which may be acceptable in a frat house or local pub doesn't play quite so well when delivered as public, on-the-Net-forever commentary. As the head of a respected game design studio, Jaffe has employees (some of whom may be women) who could be offended. He has key business relationships with corporate types who by nature are not eager to hand a ready-made issue to special-interest groups. Is that politically correct? To an extent, sure. But that's the nature of business today.

Beyond that, however, there's just something wrong about reducing a woman to the sum of her body parts.

Video game columnist Dave Davies of the San Antonio Express has tongue firmly planted in cheek as he ticks off a quartet of video games that he says can increase one's understanding of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin.

In what amounts to a series of micro-reviews, he writes:

Before we jump to conclusions about Palin, we should get to know her a little better — walk a mile in her snowshoes. Video games can help us do that.

By way of powering up your Palin I.Q., Davies suggests the following games:

The Deadlist Catch (360):  According to her official biography, Palin worked with her husband, Todd, on a commercial fishing boat. So playing the game you can see what tough work this is. And playing this game is a lot like work.

 

Kawasaki Snowmobiles (Wii): Todd Palin is the five-time champion of the world's longest snowmobile race... So what's it like to be a snowmobile champ? Play the game  and find out — not! Even with all the distractions, Palin's political career is having an easier time staying on track than the snowmobiles in this simulation.

 

Cabela's Alaskan Adventures (PS2): Sarah Palin loves to shoot her some of that moose and you can, too...Despite Sony's promise of backward compatibility, this game did not run on my PS3 — but I've still got the PS2.

 

Arctic Tale: Palin doesn't want federal protection for the polar bears and she doesn't believe in global warming. But if we could get her to play this game, she might change her mind.

This picture just showed up in an e-mail from Jack Thompson.

There was no explanation, other than the subject line:

First feeder bands from Hurricane Ike hit Miami!

Color me confused. Is the man growing a sense of humor? Learning PhotoShop?

Maybe it's symbolism: the pole represents his law license. The hurricane is the Florida Bar and he's trying to hang on...

UPDATE: So it appears that Thompson may be preparing for a second career (you never know when you might need one of those)... as a weatherman.

In a followup e-mail Thompson claims that US news organizations are underreporting the upcoming Hurricane Ike because it's not as sexy as the recent Gustav, which threatened both New Orleans and the Republican National Convention. Even his BFFs at Fox are guilty, says Thompson (now is that any way to get air time?).

Cnet's Declan McCullough reports that former Minnesota Vikings star Cris Carter was on hand at the Republican National Convention this week to hype Financial Football. The free game, created by Visa and the NFL, is designed to teach money management skills to young adults.

Said Carter:

Young people need to know how to make smart money management decisions before heading off to college and entering the workforce.

Former Broncos receiver Rod Smith performed similar duties at the DNC in Denver last week.

In addition to the PC version, Financial Football is a free D/L to mobile phones. Text the word VISA to 24421.

In an article titled, Who Is The Gamer's Candidate?, Edge Online has recapped the positions of both parties' presidential tickets as they relate to video games.

It's good to know that none of the four candidates have ever gotten behind a video game ban, although Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin gave consideration in the past to censoring books. Of the four, Barack Obama has said and done the most in regard to games.

While the EO piece offers no new information, it is a worthwhile summary.

A member of Great Britain's Parliament had harsh words for Electronic Arts after a marketing stunt for Mercenaries 2 gridlocked her district during the morning rush hour.

Hoping to draw attention to the game, EA gave away £20,000 of fuel at a station in North London. The Telegraph reports on the ensuing traffic jam:

A petrol station which gave away free fuel has been temporarily shut down after motorists flocking to its pumps caused traffic chaos...

 

Norman Tidiman, from Hackney... said: "I saw a girl who stopped because she wasn't going to make the lights, and the man in the car behind her got out his car and started to bully her.

 

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone (left) was not pleased with EA:

Whilst a lucky few might have got some free petrol, hundreds of local residents have faced misery on their daily journeys this morning. They deserve an apology for being the victims of such an ill-thought out media stunt...

 

Trying to recreate Venezuelan-style fuel riots on the streets of London is completely irresponsible and downright dangerous...

An EA rep told the Telegraph that police ultimately shut the event down as too disruptive. Mercs 2, of course, is set in Venezuela, where petroleum is a huge economic force. As in a similar event held in Los Angeles last week, the station was decorated to match the theme of the game.

The BBC has more, including a video report.

Citing comments made by a Dead Space community manager, Destructoid reports that EA's upcoming sci-fi horror game has been banned in China, Japan and Germany:

We've also been told by Dead Space community manager Andrew Green that the title has been completely banned from the following countries: Germany, Japan, and China. That's right, there's just too much survival and way too much horror in Dead Space for these countries to handle. No word on whether EA has any plans to alter the game for a future release in those territories.

Oddly enough, in the U.K., the BBFC has rated Dead Space an 18, while quick-to-censor Australia has awarded it an MA15+. We're still checking with the ESRB, but GameStop's website is displaying an "M" on Dead Space packaging.

GP: I'm having a little trouble digesting this one. It's not hard to believe Germany would ban Dead Space, as they have been fairly quick on the censorship trigger of late. However, given that Japan is the home of Resident Evil, a ban on a survival horror game would be surprising. Also, I'm not even certain that EA distributes console titles in China, due to the piracy issues there. We have a request in to EA to confirm...

Are Nico Bellic and Liberty City coming to the Wii?

Take-Two CEO Ben Feder (left) wouldn't say yes and wouldn't say no during yesterday's conference call to discuss T2's third quarter financial results. As reported by MCVUK, here are Feder's comments:

With respect to GTA Chinatown I will tell you that we’ve spent an enormous amount of time and effort working with Nintendo and developing that partnership. We’re very proud of the partnership that we have to date.

 

We continue to build that relationship. We think we have significant value to add to that partnership and that’s not a one-way relationship in any way. GTA Chinatown Wars is not even the first step but certainly an important step in continuing to develop that relationship.

 

So without commenting on whether GTA specifically whether it is coming to the Wii or not, I will say that Nintendo and Take-Two work very well together. Nintendo and Rockstar are beginning to work well together and we intend to continue to grow that relationship.

GTA Chinatown, of course, is the DS title revealed by Nintendo at E3. No release date has been specified.

Any decision to move GTA to the Wii would likely be based on technology as opposed to residual queasiness over Nintendo's "family friendly" image. After all, the Wii has already been graced with Manhunt 2. The controversial Madworld is in the pipeline.

From a tech perspective, it would seem quite the challenged to get, say, GTA IV on the Wii, given the system's limited storage capacity. So perhaps if the GTA franchise does make it to the Wii, it will be a system-specific title.

Full transcript of T2 conference call graciously provided by Seeking Alpha.

Yesterday GamePolitics reported on the European's Parliament's call to reduce gender stereotyping. While not exclusively focused on video games, the EP did give games and digital media a specific rap on the knuckles.

Over at Ars Technica, Ben Kuchera also covered the story, but seemed to regard the EP's conclusions as somewhat overstated:

Sexist and degrading imagery is common in all forms of media, but this report is coming a little late for video games. As the acceptance of gaming as a hobby grows, so does the width of games made available, including games that treat women with respect instead of seeing how large their breasts can be rendered and what the minimum amount of clothing is necessary to cover them.

 

The study should not be belittled, nor should the sentiments behind it, although it reads more like an act of political pandering than anything else. The truth remains that, in a movie rental establishment and a video game store, it's just as easy to find games that treat women well as films, and that should be applauded. 

Approaching the issue from the feminine perspective, however, the author of the PixiePalace blog sees things differently:

I think [the EP action is] awesome and well overdue. I wish our government here in the United States would ask for something like that... I don’t think I think [the game biz has] made as much progress as [Kuchera] does. Where I really take issue with him is his claim that videogames are no worse than movies in this area... If you walk into a video store, it’s pretty easy to find a movie that portrays women pretty well. They’re the movies that are marketed to women...

 

If you walk into a videogame store, you’re going to have a harder time finding a game with the same qualities in gender portrayal. First, you have to find a game with female characters, which is not always as easy as it sounds. Then, you have to find one where they are both realistically shaped and clothed. This is extremely difficult, especially if the box art is most of what you have to go on. Finally, you need a character with depth. This is very hard. Even if her whole story revolves around the men in the game, she must stand alone as a person and be believable or she’s little more than cardboard. It’s a rare find in a videogame. Alex Vance is one in a million. Portal is downright unique...

Fallout 3 has been cleared for sale in the U.K. with no content edits required.

That's the word from the British Board of Film Classification, which yesterday stamped the much-anticipated Bethesda title with an 18 rating, meaning that it can legally be sold to those of that age and older.

Curiously, a "consumer advice" note posted with the rating decision does not mention the drug use which got Fallout 3 banned in Australia earlier this year. The only reference to content is "Contains very strong bloody violence and gore."

The BBFC, currently embroiled in a power struggle for control of U.K. game ratings, is best known to gamers for the outright ban it placed on Manhunt 2 last year. That decision was later overturned by Britain's High Court.

Business Week reports that Tecmo, uneasy with the prospect of being acquired by much larger Square Enix, has sought refuge in the arms of fellow small publisher Koei:

When Japanese video game developer Square Enix unveiled its "friendly" offer to buy rival Tecmo last week, analysts and investors applauded. The two companies seemed a natural fit: Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series had a huge following among diehards in Japan, while Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive fighting games were popular in the U.S. and Europe. To sweeten the deal, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada pledged to preserve the Tecmo brand. He gave Tecmo's management a week to think it over.

At the deadline, Tecmo told Square Enix "thanks, but no thanks," and said it was exploring a merger with Koei. From the report:

Tecmo didn't give a reason for going with Koei. But size appears to have been one issue: Rather than getting swallowed up, Tecmo may have wanted something closer to a marriage of equals...

 

Industry executives say Japan's midsize game developers are prime takeover targets. Many of them have a strong record at home but limited exposure overseas. A suitor with a worldwide network—particularly in the U.S. and Europe—could take a niche Japanese developer stuck in a stagnant market and create a global mainstream franchise.

This one's not over, at least not yet. Square Enix has asked Tecmo to explain how Koei's deal was better for shareholders than its offer and may continue its pursuit of Tecmo.