Holocaust Education Game for Nintendo DS Won't See U.S. Release

UN PERRO HA MUERTO/A DOG HAS DIED.

Mi Perro Ha Muerto.
My dog has died.

Lo enterre en el jardin
I buried him in the garden
junto A una vieja maquina oxidada
next to an old rusted machine.


Alli, no mas abajo,
Over there, no lower
Ni mas arriba
No higher
Se junta conmigo alguna vez
Sometimes he will join me
Ahora el ya se fue con su pelaje
Now he is already gone with his dog hair
Su Mala Educacion, su nariz fria
With his bad manners, and his cold nose.
Y Yo, materialista que no cree
And I, materalistic who does not believe
En el celeste cielo prometido
In the promised divine sky
Para ningun humano,
For no humans
Para este perro o para todo perro
For this dog, or for all dogs
creo en el cielo, si, creo en un cielo
I believe in the heavens, I believe in the sky.
donde yo no entrare, pero el me espera
where I will not enter, but he will wait for me.
Ondulando su cola a de abanico
Waving his fan tail
Para Illego que yo al llegar tenga amistades.
So that that upon my arrival I will already have a friend.

Ay no dire la tristeza en la tierra
Oh I cannot fathom the the sadness on earth
de no tenerlo mas por companero
of not having him any longer as a friend
que para mi jamas fue un servidor
That for me he was never ever a servent.

They could also do a game about the extermination of the tasmanian aborigines

Was there a reason stated that it wont be released? I cant be bothered to sign up to the NYTimes.

Teaching children about history via their own understood media... shocking.
If they stuck a pink pony in it, would it be released?

I love "Life is Beautiful". It was such a great movie.

As for the game, I wonder what Nintendo's reasoning is behind not releasing this game in the US. Is it a developer decision or Nintendo's?

I want to see more games like this. I hope that it does come to US shores.

I must add, that if this is a Nintendo decision, then I am sad to see that they are returning to their NES/SNES demands that strong religious and political themes be removed from American games.

I was sick of games that looked great and came out in Japan and Europe not make it to the US because of Nintendo's fear of ticking off the delicate inds of a minority of Americans.

@E. Zachary

Huh? Nintendo has always taken religious context out of everything in fear of ticking off the MAJORITY. Because people before they started doing that had yelled at christain themes in a game that isnt promoting christainity as sacrilegious

"I was sick of games that looked great and came out in Japan and Europe not make it to the US because of Nintendo’s fear of ticking off the delicate inds of a minority of Americans."

I wonder, what would happen if the powers that be finally thought "F**K" this conservative, know-nothing minority!" and decided to release this game?

That said, I don't see a problem with the theme. I just hope the author plans to cover the Holocaust tastefully.

I agree with GP. Why can't a video game deal with a sensitive issue? I don't believe that movies and books are the only mediums that can delve into difficult social issues or even just use them as a backdrop.

@ E. Zachary Knight

I suspect that a major reason for this is economics. No matter who made this decision they probably fear too few people in America will buy it and there will be major backlash.

Plenty of people think video games are kids things and kids things only. They'll hear of a Holocaust game, do no research, assume its promoting the Holocaust and demand to know why such a game is being marketed towards kids.

Now add in few people buying the game and you have a big lose. They probably fear its a risk, and few big companies will be willing to take that risk first. I can't really blame them. It'd be nice to see the medium evolve, but we'll have to let another company do that.

The DS is region free right? Just import it from Europe.

From Kotaku:

Eds Note: We contacted the game's designer, Luc Bernard. He pointed out that Nintendo of America has yet to see the game.

http://kotaku.com/365711/nintendo-wont-release-holocaust-ds-game-%5Bupda...

From what I'm seeing of the Kotaku article, it looks like Bernard believes that Both Nintendo Europe and NoA will go for the game once he gets a chance to talk to them about, and that's good.

I don't think that it's reactionaries that will try to block this game. The market just isn't there, at least without some clever advertising. If the game is is done how I think it is, it could be used as a very important teaching tool. I know edutainment has done poorly in the past, but it could work, especially if the game is good.

The story also sounds not that dissimilar to a more recent movie, Pan's Labyrinth (aka El Laberinto del Fauno), although that movie dealt with Fascist-occupied Spain in the WWII era and was way darker in tone than Life is Beautiful.

As for the game itself, I think it's factors other than censorship that are keeping the game down for now. For one, Nintendo seems largely unfamiliar with the product and may release it once it learns more. For another, the game could be shelved for economic reasons more than anything. I don't think a substantial number of DS owners crave heavy, more mature games for the system. Casual gamers want more casual games, and hardcore gamers probably have a TV-based console to get their fix. And 'serious' games still aren't that popular - people don't necessarily want to play games as a means of challenging their worldviews. I can't see this title selling very big even if it is released - although it also sounds like a fairly small development project, so it may not have to sell that many in order to break even.

Oh, right, so because it's a 'kiddy system' (notice the statement that this is 'out of the DS's character,' etc.) it shouldn't see the light of day.

IT'S AN EDUCATIONAL GAME. Teens learn about the Holocaust in high school in just as much, if not MORE detail. What the crap do you want?

I suppose Americans will just have to pirate it.

"UPDATE: A piece on gi.biz says that Imagination is only in the early stages of development and has not been blocked for release in either the U.S. or European markets by Nintendo."

This is good to note. In early development, "no plans to make game x available in country y" translates to "We have no bloody idea."

"a far cry from the normal fare written for the Nintendo DS, which tends toward games featuring cute ponies and the like…"

the normal game on the DS features ponies?

@scot

Think there a Petz Horse game out there... can't recall.

And this is any worse than the Medal of Honor series?

That's what I was going to say, but its supposed to be about the character's imaginary world.

Uh, people, read the update.

The game isn't blocked by Nintendo.

@ kurisu :
"...video games can indeed be a good teaching tool."

Most learning games suck. Had to be said.

@ CyberSkull :
"So does this mean they haven’t submitted it to Nintendo for certification or just haven’t approached them yet?"

Nintendo approved it. Move along.

@Cryptic:

Nonono, you're doing it wrong. If you're going to troll like that, you need to pimp stormfront (or some similar site) at some point in your post. Bonus points if you append 14 and/or 88 to your username -- it'll help your authenticity.

I call dibs on the current Palestinian holocaust at the hands of the israeli's game, Oh, and the Indian American holocaust, oh oh and the chinese human rights violation towards Tibet game.

If my games don't get published too, Nintendo will be labeled as a racist organization.