Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi Black Market

Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi Black Market

August 10, 2008

Kotaku reports that PlayStation 2 favorite God of War 2, officially banned by Saudi authorities, is available for purchase on the black market.

In fact, a Saudi reader even describes the process to Kotaku in great detail. It seems that a local mall peddles GoW2 discs concealed inside shrinkwrapped boxes for other games. In the instance described, GoW2 was covered up by box art showing Winning Eleven 7, a several years-old soccer sim. (see pic)

GP: It's nice to see that Saudi gamers aren't totally limited in their choices. And we hope that the store clerk still has possession of his thumbs now that this info is public.

 

Comments

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

That is genious. :D

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Hey, that's a clever trick. Let's hope the Saudi government is none the wiser now that Kotaku has revealed this info.

But I can only imagine the black market deals... buy two copies of God of War 2, and get your choice of an AK47 or an RPG at half-off this Sunday!

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Except I'm fairly certain that a Kalashnikov wouldn't need to be on the black market there... Maybe the RPG-7, but not the Kalashnikov.

Here they come...

Careful, I think I hear the PC police coming

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

And no one notices that Jacky Boy is just like them banning things in the name of God.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

The reason they banned the game in Saudi Arabia is, well... the Boobs. But no one expects boobs in a 6 year old Football game, noo the boobs would be too pixelatted.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Nice to see gamers are still finding ways to get by, even in a theocratic state controled by Islamic fascists.

Viva la Resistance and all that jazz.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

In Saudi Arabia do female gamers have to have a man play co-op to be able to play XBL?

(they can't go outside without a male escort)

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

In some country in the Middle East, a man divorced his wife for being alone in a room with another man: the tv news reporter

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

 Most likely saudi arabia. They are by far the most repressive of women since the Taliban has come out of power in Afghanistan. Egypt is a close second though, honor killings are still all the rage there.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Just wondering if twatface Thompson tried to get God of War banned because of the tits then cause that would count him as gay.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Not news really. Banning something can never work 100%, and can only make the product more attractive to people. A ban will always result in a lucrative black market, and protects nobody.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

well, bans CAN discourage people from seeking out the product if the penalty is stiff enough, but otherwise what you say is true (and, really, how stiff a penalty can you possibly have for owning a 2-3 year old game with a 30-second-long nudity sequence?)

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

(and, really, how stiff a penalty can you possibly have for owning a 2-3 year old game with a 30-second-long nudity sequence?)

death.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Exactly what would happen if a certain soon to be ex-lawyer's wet dreams came true. Prohibition anyone?

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Ugh don't mention that twatface but yeah I'll feel sorry for you guys in the US...

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi
Ha ha ha! Cut off their thumbs! Just like how gamers kill people lol amirite?
Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

This is what we'd have to do in the US if most of the anti game politicians had their way.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Exactly. Outlawing something won't eliminate it, just make it go underground. It happened with prohibition, it will happen with this

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Err I'm not so sure about that.

See alcohol is kinda easy to make and the demand for it is a lot higher than video games. I don't think whole groups of programmers will go underground for months and years to deliver a product.

The only way it could work is if you smuggle it from a country where it is legal, which was also done in prohibition.

Funny thing is that according to the history channel when we banned alcohol Canada altered it's own ban on alcohol so that you could produce it only if you were going to export it (like say to U.S. smugglers).

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Actually it would be pretty easy for programmers to release PC games, It'd be easy for them to distribute underground indy games. May not be big budget games like are out now, but games would get released.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

And I will save enough money and kill off the jerk that started this nonsense... "points to Jack Thompson"

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Don't say that he'll take it as a threat (or at least tell the police he felt threatened).

That is unless jack thompson's decides not to be a jerk.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

I personally don't care what the prick thinks

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Sides I would be too broke to even go there and security is a right bastard atm, sides if he leaves the States to go after me then I can outsmart him (like it's hard)

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

 Ya rly. Besides, JT has nothing to do with this, this is just typical religious zealot BS. Like how the Taliban allowed no games of any kind (even golf).

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Sneaky as usual. This reminds me of the recent EGM interview with Kenji Eno. He would sometimes repackage the game in a way that made it through the censors.

It was done with one of his controversial games, D. There were some cannibalistic scenes in it that would normally be censored out. However, he intentionally missed the deadline to submit the master copy of the game for review, so that he can submit it himself by hand.

He turned in a clean copy which was approved, then he had to go bring it to the US to send to 3DO (the company of the console to be released on), where he made a switcheroo with the clean and uncut discs during the flight. The uncut copy was submitted to 3DO and it was put into production.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

And in the less blackmarket friendly countries get the games and distribute themmore easily, so what have we laerned? banning dose not work.

I is fuzzy brained mew =^^=
http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/
(in need of a bad overhaul)

 

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

Fuck Saudi Gamers.  If they're too stupid or lazy to change their country's draconian ideals about freedom of speech, or leave, then fuck em.  Let them stay stuck in the dark ages.

 

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

You do know that Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, right? It's not like the people have much choice of what passes as laws.

And if some Saudis do wish for a revolution, it's not stupidity that's keeping them from overthrowing the government. It's fear of being punished by the government (to the point of death).

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

first

it's not easy to change a law in any country....especily if the law is quoted from a religon...

second

WoW....you really are stupid....i mean you suck even in writing....and the writing is the easiest way to expres your self with out making a fool of your self cuz you don't need to think fast what are you gonna say  next like in real lifeConversation...you can take your time and write a smart thing even if you're as stupider then a rock...

that mean you are stupider then a guy that he's stupider then a rock....

wow...Congratulations you took the stupidity to a new level...achivment unlocked....

 

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

very nice sites.good.

Basically, the way things are going. Will be ankara nakliyat nice too bee ankara evden eve nakliyat bu sekildeki yerle evden eve nakliyat yapmaları icin evden eve nakliyat sizlerde bu tip çalışma yapmak isterseniz ankara nakliyat başvurabilirsniz. Saç ekimi olması gereken lazer epilasyon ve bububn yanısıra merkezde burun estetiği olmak yanıbasında saç ekimi olması gereken sizlerde saç ekimi  saç ekimi merkezleri ankara evden eve yapmakla beraber.Tüp bebek merkezleri olmakla beraber ...

very nice sites.good.very nice sites.good.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi

I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area.  If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi ...

Thanks good job;

Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because  these guys have done nothing travesti or little and need to start saving costs. and dizi izle

YES.

Now I don't have to get off my ass for the important shit anymore!

Whats next, ordering pizza from Xbox live?

Wait... I think that sounds like a good idea.

But I think voting should MAKE you get off your ass, and see outside or a second while you go vote. I mean, your picking the president of the United States of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there and punch out a card.

Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi ...
Re: Officially Banned, But God of War digiturk

Thanks good job;

Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly digiturk because  these guys have done nothing digiturk başvuru or little and need to halı yıkama start saving costs. and ankara halı yıkama

YES.

Now I don't have to get off my ass for the important shit anymore!

Whats next, ordering pizza from izmir nakliyat Xbox live? izmir evden eve nakliyat

Wait... I think that sounds like a good idea.

But I think voting should MAKE you get off your ass, sürücü kursu and see outside or a second while you go vote. I mean, your picking the president of the United States sürücü kursları of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there and punch out a card.


Re: Officially Banned, But God of War 2 Available on Saudi ...

I mean, your picking the president of the United States of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there ankara nakliyat and punch out a card. ankara evden eve nakliyat ve nakliyat firmaları

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:05am
JDKJ: I'm no psychologist, but I'm told that crazy people have a tendency to do crazy things.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:03am
chadachada321: Whoops, was out of the convo for awhile. I do wonder what type of ammo he used etc, but the real issue is WHY he did it, not HOW
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:56am
JDKJ: But if it turns out that they actually did, they'll have Hell to pay.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:45am
JDKJ: And I'd tend to rule out the possibilty of FN Herstal supplying restricted ammunition to someone merely because they're ordering it from a military base.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:37am
JDKJ: I know you don't leave your gated community and get around much in dark alleys, so you may be surprised to learn that there's this thing called "the black market" where, if you've got enough money, ain't too much of anything which can't be bought.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:36am
Austin_Lewis: Or, maybe he or someone else at the base ordered the SS190 from FN Herstal.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:32am
Austin_Lewis: the hands of private owners. They run about 300 dollars minimum for a box of 50, and boxes of AP 5.7 are extremely scarce, mainly residing in the hands of Class III stores or individuals who for one reason or another got a demo box of it.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:30am
Austin_Lewis: There are other firearms that fire the 5.7. However, I too would like to know where he got the ammo and what kind was used. Maybe Hasan, planning not to live through this, went out and bought one the boxes of SS190 that are floating around in
Posted 11/07/09 at 08:44am
JDKJ: And it isn't yet clear what type of ammunition Hasan used. It's strange that he purchased a gun but didn't purchase ammunition for it at the same place and time. Especially because the calibre required is peculiar to the actual gun.
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