Far Cry and Crysis developer Crytek has renewed threats to leave Germany if a proposed ban on violent video games is passed. As GamePolitics noted in June, the recommendation by German interior ministers would impose a total ban on the production and distribution of violent games.
Edge Online has comment from Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli (left) on what the unprecedented government action would mean for his company:
A ban on action games in Germany is concerning us because it is essentially like banning the German artists that create them. If the German creative community can't effectively participate in one of the most important cultural mediums of our future, we will be forced to relocate to other countries.
The current political discussion will deprive German talent of its place on the global game development stage, and deprive German consumers of entertainment that is considered safe and fun around the world.
How extreme is the anti-game sentiment in certain quarters of the German government? So extreme that in 2004, a SWAT team raided Crytek's offices. Crytek developer Tim Partlett described the scene:
In 2004 the Bavarian authorities sent in the state troopers... When the small tech team appeared to inspect our computers, they were accompanied by over one hundred flak-jacketed riot police, all armed with Heckler and Koch sub-machine guns.
It was a total overreaction... They arrived first thing in the morning, and kicked down our doors. They even raided the nearby private residences...
I was caught just outside the office... We were all shepherded into our Mo-Cap room, and there we were forced to remain until questioned, prevented from leaving by dozens of armed guards...
More than 60,000 Germans have signed a petition against the ban, triggering a mandatory government review of the proposal.
Comments
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
China ... Check
Cuba ... Check
Australia ... Check
Great Britian ... Check
Germany ... Check
France ... Check
United States ... Almost
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
It won't be long now.
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I once had a dream about God. In it, he was looking down upon the planet and the havoc we recked and he said unto us, "Damn Kids get off my lawn!"
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Holy crap, this is the first time I heard about the raid. I would've gotten outta there ASAP after that one. These guys got some balls if they're willing to stick around when you have a swat team raiding your business
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Dear Crytek,
Come to Houston, TX please. You will not find a better economy to florish in and your building lease will be far cheaper than any other city.
Germany.... wow... what a fuck up.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
So, desperately trying to not return to their pre-WW2 ways, they are promoting book burning?
How on Earth does that make sense?
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
As for me being an Australian, if they are going to ban Videogames on the internet, then I am going to Canada to live in freedom, not Australia where I am living in a "pretend" free country.
I remember how many people in my country often said to me that you should be lucky to live in a free country, but if you are a gamer or even an Otaku who likes the Japanese Dating Sims, then THAT is when you find out how free you really are.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
And I thought that my country Australia was bad.....
Germany is becoming like Nazi Germany but instead of targeting Jews, they are trying to put all of society's ills on all Game developers and even gamers too...
There comes a time when you realize that the government is not going to listen to anything you guys try to say, and my advice is that you german gamers and game developers must go to another country like Austria or Switzerland where you could at least live in a bit of freedom.
And if you are lucky to learn a bit of English and French, then move to Canada and you game developers will be in heaven.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Has anyone made a Flash game parodying this event yet? The irony of that would be Teh Awesome.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
See, if violent games didn't exist then the government wouldn't have sent 100 smg armed riot police to rough up civilians XD
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Hmmmm.... Using real violence coupled with extreme intimation to stop virtual violence - Nice one from the German government. They must be using the W playbook of public policy.
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"The most difficult pain a man can suffer is to have knowledge of much and power over little" - Herodotus
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Call me evil. But I hope this ban actually happens. I call it trial and error. Let Germany see what happens with this move. Let them see that it doesn't affect whatever problems they think they are fixing.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
It isn't the violence that plagues Germany's past, it's the brainwashability of the residents. German citizens, stop acting like unthinking sheep.
Good on Crytek.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
You patronising, jingoistic fuck.
Same goes for the rest of you "yankee redneck" cunts all so eager to pull out the "Nazi" lable. Call yourselves free thinkers? You should be ashamed.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
First off, MrKlorox may not even be from the US.
Second, how do you expect people to react to Germany sending 100 lethally(and I mean really lethal) armed riot squad guys into a game dev's office? As if it's a common, everyday occurrance? Because it kind of isn't.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
I expect people to not act like a singular event from four years ago (sorry, time flies, five years ago) was a common, everyday occurance in Germany. Because it kind of isn't.
Then again, I also expected people not to post stupid shit about upcoming German prison camps, when they're probably from the US, a country that runs one at this very moment, and I didn't get that right either.
So please, by all means, continue. Me and my country aren't the ones that are going to look stupid for it.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
It's not the fact that it is or isn't a common occurence, it's the fact that it happened at all when in all rights it shouldn't have.
As to the US having a prison camp, this is for war criminals while the German camps were for those of the same country. Of course we have had prison camps for our own citizens at times (WWII and Americans of Japanese lineage), but that is neither here no there. We're talking about how the goverment is abusing its own citizens, an act that is common with the Nazi regime that orginated from Germany.
Also, since you live there, YOU should be the one most upset about the way your goverment in acting.
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I once had a dream about God. In it, he was looking down upon the planet and the havoc we recked and he said unto us, "Damn Kids get off my lawn!"
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
As to the US having a prison camp, this is for war criminals while the German camps were for those of the same country.
Ah, I forgot. It's OK, to imprison random people without charge as long as they're foreigners. Right.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Perhaps without resorting to outdated and, quite frankly, offensive stereotypes. That's not even the current topic, anyway.
How do you think our German cousins feel every time there's a story on this topic, a bunch of geographically-challenged posters make vast, sweeping and inaccurate generalisations about their country?
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
As an American I can say that we are pretty used to vast, sweeping, inaccurate generalisations about our country. And frankly if we as some of us so often do, fall into one of these stereotypes we should be called out on it.
Some stupid yankee rednecks killed some dogs post 9/11 because of the dog's breed. The Afghan Hound. Those are stupid yankee rednecks.
Heavily armed German soliders storming an unarmed civilian business is rather Nazi.
So don't demand that a stereotype be used, rather rise above it.
-Ultimately what will do in mankind is a person's fear of their own freedom-
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Only in Germany can you raid the office of a game developer with machine guns and not get sued, fired, or arrested. Funny how little has changed there in the past 70 years. Maybe next they'll start rounding up game developers and putting them into "rehabilitation camps".
All I gotta say is God bless America
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
> All I gotta say is God bless America.
Especially the US. Come to us. We're the land that's trying to keep it secret that women have nipples, too. ;) But nobody's complaining.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Schadenfreude? You really went there?
I despair.... Right, I'm outta here. Please do us all a favour and never leave your nation's borders.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
I've been waiting for this response from Crytek.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Hey why don't you come to Asutralia....
Hmm I guess I can't talk because of the internet filter that now targets games, yay.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Well, if they came here they'd still be limited to making at least M-rated games if they wanted to sell locally.
I'm not sure what a humble Australian resident like myself can do about this whole thing. It's not like I've had any affect on our own foolish ratings system. I think my own little protest will come in the form of Germany not getting any of my tourist dollars if this ban goes through. So far I've only spent three days of my life in the beautiful city of Berlin and I'm determined to see more of the country and the people some time in the near future.
Well, maybe that's a bad solution. The German government is adversely affecting its gamer's lives and I don't think it should also affect mine.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Maryland welcomes you.
Current Residents (In no particular order): Bethesda Softworks, Day 1 Studios, BreakAway Games, Electric Sheep Company, EA Mythic, Big Huge Games, etc.
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Papa Midnight
http://www.thesupersoldiers.com
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Papa Midnight
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
wat
Crytek, get out of there. There are plenty of better places to develop in.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Im surprised they haven't left yet.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
http://www.killatia.com/
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
If Crytek leaves Germany, is there anyway we can ship Uwe Boll back in their place?
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
You, sir, win 20 internets.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Canada will welcome you with open arms!!!
Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy! Stop supporting big media and furthering the criminalization of consumers!! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
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http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
They better start packing then, as Germany is so desperate to cover up their past ,they have forgotten it.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Interesting given that I was just playing Far Cry Instincts before I read this.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
"In 2004 the Bavarian authorities sent in the state troopers... When the small tech team appeared to inspect our computers, they were accompanied by over one hundred flak-jacketed riot police, all armed with Heckler and Koch sub-machine guns."
How the FUCK do you NOT Godwin that? I'd like to try, but I fear I don't have the fortitude to do so.
-Ultimately what will do in mankind is a person's fear of their own freedom-
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Dude, don't worry about Godwin's Law. When the police start acting like Nazis, call them out on it. 100 police with SMGs against unarmed civilians that haven't done anything wrong is an action that screams "We're Nazis."
"That's not ironic. That's justice."
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Yeah, were I in charge of things at Crytek, I wouldn't play that crap. I would have relocated immediately after the SWAT incident.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
I'm pretty sure some trade agreements are broken if such a ban would be placed. This would go to the European Courts if passed.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Sig heil!
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
LOL
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Godwin
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
They're Godwinning themselves.
"That's not ironic. That's justice."
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
You are not even able to write it without a spelling mistake...
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Did I offend your German sensibilities, or your Nazi sensibilities?
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
I think the point he was trying to make is, that it were nice if people checked with an online dictionary, before typing gibberish that vaguely reads like something.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
All that fuss over a missing E? No. The missing E was just an excuse to talk back at me.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Is it ironic that they've turned into nazis in an attempt to create a reality where nazis didn't exist?
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
Exactly
Re: Crytek Will Leave Germany if Violent Game Ban is Passed
It was for use of unlicensed software heres the original post about it http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=31767
Edit: This was ment to be a reply to the person above asking what the cause of the raid was, apparently I have failed again ><