Sites which host game footage were advised by Bethesda yesterday that they must take down any trailers for Fallout 3.

With the highly-anticipated, M-rated game launching today, the move is ill-timed, to say the least. Maximum PC cites an e-mail from Bethesda VP Pete Hines:

In connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines, you are instructed to remove immediately any of our Fallout 3 trailers from your website, pending further notice.

Meanwhile, Edge Online speculates that a Fallout 3 trailer which shows an adversary's head exploding in slo-mo, might be at fault.

The ESRB maintains and enforces guidelines for game advertising. The content rating organization has occasionally intervened with game trailers in the past.

Citing "cultural sensitivities," GamingIndians reports that Fallout 3 won't go on sale as scheduled next week in India.

By way of explanation GamingIndians cites a terse statement from Microsoft India, which is - or was - handling Fallout 3 distribution there:

Microsoft constantly endeavors to bring the best games to Indian consumers in sync with their international release. However, in light of cultural sensitivities in India, we have made the business decision to not bring Fallout 3 into the country.

Only the Xbox 360 version was planned for the Indian market.

GP: It's a bit of a mystery, but if I were a betting man, I'd speculate that Fallout 3's post-nuclear apocalypse theme has something to do with the decision.

After all, India has been in a stare-down with neighboring Pakistan for decades. Both sides are nuked up and as recently as 2002, almost went to war.

Via: Destructoid

Following in the wake of GTA IV, Spore and other high-profile releases, the much-anticipated Fallout 3 was apparently cracked and leaked to torrent sites yesterday, nearly three weeks ahead of its scheduled October 28th U.S. retail release.

gamesindustry.biz reports that the hack involves the Xbox 360 version and requires a mod chipped 360 to play. gi.biz comments:

Although a majority of console and PC games are leaked online before the official release, for a game to be distributed illegally three weeks before it hits the shops highlights the demand for pirated material from users - and the holes in security measures designed to prevent illegal copying of games.

Fallout 3 also reportedly went gold yesterday.

GP: Without knowing how many chipped 360s are out there, it's hard to determine just how much of a problem this might be for Bethesda.

It's ironic, as a GP reader pointed out yesterday in our ShoutBox, that Ubisoft is delaying the PC version of EndWar, claiming piracy concerns, while major console titles are regularly cracked.