In the summer of this year law enforcement agencies in several European countries conducted raids and made arrests related to movie streaming links portal Kino.to and file-hosting sites such as Duckload.com. Duckload lost 400 servers to police, worth more than 2 million dollars in total. While police managed to nab most of the targets they were looking for one man managed to escape apprehension. The net has finally fallen on that man. After five months of evading police the man known believed to be Tim C has been arrested in Germany.

German online browser and MMO game company Gameforge plans to let 100 of its 450 employees go.

"Through a more efficient organizational structure, we can optimize our use of resources and great potential for further growth increase," said Gameforge CEO and founder Alexander Roesner in a statement. "This will strengthen our long term position in the dynamic market for online games."

Electronic Arts is denying claims from German gamers and the press that its download service Origin spies on users' computer activity and potentially breaks Germany's Privacy laws.

Overclock.net has gathered an avalanche of stories related to how Battlefield 3 and Origin are being received in Germany (thanks to Solarian for tip). The short answer is that Germans seem to hate it because of the company's terms of service and what Origin is doing on people's PCs.

A new study conducted by academics from two German universities says that "aggressive children" ages 8 - 12 years-old have a preference for violent video games.

EA's official news blog chronicles a recent visit by German Deputy Foreign Secretary Dr. Werner Hoyer to the company’s Redwood Shores, California campus. Hoyer, a member of the German parliament stopped by to discuss a variety of topics related to the German games market and EA studio in Cologne, Germany.

This morning Kotaku pointed out a video from Germany's RTL Television in which commentators took great delight in mocking what they characterized as the "computer freaks" that they filmed at last week's Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Today the show, apparently embarrassed (and likely humbled by fans that were pissed off at their mean-spirited characterizations) is now apologizing for their bad judgment in airing the report.

Hamburg, Germany is one of Europe's leading games industry hotspots, according to new data released by gamecity:Hamburg. According to new data from the group dedicated to creating the perfect environment for the game industry in the city, 146 companies do business in Hamburg and employ 2,510 people in fulltime positions. The video game industry in Hamburg also supports 382 freelance jobs, as well as 676 employees of Hamburg-based enterprises working in locations outside the city.

UK video game industry trade group TIGA has joined forces with members of the European Games Developer Federation (EGDF) to voice its concern that the new EU funding programs planned for media and culture and for research and innovation for 2013 - 2020 do not place "sufficient emphasis" on the video game development sector. The groups voiced their concerns at Gamescom this week in Cologne, Germany.

A mere 48 hours after George Hotz and Sony Computer Entertainment America settled their legal dispute, Sony has put its focus back on PS3 hacker graf_chokolo. According to a report on PS3 hacking site PSX-Scene, Sony has visited the home of graf_chokolo for a second time. According to that report, which is based on a post from the man himself, Sony seized a bunch of computer equipment this time around. Here is what he said on his official web site:

According to the company handling Vienna-based publisher JoWooD's insolvency, an unnamed investor has withdrawn its interest in the company. Insolvency organizer Helmut Platzgummer does say that two other investors are still interested in helping JoWooD with its cash flow problem.

The Vienna-based company is best known for role-playing series Gothic. The company has been actively seeking new investment since filing for insolvency earlier this year. At that time, the company's board claimed that it could conclude discussions with creditors within 90 days.

German MMO company Frogster is suing MMO web site Elitepvpers over the alleged "commercial sale" of gold and game accounts for its game Runes of Magic. The site's owner claims that Frogster is simply trying to shut down a whole subsection of its site dedicated to Frogster's popular free-to-play MMO. But Frogster claims the site is engaging in a number of illicit activities including farming, selling in-game accounts, and gold. This despite the fact that the publisher recently inked an ad deal with the site for Mythos.

"Elitepvpers has never sold gold for the game", site owner Dominik Isen told GamesIndustry.biz Germany. "As we found out, few of our users have offered gold, which they had acquired in the game by themselves, which they did not need anymore and which was dispensable. According to our research [nobody offered] gold which was farmed driven by commercial interest only to earn money with it."

Earlier this week PS3 hacker Alexander "graf_chokolo" Egorenkov found himself waking up to a raid. Sony, along with local German law enforcement, seized his computer equipment. Many doubted that the raid was real, but it turned out to be true. Now we are learning that Sony is seeking 1,000,000 euros in damages from Egorenkov for his PS3 hacking work. Today Egorenkov issued a defiant and lengthy message saying that he did not care if Sony doubled the amount of damages - he would continue his work undeterred. He also added that they would have to kill him to make him stop his work and that he planned to put all of his development files back online.

Epic Games and People Can Fly's latest game, Bulletstorm, has been given a USK 18 + rating by the German Entertainment Software Rating Board. Some serious changes had to be made to the game before it could be released in the region. Despite the adult rating, the German version of the game has a number of things omitted such as ragdoll physics effects, blood, blood splatter, and dismemberment.

While the game can't be banned at this point by the German youth protection board (BPjM) because it has been rated, German gamers will once again get a game experience that has been censored and watered down in the name of protecting the country's youth from violent content. Developers and publishers that want to do business in the country are well aware of the limitations and challenges thrust upon them by government rules and restrictions, with most chalking it up to "the price of doing business in Germany."

EA is the publisher of the game in Europe.

Today the Computer Game Museum (Computerspielemuseum) opened Berlin, Germany, offering 50 handheld games, video consoles, and home computers organized and exhibited in chronological order from 1971 up to 2001. The museum was open for a few years in the late 1990's but was shut down in 2000. The new museum is located where "Cafe Warsaw" used to be in an East Berlin-era building.

The exhibition called "Computer Games: Evolution of a Medium" chronicles the development of computer and video games since 1951, and includes the first ever arcade game called "Computer Space," released in 1971.

The museum is supported by German-born American Ralph Baer, who invented the Magnavox Odyssey console. Baer says that the exhibition is an important way of chronicling the history of games:

It looks like the German government is not happy with the violent content in Dead Space 2 and wants changes to the game before it is released in the region. The main cause of disagreement from the government: Friendly Fire in multiplayer. Naturally, these changes will make it so that gamers in Germany will not have to wait for the game on various platforms until sometime in February. EA announced the delay in a press release this week, saying that the game would be released on February 3.

The single player campaign from Dead Space 2 remains uncut and identical to the international version of the game, but multiplayer has been altered to appease the government. Germany is very touchy about games that let players kills "humans." Many shooters require alterations before they can be released in the region - like turning human enemies into zombies or robots, ot changing red blood to another color.

According to a roughly translated report in PCGames.De, Bavaria's Ministry of Social Affairs said that the PSP version of EA's Dead Space needs to be reexamined before it can be approved for release in the region (thanks Cheater87). The title must be tested for the sixth time by the USK, according to what EA told PC Games.

The objection seems to be with the multiplayer mode, which lets human players kill other human players. Germany is notorious for requiring developers and publishers to remove things like gameplay involving killing humans and blood before a game can be released in the region.

Sonderkommando Revolt, the Wolfenstein mod that reimagined an 1944 Jewish uprising against the camp guards at Auschwitz, has been shelved. One of the key developers on the homebrew project, Maxim Genis, said that online criticism about the subject matter, and an abusive response from the internet community have made working on the project too difficult.

"I did a lot of research for the game," said Genis. "I wanted to show the Jews really did fight back against the Nazis. I wanted to honour them. My intentions were pure and pro-Jewish in every way."

In a response to a Kotaku inquiry about the game last week, the Anti-Defamation League had urged Genis to cancel the launch in January, calling it "a crude effort to depict Jewish resistance during this painful period." As we pointed out last week the ADL praised the film Inglorious Basterds for doing basically the same thing.

According to admittedly loose translations, a shipment of dongles to be used for hacking the PlayStation 3 have been seized by customs officers in Germany, and now Sony is targeting the purchasers of the devices with cease-and-desist letters and threats of fines and litigation.

1378 (km), the game based on the “death strip” separating East and West Berlin during the Cold War has seen its release delayed until December.

The game’s developer, a student at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design named Jens Stober, took to his blog to announce the postponement, which he said was partly due to criticism of the game. Comments about the title, such as the Director of the Berlin War Memorial stating “The seriousness of what once went on at the border can’t be portrayed in this way,” led Stober to claim that “an objective discussion of the game is presently impossible.”

Stober also offered a rather impassioned defense of games, specifically computer games, writing:

A large part of the criticism is a consequence of my chosen medium, the computer game. Computer games as a medium are often quick to be judged without being more closely examined, as was also the case with my art project. It was designed to enable a younger generation to access information on recent German history using a medium familiar to them.

Activision’s upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops has undergone a few changes in order to appease German censors.

According to CODFeed (via The Escapist), the game, which is set in various locations between 1960 and 2010, will have the following changes implemented for the German market:

A student-developed videogame centered on the “death strip” that separated East and West Berlin during the heart of the Cold War has run afoul of the Director of the Berlin Wall Memorial.

The game, entitled 1378 (km) and named for the length of the border between East and West Germany that was patrolled and policed for some 28 years, was created by Jens Stober, a student at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design.

According to The Local, 1378 (km) allows players to take on the role of border guards or escapees, while having them choose whether to “shoot, arrest, run, give up, kill, or be killed.”

The game is set in 1976, though “border guards who shoot to kill more than three times are magically transported to the year 2000, where they face trial for their crimes.”

A statement from Stober’s school on the game read:

Capcom has not received a classification for Dead Rising 2 from the German government, and it doubts it will ever receive one because the first game was banned in the region. So with that in mind it has decided to opt out of a public showing at this year's Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany. This makes a lot of sense because the company is only showing two games at this time and one of them is Dead Rising 2.

Still Capcom will be at the show behind closed doors showing off its games to the press. Here's what Capcom had to say about it:

A rather advanced (and enlightened) “school” in Germany exists solely to teach adults about the benefits of playing videogames and how to leverage games as a way to improve relationships and grow closer with their offspring.

Almost two-years old, the Leipzig Video Game School is targeted at parents and grandparents, reports DW-World.de. University of Leipzig instructor Claudia Philipp, who heads up the Video Game School, told the publication that her mission is “to broaden media literacy and allowing people to get acquainted with what kind of games there are, what types of genres there are.”

A sampling of who attends:

Gabriele Heidecker, 52, sits with her two grandchildren Jonas and Melika just a couple of machines down. This is the tenth time here for these three, who've been coming twice a week. Eight-year-old Melika is excited to have a video game-playing grandma.

The school is free to visit for the first two hours of play, then charges one Euro per hour per person.

Last June, news emerged from Germany that a group of Interior Ministers had asked for a total ban on the production and distribution of violent videogames. Thanks in large part to a petition, such a ban will not be enacted in the near future.

A German website (translated) is reporting that the Collector’s Edition of Ubisoft’s Silent Hunter 5 PC game has been recalled in Germany due to the appearance of “anticonstiutional symbols” in the game.

This would indicate that some type of Nazi symbol or imagery was left in the local edition of the game, which is verboten according to German laws. Edge received confirmation from Ubisoft that the game’s standard edition was not recalled, only the special edition.

EuroGamer has an insightful piece up entitled “Killerspiele,” which takes a look at the state of controversial games in Germany.

The article begins by detailing the failed “Killer Game Drive” put on by the Aktionsbündnis Amoklauf Winnenden last month in Stuttgart, noting that Harry Schober (pictured left), a father of one of the German school shooting victims from earlier this year, founded both the organization and the game round up.

Other aspects covered include a detailed look at Germany’s game rating system, which “goes further than any other to ensure that unsuitable videogames don't get into the hands of unsuitable players,” and the positive effect that a gamer-driven, grass-roots effort had upon government.

Where the piece’s author—Simon Parkin—excels though is in his ability to frame perfectly both the anguish of Schober and the outrage of gamers, who feel that their rights are being affected by attempts to limit access to certain games:

We should always be mindful that videogames offer mere fleeting entertainment while life, in contrast, is infinitely precious. The former should never threaten the latter. Hardy Schober's anguish may be misplaced and his tabloid-friendly skip stunt deserving of mockery. But more than that, he deserves a conversation. If gamers cannot afford him that, then in some ways, they really are to blame.

The “Killer Game Drive” put on by Aktionsbündnis Amoklauf Winnenden over this past weekend appears to have been a relative failure.

The group was attempting to get people to come and toss “killer games” into a dumpster, and, well, while the Action Alliance did have a huge, graffiti-laden repository, let’s just say that it probably didn’t take them hours to empty it.

From pictures posted online of the event, it appears that just three games made it into the dumpster: a copy of Grand Theft Auto, Small Soldiers for the Game Boy Advance and one other unknown title.

A handful of pictures from the event can be found here.

Thanks again to Stephan for the head’s up!

A German advocacy group has organized an event designed to get participants to bring their “killer games” to in order to dispose of them in a trash can.

Aktionsbündnis Amoklauf Winnenden, or Action Alliance (loosely translated), has setup the event for this Saturday, October 17 in front of the Stuttgart State Opera. One game tosser will win a signed jersey from the German national soccer team. No word on what will be done with the “donated” games, but presumably they will be smashed or discarded in some way.

GP reader Matthias noted that one image used in the group’s promotion for the event appears to use a modified copy of an image designed to aid Germany in ridding use of the swastika, substituting a CD or DVD for the Nazi symbol.

The Action Alliance is made up, at least partially, of the parents of children slain earlier this year at the awful school shooting incident in Winnenden, Germany, which claimed 16 lives.

Thanks to GP reader Stephan as well.

In light of the game possibly containing a swastika, Activision Blizzard has decided to recall the game Wolfenstein from stores in Germany according to Kotaku.

A translation of a story on the 4players .de website, the original source of the story, notes that although the imagery “is not a conspicuous element in the normal game,” the publisher has decided to “decided to take this game immediately from the German market.” The game was released for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. All versions are being recalled.

Planet Wolfenstein commented that eliminating the offending subject matter could be difficult, given that the game’s development teams from Endrant Studios and Raven Software have already been laid off.