Sega, publisher of the upcoming MadWorld, is working closely with the ESRB on the bloody game's content, according to a report on MTV Multiplayer.

Sega's goal, of course, is to avoid a sales-killing Adults Only rating. It's more or less a given that black-and-white (and red) MadWorld will be tagged with at least an M rating in the United States.

Of the cooperation, MTV Multiplayer's Patrick Klepek writes:

Sega is working closely with the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to ensure the game receives just an M rating, they told me. The ESRB receives new builds on a regular basis and Sega notes their feedback. Sega wants them to feel “part of the process” of developing “MadWorld” and isn’t looking to surprise them...

 

But don’t let the ESRB’s involvement make you nervous; “MadWorld” is plenty violent right now. It looks like “Sin City” was bathed in a bucket of blood.

As GamePolitics reported in August, Sega is similarly working with the BBFC on smoothing over MadWorld's path to a successful U.K. release. It's unclear, however, whether MadWorld will see release in other violence-sensitive markets, including Japan, Germany and Australia.

Although MadWorld is not scheduled for release until March, the game has already been the subject of at least one call for a ban.

Is there a point in targeting an older game that, based on lukewarm reviews, probably wasn't a big seller even when it was new?

MTV Multiplayer reports that the Japanese Association of Psychiatric Hospitals is lobbying to have Nintendo DS title Dementium: The Ward removed from store shelves. The game is of the survival-horror genre and is played from a first-person aspect. From the MTV story:

...it seems that the organization was concerned that the game might “encourage discrimination and prejudice” against those with psychiatric disorders.

Gamecock Media Group distributes the game in Japan. CEO Mike Wilson told MTV:

Gamecock’s position is that this story, like many before it, boils down to a lack of understanding or appreciation (and therefore fear of) games outside our little sub-culture. I’m sure the people involved have only the best intentions.

 

The co-publisher/distributor for the game in Japan, Interchannel, will deal with the situation appropriately. In the meantime, we’re thrilled that this quick bout of paranoia has brought so much attention to our first lovechild with [developer] Renegade Kid… The game is groundbreaking on the platform and it deserves the attention and success it is seeing.

GP: Advocacy groups tend to be well-intentioned but are often ill-informed when it comes to games. In a similar vein, here in the U.S. the National Alliance on Mental Illness went after Manhunt 2 last year because the group felt that the game's asylum setting stereotyped psychiatric patients as violent.

Last month GamePolitics reported that Maryland-based Hillcrest Labs sued Nintendo for alleged patent law violations in regard to the Wii's motion-sensitive controller.

Hillcrest has now upped the ante.

As Reuters reports, the firm, which claims that patents for its motion-senstive remote control The Loop were infringed upon by the Wiimote, has also lodged a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, a government agency.

The ITC's enforcement powers enable it to block foreign-made products which are judged to infringe upon patents of U.S. firms. A posting on the agency's website reports that it has indeed launched an investigation which will require responses from Nintendo of Japan and Nintendo of America. An explanation of the investigative timeline is posted on the ITC website:

By instituting this investigation... the ITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case. The ITC's Chief Administrative Law Judge will assign the case to one of the ITC's five administrative law judges (ALJ), who will schedule and hold an evidentiary hearing. The ALJ will make an initial determination as to whether there is a violation of section 337; that initial determination is subject to review by the Commission.

 

The ITC will make a final determination in the investigation at the earliest practicable time. Within 45 days after institution of the investigation, the ITC will set a target date for completing the investigation. ITC remedial orders in section 337 cases are effective when issued and become final 60 days after issuance unless disapproved for policy reasons by the U.S. Trade Representative within that 60-day period.

It's been more than a week since the first wave of reports that Dead Space had been banned in Japan, China and Germany hit the web, yet publisher Electronic Arts has failed to provide a definitive answer as to exactly what's going on with the supposed censorship of the game.

That's unfortunate, since EA itself launched the story. The original report was set in motion by a pair of EA community managers for the sci-fi survival-horror game. Here at GamePolitics I have pointed out a number of reasons why the original ban report seemed questionable.

GameCyte now has a post in which Dead Space executive producer Glen Schofield (see him hyping the game's violence level at E3) says that the game has indeed been banned in Japan and "hints at difficulties in Germany and Korea as well..."

With all due respect to Schofield, I still have difficulty believing that the game has been banned in Japan, home of Resident Evil. I'd like to see an official announcement from EA and/or CERO, the Japanese rating organization. Moreover, as GP reported earlier this week, EA doesn't distribute console games in Japan, so only the PC version of Dead Space would potentially be at risk of a ban there.

Also in regard to Schofield's comments, what happened to the original claim of a Dead Space ban in China? Schofield doesn't even mention China. As in Japan, EA distributes no console games there, so at worst there might be a ban on the PC version. But we don't know. Does China even have a game content rating board? Doubtful. Previous bans have been handed down by government agencies such as the Ministry of Culture and the State General Administration of Press and Publication.

And now Germany has morphed from a ban to a hint of difficulties? As to Schofield's comment about a potential ban in Korea, that's a completely new one. Here's the quote from Schofield:

Glen Schofield: Australia is getting the full, complete version. No cuts. We’re not softening it for anybody. You know, I think a part of it was – he’s not a killer. He’s killing aliens and that’s why we thought for a while we’d get it through in Germany. And they were like ‘well, the fact that he can get dismembered pretty grotesquely is bad, so…’ We thought it was cool.

 

IGN: And Japan banned it?

 

Glen Schofield: Japan too. Korea thought they would get it, but we haven’t heard back yet.

As I see it, here are the possibilities:

• Dead Space has been banned in Japan, China & Germany, as per original report
• Dead Space has been banned in Japan and has "difficulties" in Germany & Korea, as per EA's Glen Schofield
• Dead Space hasn't been banned anywhere; it's all hype

It's important to remember that EA could clear all of this up with a simple press release. If I spoke Japanese I'd contact CERO myself and ask about the supposed Japanese ban. Any volunteers?

When a publicly traded U.S. company experiences what the Securities and Exchange Commission terms an "unscheduled material event" it is required to file a form 8-K in order to alert stockholders and the market at large.

For example, Electronic Arts filed an 8-K just yesterday to inform the market that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was slipping into 2009, with a resultant loss of significant expected 2008 income.

So, if the rumor that EA's upcoming Dead Space has been banned in three markets - China, Japan and Germany - is true, might that not trigger an 8-K disclosure as well? None has been forthcoming so far.

For the answer, GamePolitics turned to financial analyst extraordinaire Michale Pachter (left) of Wedbush-Morgan:

GP: If Dead Space was really banned in three major markets (Japan, China, Germany) as the rumor currently goes, wouldn’t that be a material event that EA would need to disclose to the stock market? Also – does EA sell console games in China? I thought no one did because of piracy issues.

PACHTER: Germany will allow the game with modifications.  Japan and China are essentially closed markets.  So really, no big deal. No consoles in China, yet

GP: Can you elaborate on what you mean by "closed market" in terms of Japan?

PACHTER: EA sells very little there, maybe $50 million per year, mostly PC games. I don't think it is that controversial.  [Dead Space] is a horror game, not the same as Manhunt.  The bans are from the usual suspects, not a big deal

GP: Thanks, Mike.

Although Pachter confirms that there are no console sales in China, Dead Space is scheduled to release on PC, so that's the version which EA would want to market in China and Japan. If the ban is real (still a pretty big "if" at this point), it likely involves the PC flavor of Dead Space in those markets.

Clearly, Pachter does not see this as a significant issue for EA, at least in the financial sense. Bans are always troubling, however, so we eagerly await EA's official word on this.

While mere gamer mortals wait to see whether the gaming gods at EA will deign to reveal whether or not the rumors that Dead Space has been banned in three countries are true, here's an interesting point.

Hyping the intense violence of Dead Space is clearly a large part of EA's marketing strategy for the game.

EA was upfront about the game's blood and gore factor at its E3 2008 press conference in Los Angeles. Very upfront. Check out G4TV's video feed of the event. Fast foward to 10:45. That's when Dead Space executive producer Glen Schofield walks onstage. Here's what he says about the violence:

For the past two-and-a-half years, my team and I have been creating a game that's a bit of a departure for EA. It's a very M-rated, sci-fi survival-horror game called Dead Space. [crowd cheers] That's what I like to hear...

 

Dead Space is the story of Isaac Clarke... we focused deeply on creating a rich story and pushed EXTREMELY hard on the horror elements. But we also innovated on our main gameplay features such as zero gravity...

 

And our core gameplay mechanic is - strategic dismemberment, which is a clinical term for you have to tear these creatures apart limb-by-limb in order to kill 'em...

Several minutes of game play follow... Schofield returns to the stage at 16:05:

[crowd cheers] ...Thank you. Dead Space will be available on the 360, the PS3 and the PC on October 21st. Now we just showed you some action in our live demo. I'd like to leave you with a gameplay trailer that really sets the mood and tone of Dead Space. This trailer is made with 100% gameplay footage. And I hope you're all over 17 for this one. Thank you... [trailer starts up]

GameStop's product page for Dead Space also hypes the violence. The first two bullet points are:

• Strategic dismemberment—Shear off limbs with powerful weapons as you carve a bloody path through the alien hordes. Find ways to neutralize attacking enemies effectively or they’ll keep coming at you. When ammo runs low, use telekinesis to pick up objects—even the enemies’ own arms and legs!—and fire them at anything that stands in your way.
• Terror in the far reaches of space—A blood-curdling interactive horror experience features state-of-the art graphics and effects, a panic-inducing audio system, and a truly frightening atmosphere of death and despair.

So... do rumors of a ban help fuel the marketing of Dead Space as a "bad boy" of EA's gaming stable?

In Saturday's coverage GamePolitics questioned reported claims by a pair of community managers that EA's upcoming Dead Space has been banned in Japan, China and Germany.

Over at Ars Technica, Ben Kuchera writes that a Dead Space team member using the screen name isaacclarke has been insisting via Twitter that the ban is real. Ben posted screenshots of several recent tweets by Isaac, including one entered at 4:20pm PST Sunday:

I just confirmed with upper management that Dead Space is banned in Germany, China and Japan. Not a rumor, folks... It's true.

So, we'll see...

GP: Reader Flowerbed reminds us that "Isaac Clarke" is the name of the protagonist in Dead Space. Thanks, FB...

Yesterday we mentioned a Destructoid report which said that EA's upcoming space-horror-survival title Dead Space had been banned in Germany, Japan and China. Destructoid sourced the info to Dead Space community manager Andrew Green.

Right away, the story didn't pass our smell test:

• Germany, perhaps. They've been tough on game violence of late. But Japan? The home of Resident Evil?
• Does EA even distribute console games in China (due to piracy concerns)?
• No announcements from the individual censorship bodies of the three nations?
• All three bans come in simultaneously?
• Also of note, Australia's notoriously censorious OFLC cleared Dead Space with MA15+
• And the BBFC, which banned Manhunt 2 in the U.K., cleared Dead Space with 18
• No official press release from EA on the alleged bans?

GP immediately contacted EA, with distinctly unsatisfactory results. The top PR dog didn't respond to our e-mail. Later in the day we tracked down the EA guy who is handling Dead Space PR, and put the question to him in two e-mails and a live phone call. Never got an answer one way or the other. EA doesn't know if one of their high profile titles managed to get banned in three countries? Sorry, not buying that. Or, they know but aren't saying? Unacceptable.

GamePolitics reader Afirejar posted a comment to yesterday's story which argued that the supposed German ban was bogus:

I can confirm for a fact that Dead Space has not been banned in Germany. Under German law it's not possible to ban products before they are actually available. The game isn't out yet, so it can't be banned, it's that simple. It's just not possible under German law.

 

This seems to be nothing more than a marketing stunt, German gaming paper GameStar even has official word from EA, that it's a hoax. The USK ratings process isn't even finished yet.  (Sorry, German only)
 

Later, Videogaming247 cited a German language story by Eurogamer.de, which negates the report of a Dead Space ban in Germany:

Eurogamer.de’s scotched a report that said Dead Space had already been banned in Germany. Basically, it hasn’t.

 

The site’s spoken to EA Germany, and the game is still with the USK [ratings body], apparently, so no one knows yet if there are going to be any restrictions on the horror’s launch.

GP: It's time for EA to put an end to this nonsense. If there is a multi-country ban, gamers deserve to know about it. If there's not, gamers deserve to stop having their chains yanked...

UPDATE: Hey, I want to point out that I'm not faulting Destructoid here. They were not the only outlet reporting this, just the first. If the info is wrong, it seems that it somehow originated with the community managers of Dead Space.

Citing comments made by a Dead Space community manager, Destructoid reports that EA's upcoming sci-fi horror game has been banned in China, Japan and Germany:

We've also been told by Dead Space community manager Andrew Green that the title has been completely banned from the following countries: Germany, Japan, and China. That's right, there's just too much survival and way too much horror in Dead Space for these countries to handle. No word on whether EA has any plans to alter the game for a future release in those territories.

Oddly enough, in the U.K., the BBFC has rated Dead Space an 18, while quick-to-censor Australia has awarded it an MA15+. We're still checking with the ESRB, but GameStop's website is displaying an "M" on Dead Space packaging.

GP: I'm having a little trouble digesting this one. It's not hard to believe Germany would ban Dead Space, as they have been fairly quick on the censorship trigger of late. However, given that Japan is the home of Resident Evil, a ban on a survival horror game would be surprising. Also, I'm not even certain that EA distributes console titles in China, due to the piracy issues there. We have a request in to EA to confirm...

Business Week reports that Tecmo, uneasy with the prospect of being acquired by much larger Square Enix, has sought refuge in the arms of fellow small publisher Koei:

When Japanese video game developer Square Enix unveiled its "friendly" offer to buy rival Tecmo last week, analysts and investors applauded. The two companies seemed a natural fit: Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series had a huge following among diehards in Japan, while Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive fighting games were popular in the U.S. and Europe. To sweeten the deal, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada pledged to preserve the Tecmo brand. He gave Tecmo's management a week to think it over.

At the deadline, Tecmo told Square Enix "thanks, but no thanks," and said it was exploring a merger with Koei. From the report:

Tecmo didn't give a reason for going with Koei. But size appears to have been one issue: Rather than getting swallowed up, Tecmo may have wanted something closer to a marriage of equals...

 

Industry executives say Japan's midsize game developers are prime takeover targets. Many of them have a strong record at home but limited exposure overseas. A suitor with a worldwide network—particularly in the U.S. and Europe—could take a niche Japanese developer stuck in a stagnant market and create a global mainstream franchise.

This one's not over, at least not yet. Square Enix has asked Tecmo to explain how Koei's deal was better for shareholders than its offer and may continue its pursuit of Tecmo.

There have been a number of instances in which U.S. government officials have attempted to link video game technology with terrorism, occasionally with comic results.

GamePolitics has just located a terrorism speech delivered in May, 2007 by Rep. Sue Myrick (left). We don't believe this has been previously reported in either the gaming or mainstream press.

In the speech, the North Carolina Republican, a member of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, offers no explanation or amplification while linking terrorist training with "Japanese video game websites":

Terrorists frustrate our intelligence agencies because they use Internet techniques that can't be easily traced...  They are sending training and recruitment videos over Japanese video game Web sites because the traffic and file sizes are so large, intelligence officers cannot easily differentiate jihadist files from regular video game files. They post pornographic sites as the front to their Web sites because they know government workers are forbidden to access pornographic Web sites and therefore cannot go further to access their actual Web site...

 

 We must not allow the Internet to be a safe haven for terrorists.
 

GP: Also missing from Rep. Myrick's speech is any explanation as to why Japanese video game websites would be targeted to the exclusion of games sites located in other countries. And the bit about government workers not accessing porn sites? We think she needs to double check that one...

The Tacoma News-Tribune reports that a former technical advisor on the original Metal Gear Solid has been charged by federal officials with attempting to ship sophisticated holographic night vision gunsights to Japan.

Capt. Tomoaki Iishiba left Japan in 1993 to join the U.S. Army. Iishiba served in Afghanistan and wrote A Japanese Lieutenant from the 82nd Airborne, a Japanese language book about his military experience.

More recently he has been stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington as an intelligence officer. From the report:

In a two-paragraph charging document filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, prosecutors wrote that Tomoaki Iishiba bought 60 of the EoTech 553... then mailed them to coconspirators in Japan without obtaining an export license. The company’s Web site lists the sights at $639 apiece...

 

He faces one count of conspiracy to smuggle goods from the United States and is scheduled to enter a guilty plea at the end of the month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said...

Iishiba has also endorsed a line of knives.

vnunet reports that Konami has cancelled Japanese launch events surrounding the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots:

The company said in a statement to Japanese media that it called off the events because it was concerned about the safety of the public. The cancellations follow a rampage by a knife-wielding man in Tokyo at the weekend in which seven people were killed...

 

One of the cancelled launch events had been scheduled for Tokyo's Akihabara district, where the stabbing took place on Sunday... [in the game] Players control a soldier armed with a knife and various other weapons who fights his way through a multitude of enemies by killing and disabling them in a variety of missions.

Launch events outside of Japan were not affected and the game is being released as scheduled in Japan and elsewhere.

Will Sunday's murderous rampage in Tokyo's famed Akihabara district trigger a wave of anti-video game sentiment in Japan?

TechRadar seems to think so. Citing a report that Japanese authorities are considering the use of software to monitor Internet postings, J Mark Lytle writes:

The self-confessed video game nut is currently being held up on television, in newspapers and in magazines as the perfect example of what goes wrong when feckless youth is allowed to indulge its passion for solitary pursuits in dark rooms.

 

...the impact of Kato’s rage-fuelled actions is already being felt by gamers in particular.

 

Among the tropes dragged out in the media are details such as the ‘facts’ that the knife he used is similar to one used in Dragon Quest, that he was heavily into hardcore games like Eternal Fighter and Chantelise and that he was a mobile addict who felt insecure without his phone.

 

Whatever transpires in Japan, one thing’s for sure – the nation’s obsession with cutesy videogames and oddball recluses will never be the same again.

Meanwhile, the Mainichi Daily News reports that Akihabara regulars are paying tribute to the victims of the killing spree in an Otaku fashion:

Regular visitors to Tokyo's Akihabara district are paying tribute to the victims of Sunday's fatal stabbing rampage with anime characters and images, and other products that have gained popularity in the electronics district...

 

"I'm going to remember them in an 'otaku' way," said a 42-year-old man from Chiba, who laid down an image from the popular anime "Mobile Suit Gundam" and observed a moment of silence....

While there is no indication that video games played any role in Sunday's murderous rampage in Tokyo's high-tech Akihabara district, UK newspaper The Times reports that Tomohiro Kato, the 25-year-old killer (incongruously flashing the peace sign in photo at left), was into Japan's otaku scene:

Mr Kato appears to have led the average life of a young Japanese man from a small, provincial town... Perhaps most strikingly, he appears to have shared with tens of thousands of young Japanese men a passion for Akihabara and its maze of shops and boutiques that helped create Japan’s otaku stereotype.

 

Originally, the word otaku referred to a sub-class of youth culture which focused on the minutiae of various hobbies – everything from manga comics and video games to model robots and animated pornography. More recently, however, the otaku phenomenon has gone mainstream...

Meanwhile the Guardian reports:

In his middle school graduation yearbook, he describes his personality as "crooked" and his favourite word as "destiny". The entry, written entirely in English, is accompanied by a sketch of a character from the role-playing videogame Tales of Destiny.

 

Like many of the people who witnessed his attack, he was obsessed with manga comics and video games.

Tales of Destiny, the only game thus far associated with Kato, is a T-rated RPG, hardly the stuff of which sensationalist appearances on Fox News are made. Moreover, the killer's final series of text messages don't contain any video game references.

GP: Also, let's not forget that this clearly demented person, is 25 - not an impressionable adolescent. Then again, as I've written before, the "blame the games" mentality typically kicks in on any high-profile rampage committed by a person under 30.

UPDATE: The Sydney Morning Herald quotes Japanese criminal psychiatrist Akira Sakuta:

One of the biggest problems in Japan is young people like Kato don't know how to communicate with each other or express their feelings. Stress and lack of parental affection cause them to retreat and, sometimes, to explode. This case seems to me to have been an example of 'indirect suicide' – by killing so many other people I imagine Kato is looking for the death penalty himself.

The Associated Press reports that a 25-year-old man went on a rampage in downtown Tokyo today, killing at least seven people in the famed Akihabara district.

The killer apparently ran over several people with his truck before stabbing 18 more. According to the AP:

[Akihabara is] Tokyo's premier electronics and video game district... known as Electric Town, [it] is wildly popular with Japan's cyber-wise youth.

A CNN report adds:

The Akihabara district, where the attack took place, specializes in electronic gadgets and video games and is popular with people interested in comic books and distinctive fashion.