Additionally, the majority of game companies refuse the production of AO material on their consoles, so Manhunt 2 was closed off for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. This rating, in effect, makes a game impossible to sell on US soil, as it can only be purchased by those over the age of 21, and only possible to find in specialist retailers. With Manhunt 2, the ESRB unleashed its most mature rating: AO, or Adults Only. The ESRB, and later the PEGI and BBFC purposes were to monitor the content of games, and then rate them depending on content found present in the product.ĭespite the formation of these different groups that aim to filter games to make them more appropriate, there are still calls for censorship of many different games, such as Manhunt 2. These games included such examples as Mortal Kombat, and therefore, the ESRB was established to help filter the content of videogames. During the 1990s, when game graphics advanced even more with the advent of the Playstation 1, Sega Genesis and other newer, more powerful consoles, games with extreme violence released.

However, these themes do not always induce censorship, as whether a game is censored or even removed from shelves altogether rests solely on the discretion of the age rating board for that nation. This was particularly the case when it came to the localization of Japanese games to the North American market, in order to censor content that was either violent, sexual (see Eroge) or religious (to avoid offending Christians).Ĭommon themes that induce censorship include religious materials (as will be seen later with Little Big Planet), graphic violence, and sexual activity. In the NES era, game graphics advanced considerably, and therefore content legislation began to come into play. During the Atari 2600 era, more explicit games such as Custer's Revenge were able to release with as much ease as relatively child friendly games. However, adult games were featured considerably during the era of the Atari 2600 console. Videogame Censorship initially came into play during the era of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Additionally, the German game board will not allow the sale of a game that displays the swastika, due to the history involving Adolf Hitler and the nation of Germany under Nazi control. No game sold in Germany can display red blood for unknown reasons. A very good example of this is Germany, who maintain a strict censorship law on games.

Some nations have extremely unusual censorship laws on videogames, that dictates that the game cannot be sold in the nation unless it is altered. The reasoning for this was that the Japanese people had twice felt the power of the atomic bomb through American bombing raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the events of World War II. However, this is not always the case, as proved by Bethesda Softworks, who willingly removed the atomic bomb from Megaton for the Japanese release of Fallout 3. Normally, when games are censored, the developer does not offer to alter the experience in order to avoid the censorship. This may be due to the fact that something in a game does not work with different territories, but it is most commonly associated with different ratings boards, such as PEGI in the United Kingdom and most of Europe (previously BBFC operated in the UK), ESRB in the United States, CERO in Japan, and the OLFC in Australia.Ĭommon reasoning for the censorship of games is that they are too violent, sexually explicit, or simply offensive to be stocked by many retailers.

Videogames, as a form of media, are occasionally altered for different markets.

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