Though Dead Space will arrive earlier in the United States than originally anticipated (October 14th for consoles, 20th for PC), other countries may not be receiving the game at all. According to the game’s community managers, Dead Space has been banned in Germany, China and Japan.
On the official Dead Space blog, community manager Ben Swanson wrote:
Unfortunately, we’ve recently found out that Dead Space will be banned in Germany, China and Japan. This is hard for us, especially after we got a chance to meet and hang out with so many amazing German fans and getting some great coverage at the Leipzig Games Convention last month. We’d like to thank the German, Chinese and Japanese communities for their amazing support and enthusiasm and say that we are truly sorry that you will not be able to find Dead Space in your local shop next month.
Swanson provided no indication as to why the game had been banned, and EA representatives could provide neither confirmation nor clarification by time of publication.
Though Germany is the only one of the three countries with a solid track record for banning violent games (despite confusion in 2005, China typically cracks down on titles that reflect poorly on their government, while Japan’s last major ban was GTA3), Eurogamer.de (via VG247) reports that the German version of Dead Space is still undergoing evaluation by the USK rating board.
Perhaps Swanson’s comments are premature in reference to Japan and China as well.
Thanks to Destructoid for the original story.
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