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South Park: The Stick of Truth has been censored in EU (only consoles affected)

T

timetokill

Banned
I'm not surprised that the console versions would be censored. Consoles have a kiddier, err, family-friendly image. If I had to guess, Sony doesn't want a news story saying "PlayStation game has kids performing abortions."

Don't bother with the "but it's rated M" thing because we know the letter M is total kid bait. Just look at GTA and so on.
 
Marc

Marc

Member
I Wanna Be The Guy said:
You know, you're allowed to say shopto.
Click to expand...

tumblr_inline_mwdpkmNEQJ1s4sasa.gif


I know, but you can cough and get banned sometimes. Now you've said it I can at least drag you down with me, so yeah ShopTo doing that is pretty cool. :D
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
Backfoggen said:
Australia had problems with rating the game:
http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/19/5...truth-censored-in-australia-features-a-crying

Seems like Ubisoft is trying to put out a catch-all censored version for European and Australian markets.
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Yes I was thinking it may be Australia, who are of course even more of religious nutjobs than the US. But it feels weird to blanket censor the entire PAL region for that small market on the other side of the world. Then again, it's so out there that it must be true. God I hope this isn't a marketing stunt.
 
M

Mondy

Banned
spekkeh said:
Yes I was thinking it may be Australia, who are of course even more of religious nutjobs than the US. But it feels weird to blanket censor the entire PAL region for that small market on the other side of the world. Then again, it's so out there that it must be true. God I hope this isn't a marketing stunt.
Click to expand...

indy.gif
 
X

Xater

Member
Entire Europe having to live with this because of Australia is weird. This would be unprecedented. Shame on you Ubisoft if that is the reason after all.
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
Is there a confirmation that the only censorship on the PC is in Germany where it is only the Nazi symbols that are changed, or is more stuff censored?

If that is the case, I do not understand how censoring the probe and abortions sections make much sense even from a marketing perspective
 
N

Noble Neckbeard

Banned
Matt and Trey have been censoring South Park in syndication ever since the Muhammad episode. This isn't really surprising in that sense, but it's still disappointing.

Xenosaga III censorship nevar forget.
 
X

Xater

Member
Nzyme32 said:
Is there a confirmation that the only censorship on the PC is in Germany where it is only the Nazi symbols that are changed, or is more stuff censored?

If that is the case, I do not understand how censoring the probe and abortions sections make much sense even from a marketing perspective
Click to expand...

Yes I got confirmation from Ubi, just scroll up to see the tweet.
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
spekkeh said:
Yes I was thinking it may be Australia, who are of course even more of religious nutjobs than the US. But it feels weird to blanket censor the entire PAL region for that small market on the other side of the world. Then again, it's so out there that it must be true. God I hope this isn't a marketing stunt.
Click to expand...

What on earth?? You can't seriously believe that?? Have you ever been to Austria?

thumb.jpg


Edit - Dyslexia will be the death of me. Leaving unchanged
 
A

Appollowexx

Member
C4Lukins said:
It was impactful though. If this becomes a mainstream story it will only help the games sales in the end.
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I don't agree that a censored product will ever sell better. The effect will be detrimental as can be seen in this thread. Certainly sales in the EU will drop.
 
M

MYE

Member
I'm glad they censored it. I'm a 27 year old male that can't handle cartoon-comedy anal probing.
Thank you Ubisoft for keeping us pure folk safe
 
C

C4Lukins

Junior Member
Appollowexx said:
I don't agree that a censored product will ever sell better. The effect will be detrimental as can be seen in this thread. Certainly sales in the EU will drop.
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I see quite a few people in this thread who do not think it is a big deal, plus again, if the story breaks big it is only going to serve as free advertising for the game and increased awareness of its very existence.

I also tend to not believe people who say pre-order cancelled because of a single very specific decision involving a game. I am sure it happens, but not in any signifigant manner. And from what I understand, the censored version is going to have text describing the scene written by Matt and Trey which could end up more funny then the actual visual scene.
 
A

Appollowexx

Member
Ubisoft just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about European culture (I'm an expert), but experiencing art in it's original form uncensored is a huge part of it. It's not like it is in America where you can just make cuts and release PG-13 garbage. If you censor video games over in the EU, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the Euro public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase South Park: The Stick of Truth for either system, nor will they purchase any of Ubisoft's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Ubisoft has alienated an entire market with this move.

Ubisoft, publicly apologize and un-censor South Park: The Stick of truth for consoles or you can kiss your business goodbye.
 
F

Fusebox

Banned
spekkeh said:
Yes I was thinking it may be Australia, who are of course even more of religious nutjobs than the US. But it feels weird to blanket censor the entire PAL region for that small market on the other side of the world. Then again, it's so out there that it must be true. God I hope this isn't a marketing stunt.
Click to expand...

Lol wuuut? Some people, damn...
 
Huggers

Huggers

Member
Ubisoftuk shouldn't have bothered with a South Park game if they were going to bottle it and start censoring things. It's South Park, what did they expect?! Anal probes have beena. South Park staple since season 1
 
L

Lusankya

Member
Marc said:
Its always been ironic to me German law censors things like the Nazi's, which is exactly the kind of thing the Nazi's did. Do they ban the buddhists using the swastika as well?
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No, the context in which it is used is decisive. Also it can be featured in works of art, so e.g. the TV series South Park can show swastikas in German TV without problems. To bad the video game South Park isn't considered art.
 
X

Xater

Member
Lusankya said:
No, the context in which it is used is decisive. Also it can be featured in works of art, so e.g. the TV series South Park can show swastikas in German TV without problems. To bad the video game South Park isn't considered art.
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They are actually allowed to be used in artistic and educational contexts.
 
O

Ogni-XR21

Member
spekkeh said:
Probably has to do with retail versus digital sales. If games are unrated or put on the index in Germany, then no copies may be put in shops for children, no advertisements made etc. Effectively that means no sales. If it's censored in Germany but uncensored everywhere else that also means no sales in Germany. It's quite possible the German brick and mortar shops have banded together to put in demands at Ubisoft. Either the adjacent countries also get a censored version or we boycott your other releases like Watch dogs.

PC at retail conversely is pretty insignificant. Maybe South Park will be solely digital in the first place.

(Presuming it's Germany that's the culprit, could also be UK or whatever)
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Maxxan said:
Seriously disgusted by Germany's censorship laws, which I'm assuming are the culprit here.
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I honestly don't think that Germany is the culprit here.

1KskmS8.jpg
 
X

Xater

Member
Ogni-XR21 said:
I honestly don't think that Germany is the culprit here.

1KskmS8.jpg
Click to expand...

It isn't. That much has already been proven by the PC version being uncensored (save for the swastikas) over here.

That picture is pretty funny though. Also absolutely correct, the ratings board really only cares about violence. Everything else is kinda irrelevant.
 
K

kpaadet

Member
Appollowexx said:
Ubisoft just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about European culture (I'm an expert), but experiencing art in it's original form uncensored is a huge part of it. It's not like it is in America where you can just make cuts and release PG-13 garbage. If you censor video games over in the EU, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the Euro public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase South Park: The Stick of Truth for either system, nor will they purchase any of Ubisoft's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Ubisoft has alienated an entire market with this move.

Ubisoft, publicly apologize and un-censor South Park: The Stick of truth for consoles or you can kiss your business goodbye.
Click to expand...

Thank you.
 
1

1337

Member
Good lord, Ubisoft is really dropping the (Baseket) ball on this one. Was probably going to pick it up, but I am not playing something incomplete. Have better things to do with my time. This remembers me of the time my fried and I couldn't get into South Park The Movie and than just had someone else buy the tickets for us and everything was ok.
 
RoadHazard

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Sucks ass. PC version or nothing then. This is South Park, it should be allowed to be as gross and appalling as it wants to. Won't be paying for a censored version of that.
 
B

boredandlazy

Member
spekkeh said:
Yes I was thinking it may be Australia, who are of course even more of religious nutjobs than the US. But it feels weird to blanket censor the entire PAL region for that small market on the other side of the world. Then again, it's so out there that it must be true. God I hope this isn't a marketing stunt.
Click to expand...
What the flying fuck are you talking about?
 
M

Militant17

Member
spekkeh said:
Yes I was thinking it may be Australia, who are of course even more of religious nutjobs than the US. But it feels weird to blanket censor the entire PAL region for that small market on the other side of the world. Then again, it's so out there that it must be true. God I hope this isn't a marketing stunt.
Click to expand...
Hahaha. What? Religion has nothing to do with it, stupidity maybe but not religion. In fact religion is almost non existent in my city.
 
C

Card Boy

Banned
spekkeh said:
Yes I was thinking it may be Australia, who are of course even more of religious nutjobs than the US. But it feels weird to blanket censor the entire PAL region for that small market on the other side of the world. Then again, it's so out there that it must be true. God I hope this isn't a marketing stunt.
Click to expand...

What tha fuck? Pretty sure there are statistics to prove you wrong all over the net including the Bureau of Statistics.
 
D

dan2026

Member
So its Australia that fucked us over, great job.
Fuck Ubi too of course.

I thought you fixed of crappy videogame rating system a while ago.
 
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