Censored Gaming

David Leyonhjelm, Australian Liberal Democratic Party Senator, has recently slammed the county's censorship of video games, citing examples such as Outlast 2's recent ban. He believes that video games are being treated much too harshly and that the country should ease up on restrictions.

JonTron has been removed from the upcoming Kickstarter-backed video game Yooka-Laylee, due to their recent controversial comments regarding topics such as race and immigration.

Nintendo's internal localization group, Nintendo Treehouse, has created their own blog over on Tumblr called the Treehouse Log.

Outlast 2 has now been assigned an R18+ rating in Australia, following previously being refused classification. The classification board has explained that content had to be "modified" for it to pass and it appears that this censored version will be one that the rest of the world receives as well.

The mobile RPG King's Raid recently censored many of its female characters' revealing appearances. Then, the day after, Vespa announced that they would be restoring the old designs, due to fan complaints.

It has been discovered that the German version of Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is rated only USK 6, a massive difference to the ESRB M and PEGI 16 ratings. Censorship however is unlikely, especially considering Idea Factory International has promised to not alter any content anymore during localization.

Red Barrels has confirmed that the version of Outlast 2 that was banned in Australia will not be released at all, even in the rest of the world. Apparently this version was an old version, however, and was not supposed to have been submitted for a rating.

An Overwatch player has had their character's name changed, despite it not appearing to breach Blizzard's rules. The name in question was Trump4Prez, after the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump.

This video takes a look at how the Nintendo Switch's ACA NeoGeo line of games handle the Neo Geo's censorship of English versions.

The Financial Times recently spoke to various people in the Chinese video game industry about the region's strict censorship of games.

Inti Creates CEO, Takuya Aizu, was recently interviewed by DualShockers and offered some new info on Inti Creates titles, such as Gal*Gun Double Peace, Gal*Gun VR and Blaster Master Zero.

We take a look at how Megami Inbunroku Persona, aka Revelations: Persona or Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, was changed outside of Japan.

Quite a depressing update folks - sorry!

YouTube has made further changes to the Partner Program. so that channels with less than 10k channel views won't be able to get paid. Also, for channels that hit 10k, they must now let YouTube review their content and be approved, before being allowed to join.

XSEED is back with another Q&A.

The song Piano x Forte x Scandal, from Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone's new 3rd Encore Pack DLC, has had its artwork changed outside of Japan. It's not currently known why this alteration has been made.

The latest Nintendo Direct has revealed that a new Senran Kagura game is coming to Nintendo Switch, titled Shinobi Refle: Senran Kagura.

Here's JonTron's dialogue that cut from Yooka-Laylee, as well as a comparison of what it was replaced with.

The PS4 version of Kingdom Hearts 2 is still censored outside of Japan.

An English release of Fate/Grand Order has been announced and, whilst no changes to the Japanese version are planned, this will depend on whether there are any issues with age ratings.

The Nintendo Switch version of The King Of Fighters '98 completely removes the lyrics and sound effects from the game's controversial intro.

For the 1 year anniversary of Quantum Break, developers Remedy Entertainment revealed some interesting memories from working on the game, including a few that are very relevant to what Censored Gaming covers.

The ESRB has recently revealed that Stardew Valley has had it's rating reduced from Teen to E10+. There has currently been no official explanation for the new rating.

This is the final version of the scene that was originally banned in Australia. No footage currently exists of what the scene looked like before it was replaced.

This video takes a look at how and why Hyper Universe is censored in the West.

This video takes a look at 8 games that were banned for reasons that may seem particularly unusual.

This video takes a look at 8 NES games that broke Nintendo's "family friendly" policy and would usually been cemsored.

The Australian version of Call of Duty: WW2 has had a story scene altered and it's currently not known if this change will also be made worldwide.

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory has a pre-order bonus over in Japan, where you will receive the Digimon "Sistermon Noir". In the US, however, players will intead receive a never before seen Digimon "Sistermon Ciel" for pre-ordering and the game's producer has confirmed that this was due to US sensibilities over religion. As for the European version, any pre-order bonuses have yet to be announced.

This video takes a look at PETA'S flash games and covers all of the ones so far that have parodied video games and criticised how they treat animals.

Blue Reflection has just updated the Western versions to include the Model Viewer, a feature that's been available in Japan since July 7th. This feature, however, has been changed from how it functions in the original Japanese version. It is now no longer possible to rotate the camera below waist height and, at this stage, it's not known why this change has been made.

This video takes a look at the Japanese version of Call of Duty: WWII censoring instances of dismemberement, to comply with the Japanese CERO rating system's guidelines.

The German version of Call of Duty: WWII have mistakenly censored a scene that was supposed to only be toned down Japanese versions of the game.

This video takes a look at how Super Mario Kart was changed outside of Japan.