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27 games removed from Steam in Germany

H

Henrar

Member
Source in German.

The list of games removed:
Aliens versus Predator Classic
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold
Blood: One Unit Whole Blood
Blood II: The Chosen + Expansion
BloodRayne
BloodRayne 2
Carmageddon Max Pack
Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now
Harvester
Kingpin — Life of Crime
NAM
Painkiller: Black Edition
Painkiller Hell & Damnation
Painkiller Overdose
Postal
Postal 2
Postal 3
POSTAL Redux
Rise of the Triad
Rise of the Triad: Dark War
Rune Classic
Shadow Warrior Classic Redux
SiN Episodes: Emergence
Star Wars Dark Forces
The Chaos Engine
TimeShift
UberSoldier II

So what do you think about this, GAF? And what's "controverdial" in Star Wars: Dark Forces?

Remove if old.
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
I can understand some of them (Postal, Camrmageddon) but why on earth remove games like AvP and Timeshift.

Weird...

Wait, didn't TS have Nazi elements or maybe I'm thinking of the other time travelling game from Raven.
 
B

B_Signal

Member
Chaos Engine seems out of place with the rest of them. I'm assuming it dates back to the original release though
 
U

Unicorn

Member
I saw Timeshift and thought TimeSplitters was on Steam and I had no idea this whole time.
LLShC.gif
 
B

BKJest

Member
All of these games are not allowed to be sold in stores in Germany by our youth protection system due to excessive violence against humans.

Dark Forces (and others from this list) will be 'unbanned' if it gets another audit just like the old Doom or Quake games.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Dylan Sexbang said:
What happens if they owned any of the titles?
Click to expand...

Nothing. Valve doesn't allow publishers to invalidate user licences, outside of things like promotional betas. If PT were put up on Steam, it'd still be in user libraries.
 
C

Com_Raven

Member
These are all ancient games that didn't get an age rating (and as such couldn't be put on store shelves) back in the day.

If the current publishers go for a re-rating (eligible after 10 or 15 years I think?), they would all pass. That is what Bethesda did for Doom 1.
 
Surface of Me

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
Miles Quaritch said:
I can understand some of them (Postal, Camrmageddon) but why on earth remove games like AvP and Timeshift.

Weird...

Wait, didn't TS have Nazi elements or maybe I'm thinking of the other time travelling game from Raven.
Click to expand...

I dont understand any of them.
 
B

BKJest

Member
Corpekata said:
Given their ages I'm wagering some sort of distribution or jurisdiction dispute.
Click to expand...
They need a new audit process to be removed form our index. It happened for games like Doom and Quake or older titles like River Raid. Those games haven't been retested probably.
 
C

Com_Raven

Member
Jharp said:
"I can understand why some of these things are being censored in a first world Western nation."

Ugh. Germany, Australia, and the rest need to drop these inane fucking crusades.
Click to expand...

You don't seem to understand, actually. How are they being censored in this scenario?
 
V

Vuze

Member
Com_Raven said:
These are all ancient games that didn't get an age rating (and as such couldn't be put on store shelves) back in the day.

If the current publishers go for a re-rating (eligible after 10 or 15 years I think?), they would all pass. That is what Bethesda did for Doom 1.
Click to expand...
Isn't the rating process expensive though? I guess it wouldn't make economic sense to get them retested :/
 
X

Xater

Member
Those are all games that have been on the Index. Someone just bothered to finally remove them from the German store. Thing is all of these would no longer have to be on the Index, but no one is going to pay the legal fees for these games. Ever since MKX got through with a normal rating the flood gates have been opened and pretty much anything can get through. A publisher basically only has to point at that game.
 
M

Mivey

Member
The idea of these rating systems (or even worse, an "index" forbidding sales and advertisement to a certain customers) these days is so silly. Any child with a tablet and access to the net can see some really weird shit (if the parents don't give a fuck), but if you want to buy a game, the state has to "protect" you?
I mean, this is making Austria look like some sort of liberal heaven, for fucks sake.
 
woopWOOP

woopWOOP

Member
Can Germans still activate those products with Steam keys?
Because I know the Bloodrayne games were in a very recent bundle.
 
C

C4rter

Member
BKJest said:
All of these games are not allowed to be sold in stores in Germany by our youth protection system due to excessive violence against humans.
Click to expand...

That's not exactly true. You are allowed to sell them. You are just not allowed to show them on the shelves to the public and you are not allowed to sell them to anybody below the age of 18.

Edit: I see, you sort of corrected yourself a few posts later:
BKJest said:
Nothing. They aren't banned. They just can't be advertised or sold to children and youths below 18.
Click to expand...
 
A

andrerobot

Member
This makes sense for most of these games, as Wolfesteinklon is the word for FPS in German.

And Carmageddon, well, it's Carmageddon.
 
P

Palculator

Unconfirmed Member
andrerobot said:
This makes sense for most of these games, as Wolfesteinklon is the word for FPS in German.

And Carmageddon, well, it's Carmageddon.
Click to expand...
It's not. "Egoshooter" is. This is the first time I've seen someone say "Wolfensteinklon" so it's certainly not the word -- maybe a word in certain circles, but not the.
 
T

ThoseDeafMutes

Member
Timeshift? Lol. That's some real "Arson, Murder and Jaywalking" shit.

Also screw you Germany, they don't include historical nazi flags in hoi because of your laws!

*shakes fist*
 
B

Bedlam

Member
Huh, never knew that The Chaos Engine was not allowed here in Germany. I used to play it on my cousin's Amiga back then and I was shooting funny lizard people who blew up into puffs of smoke. Can't remeber seeing a lot of red colors in that game.

AvP

;::(

Glad I still have that on disc.
I should probably check the disc.
 
A

ArjanN

Member
ThoseDeafMutes said:
Timeshift? Lol. That's some real "Arson, Murder and Jaywalking" shit.

Also screw you Germany, they don't include historical nazi flags in hoi because of your laws!

*shakes fist*
Click to expand...

Didnt Timeshift have some alternate-timeline Nazis or something?

Most of these seem to be games that have swastika or other Nazi references in them.
 
P

Palculator

Unconfirmed Member
ThoseDeafMutes said:
Also screw you Germany, they don't include historical nazi flags in hoi because of your laws!

*shakes fist*
Click to expand...
It's worth noting that the ban on those symbols usually doesn't extend to art, but in terms of video games specifically the USK reiterated around the time of Wolfenstein: The New Order's release that the interactive nature of video games possibly enables harmful use of those symbols that is outside of the author's intention, a concern that I don't think applies to the new Wolfenstein at all but is somewhat justified for Hearts of Iron, considering you can use those games to live out fantasies of the Third Reich taking over the world if you are inclined to do so. Granted, that still doesn't mean the removal of those symbols should apply to all regions, but it's one of the few instances where I can actually understand the aforementioned concerns of the USK.

Also, it's a PC game so mods will fix it.
 
Xane

Xane

Member
Bedlam said:
Huh, never knew that The Chaos Engine was not allowed here in Germany. I used to play it on my cousin's Amiga back then and I was shooting funny lizard people who blew up into puffs of smoke. Can't remeber seeing a lot of red colors in that game.
Click to expand...

Had me baffled for a while as well.
 
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