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Why was Conker: Live & Reloaded so heavily censored?

daTRUballin

Member
So a couple days ago, I got Conker's Bad Fur Day for my N64 and have been playing it for the past two days. This is actually my first time playing the game properly, and I'm enjoying it so far.

But I've been thinking about Conker: L&R recently, and I was wondering why the game was so heavily censored compared to the original. I've never played the remake, but from what I've seen and heard, it's way more censored. This makes no sense at all. It's kinda mind boggling actually. Why would a remake on the Xbox be way more censored than its N64 counterpart? Seems like it would be the other way around, wouldn't it? Was it Microsoft that censored it, or was it Rare themselves who made the decision?

I always hear about the remake being more censored, but I've never really heard the reason why it was. I've had this question for awhile now, and I want it answered once and for all. :p

Does anybody here on GAF know?
 
In thought the bleeps in the remake were more funny. Sometimes less is more.
Plus the remake cut that shitty swimming heist section.
 
In thought the bleeps in the remake were more funny. Sometimes less is more.

The original already had plenty of bleeps tho. And I recall them ruining the Great Mighty Poo's song, though I can't recall if that was because of more bleeps, or just the weird audio skip only in the Xbox version
 

RK128

Member
I think the real reason was that retailers at the time refused to sell the game (like Wal-Mart and others) due to the games mature content. The ratings system would have worked fine, but due to other issues in the past (maybe GTA San Andreas's Hot Coffee content scared retailers from releasing mature games?) pushed them to say 'No' to Microsoft and Rare in putting the game on shelves.

So, they push back the game two or so months to edit the game (censoring words and the like) to help the game get on store shelves. Sadly, this prevented the game from not being as great as it was on the N64, but its gameplay fixes and online mode made it worth re-visiting the classic :).

Maybe Microsoft and Rare could re-release the Live and Reloaded Remake on X1 through Rare Replay at some point.
 

daTRUballin

Member
I think the real reason was that retailers at the time refused to sell the game (like Wal-Mart and others) due to the games mature content. The ratings system would have worked fine, but due to other issues in the past (maybe GTA San Andreas's Hot Coffee content scared retailers from releasing mature games?) pushed them to say 'No' to Microsoft and Rare in putting the game on shelves.

So, they push back the game two or so months to edit the game (censoring words and the like) to help the game get on store shelves. Sadly, this prevented the game from not being as great as it was on the N64, but its gameplay fixes and online mode made it worth re-visiting the classic :).

Maybe Microsoft and Rare could re-release the Live and Reloaded Remake on X1 through Rare Replay at some point.

Yeah, I remember reading somewhere that retailers were scared of putting the game on the shelves, so Rare/MS censored it so that retailers wouldn't be so reluctant to sell it. I guess that could be the reason?
 
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that the Hot Coffee incident spooked retailers enough to put BFD on the backburner for Rare. (Didn't it come out relatively close to when Hot Coffee started blowing up?)
 
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that the Hot Coffee incident spooked retailers enough to put BFD on the backburner for Rare. (Didn't it come out relatively close to when Hot Coffee started blowing up?)

How is it that Hot Coffee still feels like a relatively recent event, while Conker: Live & Reloaded feels like forever ago. Time, I don't get you!
 

RK128

Member
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that the Hot Coffee incident spooked retailers enough to put BFD on the backburner for Rare. (Didn't it come out relatively close to when Hot Coffee started blowing up?)

Well GTA SA came out in late 2004 on the PS2, and Conker came out sometime early 2005 on Xbox.

I think you are right, as the Hot Coffee issue popped up early 2005, so that might have pushed Rare and Microsoft to censor the game to prevent their remake being another target with 'Violence in Video Games' issue.

In fact, I think 2004 and 2005 was when that became a massive issue with the media, with reports on violent video games popping up everywhere and even some kind of special/movie on G4 talking about the history of the game ratings in that year.
 

ElRenoRaven

Gold Member
Honestly nobody can tell you. Nobody involved has said. It's actually one of the burning questions fans have wanted to know related to it. Makes no sense. You announce it as live and uncut and then you do a 180 and censor it more. Made no sense at all.
 

daTRUballin

Member
How is it that Hot Coffee still feels like a relatively recent event, while Conker: Live & Reloaded feels like forever ago. Time, I don't get you!

It's probably because Hot Coffee was this huge event that caused so much controversy, and Conker was pretty much ignored on both the N64 and Xbox.
 

daTRUballin

Member
Well GTA SA came out in late 2004 on the PS2, and Conker came out sometime early 2005 on Xbox.

I think you are right, as the Hot Coffee issue popped up early 2005, so that might have pushed Rare and Microsoft to censor the game to prevent their remake being another target with 'Violence in Video Games' issue.

In fact, I think 2004 and 2005 was when that became a massive issue with the media, with reports on violent video games popping up everywhere and even some kind of special/movie on G4 talking about the history of the game ratings in that year.

Well, actually, I'm going to correct you and say that Conker came out in June 2005. But I think your theory could still hold true either way. :p
 

Metal-Geo

Member
The weirdest part? Finishing the single player mode unlocks the Potty Mouth mode in multiplayer. Which means you get to hear the squirrel army guys yell out stuff like "die you cock suckers" and "mother fuckeeeeeeers!!" completely uncensored.

Maybe it's because online multiplayer sections of some games aren't rated or whatever... But I still find it an odd decision on Rare's part.
 
Considering the amount of bombs Chris Seavor drops on his twitter relating to Conker other bad fur day(sequel) and bfd development i would be suprised if he didn't answer a fan's question about this.
 

sn00zer

Member
there was originally plan to release it uncut....I thin the the original title was "Conker: Live, Reloaded, and Uncut"....which made sense for the Xbox audience
 

ElRenoRaven

Gold Member
there was originally plan to release it uncut....I thin the the original title was "Conker: Live, Reloaded, and Uncut"....which made sense for the Xbox audience

It was just called Conker: Live & Uncut. Reloaded replaced Uncut when they changed direction.
 

-shadow-

Member
I'm not sure, but I believe one if the devs once said on Twitter that Microsoft got cold feet about the game being uncut. But I can be mistaken. It's been a while.
 

Lazaro

Member
Still hope they revisit for rare replay. Seemed to be the main game everyone but wasn't there.

If you follow Rare Replay in the Xbox Hub. Every post made by Rare is riddled with player comments asking for a port of Live and Reloaded.

The players are right though. At least a port with just the multiplayer side of Live and Reloaded.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
If you follow Rare Replay in the Xbox Hub. Every post made by Rare is riddled with player comments asking for a port of Live and Reloaded.

The players are right though. At least a port with just the multiplayer side of Live and Reloaded.

Yeah especially since we know they can port og Xbox games, since we got grabbed by the ghoulish.
 

ElRenoRaven

Gold Member
If you follow Rare Replay in the Xbox Hub. Every post made by Rare is riddled with player comments asking for a port of Live and Reloaded.

The players are right though. At least a port with just the multiplayer side of Live and Reloaded.

Can't blame them. The changes and tweaks made the game so much better. The N64 version really did not age as Gracefully as people think. The aiming in it in the undead area is atrocious. Live and Reloaded tweaked that and made it so much better.
 
The Hot Coffee theory isn't bad but Conker hit late June 2005.

ESRB investigated Hot Coffee July 8, 2005 giving the AO rating on July 20th.

Hot Coffee blew up with the PC mod and the PC version of GTA SA was early June 2005. Can't find dates before then but basically the ESRB reoccupations had not happened yet.

It is clear something happened during development due to the original title being Conker: Live and Uncut (speaking of which a few years ago an uncensored N64 prototype was uncovered, I don't know if was ever dumped).

I wonder if MS were trying to get it down to a T rating and just failed horribly.

Still it is odd with how some of the dev team are ex Rare and a few even interviewed the interviewer never brings up this censorship issue as it remains a large question mark on this game.
 

scitek

Member
I always thought it was a shame they basically released it to die on the OG Xbox. By the time this was out, the hype for the next generation was already in full-swing, so no one really cared about it. The multiplayer stood no chance at any sort of lasting userbase due to this, in particular. Very short-sighted on MS's part.
 

Camjo-Z

Member
As far as I can recall, the only thing that got censored were the curse words. It is possible that they chose to self-censor because they thought it was funnier (they did this in the N64 version, you'll notice "fuck" is the only consistently censored word) but it's equally likely that Microsoft had something to do with it.
 

daTRUballin

Member
I always thought it was a shame they basically released it to die on the OG Xbox. By the time this was out, the hype for the next generation was already in full-swing, so no one really cared about it. The multiplayer stood no chance at any sort of lasting userbase due to this, in particular. Very short-sighted on MS's part.

Wasn't Rare taking forever with the game and it kept getting delayed over and over again? The whole narrative on GAF back then was that Rare was "taking forever".
 

nubbe

Member
Big ass warning label tells me Microsoft was spooked

AFNA1AM.jpg
 

TimmiT

Member
The original already had plenty of bleeps tho. And I recall them ruining the Great Mighty Poo's song, though I can't recall if that was because of more bleeps, or just the weird audio skip only in the Xbox version
I don't remember the Xbox version having an audio skip in that song.
 
I don't remember the Xbox version having an audio skip in that song.

Weird, always happened in the same spot for me. Either way, I just rewatched it, and they did indeed censor it way more with obnoxious fart sounds that ruin the song. They also added an annoying echo effect that makes the song sound like it's being played through a tiny radio or something
 
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