Kotaku 
Enter your username and password.
Denver, 1:52 PM
Sat Nov 14
36 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip us: tips@kotaku.com
Editor-In-Chief:
Brian Crecente
Email | AIM | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Stephen Totilo
Email | AIM | Twitter
Senior Editor:
Michael McWhertor
Email | AIM | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor, Japan:
Brian Ashcraft
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, East Coast:
Michael Fahey
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Oceania:
Luke Plunkett
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Weekends:
Owen Good
Email | AIM | Twitter
Correspondent, San Francisco:
AJ Glasser
Email | AIM | Twitter
Columnist:
Leigh Alexander
Columnist:
Tim Rogers
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
And yes we established a nice pipeline of imported versions. The austrians make lots of money because of this, they usually have uncut versions of the games with german language. So many people order their stuff from there and the austrian export shops know of their monopol and rip us off with insane prices.
Anyway this newsarticle is old, it has been known for quite some time that an release in germany is highly unlikely because rebellion refuses to cut anything about the game. I hope more developers/publishers will follow that example.
Because than at some point we germans will end up with no new games at all and at that point mabye some change might happen.. #aliensvspredator
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/13/09
In their thinking it's possible for minors to "want" these game if they see advertisement for them or just see them on the shelf (even if they can't even buy them).
It's a stupid situation because most people just want to leave education to the goverment instead of taking care of their children themself. They rather would take out all mature entertaiment (including movies) out of retail shops to make sure that no minors get their hands on that stuff. This way they won't have to care about education themself, they won't have to take a look at what their kids are playing on their consoles, they won't have to take 5 minutes of time to apply youth protection on the console so the kid can't play games that are above a certain rating.
Overall it's the stupidity of the masses and the lazyness.
Doesn't help that the govemernt does host their own "GOTY" awards. And developers that win get some money from the goverment to motivate them making "good games". That whole thing is a complete joke, only german games can apply and it has been allready said that FPS games can't win an award because they can "never be considered good". That's the perfect example of the narrowminded thinking that's usual around here.. #aliensvspredator
11/13/09
In a way I can see some of the logic behind it from the Germans. What is the ultimate villan in movies and games? To many people they are the personification of evil to the point of almost not being human. The one thing that no one fears sympathy for and you can just shoot at and make the ultimate evil? Nazi's. But to them the Nazi's arent these faceless evil soldiers who arent people, they were friends and family that lived in a different time. They were real and it must be incredibly hard to see games based around the whole idea of murdering as many of these people as possible. Imagine if Americans had to see games built around killing American soldiers. Or people seeing a game based on 9/11 where you kill evil Americans? They'd go nuts.
Question for ou: How does it feel though to play a game where you shoot Nazi's and you have that tangible connection to the characters there?
11/13/09
And it's hard to tell if it makes them seek out more, from my personal experience i have to say: Yes clearly
When i was young the hardcore violence videogames where THE stuff to have. It's alllways been like "woah did you hear about thrill kill? that game got indexed! that sounds awesome, need to get that!"
So this whole censorship thing backfires, by making it "bad" they make it more interesting. They try to prevent that with all the indexing and restrictions (you can't mention any of these games in the papers because that would be considered "advertisement") but everybody living in a free society knows how well that works. It doesn't work at all...
Another funny sidenote: Did you know that after WW2 they passed laws to prevent "war toys"? Yup no toys that where shaped after weapons where allowed. I think the law is still in effect but nobody cares anymore.
But this is a pretty good example of the thinking going on around here. To many german politicans and "scientists" violence is something unnatural that only gets triggered by "bad things" and not a part of human nature. So they hope to eliminate it by removing/hiding everything that could trigger it.
About the nazi thing:
Todays germany is pretty much over that, because we get constantly reminded of it.
The TV is full with WW2 documentations about the SS and the Nazis. Most younger germans are fed up with it and don't care anymore because they have to learn nearly everything about it and even visit old concentration camps.
Nobody sees these characters as "germans" but they rather see them as "nazis" and over here in germany getting called a nazi is one of the worst things that can happen to you. Worse than compared to other countries where most people can use the word as a joke. Over here "nazi" is a pretty hefty insult and can destroy reputations.
So there isn't a real connection to the nazis like you think there would be. They are not considered german, or family or anything like that. They are just considered an evil of the past with no further thinking.
But to go back on the whole violence part: I think it can be pretty much compared to the issues the US has with such simple things like mild sexual content. The difference is that not many games feature something like that, so the topic doesn't pop up that often in the US.
In germany it's about violence and because violence is such a big part of so many videogames the whole topic enjoys way more attention over here.
10:27 AM
It's amazing the dynamic a culture can have with something horrible happening in their past. Here we do learn about the atrocities we commited also like the bombing of Japan and the entire Vietnam war but obviously that isnt the same. It's actually might be interesting to play where Americans are the bad guys instead of playing games where youre constantly the hero and theyre trying to shove an apple pie up your ass while they salute the flag.
Have gamers gottent ogether over there to try to repel the laws? Gaming is getting more mainstream and its big business and we all know money talks. Have any corporations like IW or gaming advocacy groups been brought to fight the laws? How about the ESRB? #aliensvspredator
11/12/09
It makes me wonder how the Australian censorship board will treat the game though. #aliensvspredator
11/12/09
The rating is not AvP's biggest problem in Germany, the lack of an audience is. Sega is doing the right thing by not wasting money on releasing it in Germany and instead seeking attention by blaming the German rating boards.
It would just be an 18 rated game of a franchise that is unlikely to attract more than 15.000 sales. #aliensvspredator
11/12/09
I could be wrong but it just seems strange to make such a statement. #aliensvspredator
11/12/09
and despite continued government efforts, the PC FPS crowd is huge there. the first AvP was a massive hit among said crowd in germany, so it would be fair to assume that the sequel will sell.
but nobody wants USK censored games anyway, so they just import. as i'm sure they will for the new AvP #aliensvspredator
11/12/09
11/12/09
AvP had 1.000.000 sold movie tickets in Germany, AvP2 sold 750.000 tickets. That is in the nowhereland between hit and flop, it'll make its money back, but it will require DVD sales to do that.
So far that is ok, but you have to calculate an attachment rate of roughly 10% when the game sales start. Actually less, because uncensored imports play much more of a role in this niche and piracy will occur.
It's commercially not viable to fully localize a game, if your sales are going to be that low. While there are Germans who love their AvP, there aren't enough of them to valid a local version. Which is not a bad thing, because those who do like AvP will know how to get it anyway and are likely to have a taste for the original language version as it stands. #aliensvspredator
11/12/09
11/12/09
Uwe Boll is one of the usual suspects for that kind of sales strategy, btw. (no matter if you like or dislike his work).
Also, there is virtually no cost saved in terms of localization.
Don't forget that there are still other countries that speak German, namely Swiss and Austria.
The only "overhead" that is saved is the time spent in the cutting room.
As of now, there are 2 main reasons for us to buy movies, games and comics in another country. The price tag and wanting to have the uncut version. A minority (I am part of it) also loathes bad localization and wants to get the English version, but that is actually almost always included nowadays anyway.
Fact for me is, I do usually save 10-20% if I order stuff from the UK, do get the uncut version (and don't mind if there is no German localization). Still, most people order in Austria. Not everybody around here is proficient enough to watch/play movies/games in English. By coincidence, those people are the major demographic who also buy the DVD, instead of going to the movies. #aliensvspredator
11/12/09
I got the game in the end, but I think that point still holds slightly true today. The problem that arises is that the more humanoid the aliens become, the less likely it is to brush it off as fanciful instead typical gore.
11/12/09
11/12/09
Though, thinking about the trailer... maybe not so... #aliensvspredator
11/12/09
04/17/09
04/19/09
That said, I'd prefer some DLC love over a full disc, but won't complain as long as I get myself some Poundcake in this one.
04/17/09
When can I expect Flute Hero: Jethro Tull??
04/17/09
04/17/09
04/17/09
04/17/09
It's when they release GH: Nickleback that I start burning things though.
04/17/09
VH actually have a kickass catalog of music. if they release GH: Nickelback or GH:Sum41, expect mayhem on planet earth..lol
04/17/09
I've played this game so much that I don't get any enjoyment out of it anymore, which is sad because it's so much fun at first.
And now they're milking the franchise with standalone GH games at retail price when this could easily be DLC.
04/17/09
"when this could easily be DLC."
But as downloadable content the 30-45 Van Halen songs alone would cost you $60 - $90. Add in the 15 - 25 "opening act" songs and you're getting at least $90 of songs for $50 or $60 bucks. And it's not crappy DLC that will vanish along with your console, or whenever they decide to no longer host the material. DLC is a rip-off.
04/17/09
04/17/09
"DLC is great cause you don't have to get songs you don't want.
That's the argument for iTunes, as well. I hate that argument. Pay a shit-ton more for a few songs you already love instead of paying significantly less per song and possibly discovering a few that grow on you and turn into songs that you love. People are becoming isolated into a little iPod world where they loop songs they loved pre-Pod and never find anything new.
"Once downloaded you can play it forever."
Get back to me in a decade, when the 360, Wii and PS3 are no more and the console you downloaded that content onto breaks. Let me know if you can re-download it. "Forever" means the life of your console or the amount of time Activision or Harmonix continues to license the songs and make them available for download.
04/17/09
04/17/09
I'm sure bored of that genre of comment every time there's a Guitar Hero/Rock Band or Halo article.
04/17/09
Sure, Activision makes a quick buck in a year...but then they take their own legs out from under them once everybody's sick of the thing. And it ruins it for EVERYBODY (including HMX)
04/17/09
04/17/09
You "washed your hands" of a video game franchise? Did it wrong you in some way (presumably soiling your hands in the process)? Guitar Hero: Metallica probably has the best note layout of any Guitar Hero -- at least the guitar parts.
04/17/09
04/17/09
1) Guitar Hero Aerosmith announced.
2) Guitar Hero World Tour announced just after Guitar Hero Aerosmith is released.
3) Guitar Hero Metallica announced in an in-game trailer included with Guitar Hero World Tour.
4) Guitar Hero Smash Hits announced before Guitar Hero Metallica is released.
5) Guitar Hero Van Halen revealed before Guitar Hero Smash Hits setlist is even made official.
At this rate, we should see at least one more GH title revealed/announced between now and GH:S.Hits is released to stores.
This is the problem with Activision. It was bad enough not even bothering to promote the CURRENT product in stores...but now they're undercutting new releases before they're even out.
And NONE OF THEM will support any of that DLC that's coming out for World Tour...which is just a scant 5 months old. Think about that. 5 months old and it's already three times over obsolete (GH:M, GH:SH, GH:VH).
Why should I be loyal to the GH brand when the makers of it don't even give two shits? Not to mention I can look at all these wonderful discs and kiss away any chance of ever seeing it as DLC.
04/17/09
04/17/09
04/17/09
04/17/09