The idea at least is more plausible than the moron who tried to pull a Holocaust allegory-car on this year's carnival here in Brazil.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

freespeech

People need to learn stuff happened and to move on. If it's tasteful and you're raising hell, then you look like a moron. If it's distasteful, you may have a point, but at some point, I stopped caring, so to me and others who stopped caring, you still look pretty stupid. People say it's "Too Soon" to make jokes after someone just died. Seriously, they're dead, get over it, get the jokes out, enjoy them, and then remember all the good times.

Codexx

I'm completely willing to forgive poor writing in Bernard's e-mail to Kotaku, but a quick glance at the provided screenshot in the article betrays similar errors in grammar and spelling in addition to unskillful diction.

I sincerely hope that he finds a professional writer with whom he can collaborate because the game can certainly attract a lot of attention on the strength of its concept alone. Whether that attention turns into critical acclaim --and presumably increase of genocide awareness-- must undoubtedly hinge upon the deftness of the game's narrative.

rapsodist

Nintendo doesn't seem to have an issue releasing it in Europe, where it would actually be the most offensive if people were to get offended by such a game.

I myself am actually confused as to why they wouldn't release this game in North America but have no problem doing so in Europe.

krunkjuice

kidko

Andrezao

doing

ChaoticLimbs

PurpleMonkey

juliopalio

juliopalio

I totally understand Nintendo but they have to define a clear line between what's proper in their policies or not

like for example...Voice Chat and In-game messaging. They're not releasing any statements on it and just wouldn't provide it and frustrating gamers worldwide

KaliKOtt

RawSteelUT

TearsandScreams

fturecord

and of course the germans are ashamed of nazis and the swastikas. normal non-idiots of the world understand that germans aren't proud of that era, but to ban a symbol from history is childish in a way. a "close my eyes and never see it again" solution to cover the shame of the past.

oh, and i also lived in germany for quite a few years. heidelberg to be exact. beautiful place, and my favorite that i ever lived in. i will return one of these days.

blackdice

Apreche

miniboss1232

Because (I lived and was born in Germany by the way) they are ashamed of it and would not like to publicise it in any way.

yeah, but even so, japan was a part of some seriously messed up disgusting things much akin to concentration camp experiments.

Yes, so were the Italians, the Americans, the Chinese, the Greeks, the French, the Romans, the English, the Spanish, blah blah blah. History related of course. I don't want to name any events specifically, but slavery, suppression, extermination, torture and executions come to mind.

Every nation has blood on their hands, in one way or another. The thing is that I believe nobody had expected genocide like that to be committed in civilized times as these.

Candlejack

remember Super Columbine RPG?

VakeroRokero

that's entirely besides the point though. i don't see why this game should be denied access to platforms in the grand scheme, but that screen shot is rather odd and does come off in poor taste. some nazi with a swastika on his hand telling this little kid about injections and sex change operations that would occur. wtf? that's not going to make it to the game. it's not artsy, it's not tasteful, and it just seems awkward. i'm all for this game coming out, but hopefully it extends beyond that mock up picture(which i'm hoping is a joke mock up from kotaku).

oh, and i don't think you're allowed to have swastikas in games in germany for some reason because they like to forget the past instead of accept it and move on from it.

blackdice

ElReyMysterioso-PBUH

KM91

Actually, it's already been announced that there will be no Nazis in Lego Indy...

What I'd like to know is why Nintendo feels it's OK to have 40,000,000 Medal of Honor & Call of Duty games on their systems, where Nazis are used in abundance for target practice, but it's NOT OK to have a unique and original title that deals with the horror of WWII in an artistic and non-violent fashion?

RubyMars

AndrewG009

otarumx

Special interest groups do this all of the time: get a whiff of something they can exploit and pounce without knowing anything more of the object of their scorn than a title or a fabricated scene. Ignorance should not be given weight.

GDK

So, to express myself better, I don't want to think about this sort of thing when playing videogames. Sure, it can always be present - specially in WW2 shooters - but I don't need screen popups telling me that Jews were castrated and tortured in the holocaust, then murdered. Thinking about it now just makes me feel sick.

Candlejack

If Nintendo can publish that, they can publish this game.

ManekiNeko

Most movies are "enjoyable, fun and relaxing"... Never Back Down, National Treasure 2, etc. But then there's the occasional provocative drama or hot-button documentary that can be just as interesting and enjoyable.

DreamToDream

Indie game designers want to support them because there's a perception that Nintendo is the innovative leader, but they are way behind when it comes to the actual content of games.

Check out this interview:
[blog.wired.com]

If Miyamoto didn't support the tame fantasy stories in Legend of Zelda, what hope is there for "Imagination Is The Only Escape"?

sugarhigh4242

@KMCC: Agreed. Let's see how they do the game first before making a judgment call.

Lyner

If I wanted to raise my "awareness" (which I am certain is higher than almost anybody's), I'd read it the fuck up in an encyclopedia or take a history course.

I don't want the holocaust or the related genocide crimes reflected or talked about in anything that I treat as enjoyable, fun and relaxing - videogames. Simply because there is nothing enjoyable, fun or relaxing to it.

My two cents, like them or not.

Candlejack

futurebiblehero

This game doesn't look terribly artful, but I could be wrong. Right now it looks like a strung-together platformer that spouts off random holocaust facts.

Rebochan

I guess I'm the only one of the opinion that it's kind of sad to see the holocaust invoked in an attempt to gain credibility in the "games are art" argument? Art Spiegelman's family was directly involved in the holocaust. Was the developer of this game's? If you can't bring anything to the discussion, then maybe it's best left alone.

It ultimately seems a bit tasteless to me. It's not that the medium is wrong for this, it's that it seems self-important and preoccupied with another agenda. The fact that everyone is already defending it without having played it is maybe not so much a testament to it being a powerful message silenced, but perhaps it's one to show how easy it is for instant credibility the second you take on such a topic.

In the end, this is not going to help the "are games art?" argument any more than a copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra helps a sixteen year old kid with tight jeans, an ironic t-shirt and spectacular hair be an intellectual. The other teenagers in his camp may be fooled, but not the rest of the world.

futurebiblehero

When ... in actuality.

Nintendo had no plans to release a game they have not yet even seen.

...

Seriously Kotaku? Seriously?

brent_w

ajay42

totoro

ok, deep breaths, that had to be said.

ggodo

incircles

2NinjasTapedTogether

Tale

However, I will say that such a game (this goes for other forms of media as well), needs to be executed in an extremely thoughtful, sincere and intelligent manner, or it will simply fall flat and shamefully become what ZSAVIOR describes above.

KMCC

If anything from seeing the events of the Iraq war, and Darfur, we repeat the same mistakes over and over again, and the reason is obvious. Movies and games have trivialized the events, and the only thing people now are getting from entertainment media is how easy it is to manipulate people into being ok with horrible atrocities, rather than being appalled by the atrocities and moving forward with action against them.

How many movies about Vietnam have we had, or Korea? We are still in the Iraq war, how many COUNTLESS movies have we had about the Holocaust, yet Darfur, and Rwanda was allowed to happen while the whole world watched. We are not learning from the past, we are just profiting off of misery in the future.

The best part about it is with all the media on the subjects the excuses for these events have not changed. Why did we go to Vietnam, to stop Communistic threat, why did we go to Iraq to stop the Terrorist threat, it never ends. After all is said and done there will be tons of award winning movies done on the subject, ground breaking shooters, and it will be right back to business as usual nothing will change. So why should Nintendo dip their hands in the blood of the past for a few extra dollars, when all the evidence now shows we do not learn from media telling us how wrong we were?

zsavior

Does anyone else like the art style? I like it, its different and cool at the same time = )

NightMystic

WhiskeyJak

The Maginomicon

the parent should play it with them and answer any questions they have. they may learn a thing or two themselves. then after an hour or two they can say, "alright enough games, go outside and play."

(i know it sounds like such a fantasy but it should be happenening)

jp182

If there Marketing team is worth anything they'll make a few National Holocaust organizations aware of the game before it releases and make the press aware that the game is coming out and what it's trying to do AND where the proceeds go for it.

While alot of people want to turn a blind eye to Darfur because it is terrible things happening to brown people, Bernard is trying to educate people about the past AND today's history. Nintendo can garner some GREAT publicity for themselves AND increase some DS sales potentially (if that market isn't already saturated).

jp182

Now everything is controversial??? Yes, running around with guns, repeatedly time after time, in games during WWII is just fineeeeeeeee, but alas a simple history lesson on what happen in the Holocaust to the millions of people becomes completely controversial and a topic no one wants to touch.

NightMystic

Nintendo are making video games kiddy! They're holding the industry back from maturing! How dare they, Nintendo, not release a game about the Holocaust! Oh wait, this is not Nintendo as the post's title insinuates, but Nintendo of America. Well, anyway ... what's that? It's coming out in Europe? Oh really?

In all seriousness, will people stop claiming that Sony and Microsoft are supporting "Mature" gaming and a "Maturing" medium? Wow, they have all these rated M games, but does that really mean that the content is maturing into a legitimate medium, or just that they are going with the mainstream model that Sex and Violence sells? Lest we forget, all three console makers ban AO games from their machines.

mjpm

Billkwando

Freezerman

ninjakiller

In any case, while reports of a ban have apparently been greatly exaggerated, I do see where people who have a problem with this game are coming from. The game just seems to be in bad taste. The holocaust is perhaps the most sensitive and important subject a child can learn about. To my mind it needs to be taught in an environment where the children can ask questions and have an understanding and supportive adult to help them work through the issues. A game, ESPECIALLY on a hand held, is almost always played alone, and this just doesn't seem an appropriate learning environment for such a disturbing and sensitive subject. Just a kneejerk from the above screens, but I can see kids having one of two reactions: the sensitive kids will be upset, and the ghoulish ones will go "wow, torture! COOL!", because a fun game lacks the proper context to really put the events in perspective. Maybe I'm wrong and the game is sensitive and brilliant, but there's always a risk of trivialising things.

The other part is an issue of taste. A game that a child will WANT to play independantly has to be fun. The holocaust, while undeniably an essential part of a childs education, is NOT fun. It just strikes me as startlingly inappropriate to try and mix these concepts.

Happykraken

splines

"The status of this game is currently concept / pre-production at this point in time," a spokesperson for the publisher told us. Apparently discussions with Nintendo have not even begun.

"[Imagination is the Only Escape] is only in its early stages. No one has blocked it, and it has no definitive time scale for release," the spokesperson continued."

aldo_14

11redder

Ajh

Gina-get-u

lestat730

omnibot2000XL

Bam345

Frank

I suspect that children portrayed as victims in this "game" may weigh more heavily than the Holocaust setting. For instance, children were not necessarily targets in Fallout 2, but had to be entirely removed from the game's UK release.

godot

Passa

Balius

cybereality

Jesse in Japan

Jesse in Japan

someone explain this hypocrisy to me?

sarcasm_eludes_you

SolFalling

I would really like to see JT get all riled up about this. What the hell would he complain about, how our kids shouldn't have to learn about one of the most troubling times in history? Or how this is somehow poisoning their minds to create a whole new generation of Neo Nazis?

Honestly, looking past all the business bull shit, this game would be worth the financial risk to release in North America and Japan.

You're making enough money Nintendo. Make it happen.

Thorax

Honestly, what's with the sensationalism, kotaku? I can generally take some jackass's misinformed self-righteousness in stride 'cause I know there are people like that in the world, but it kinda gets under my skin when somebody encourages other people to buy into that self-righteousness for completely unrelated reasons. You know how it's been brought up in this thread that certain types of people will blame video games for various things based on nothing but what they've been told by the sensationalist media? Well here we're gonna have people coming away from this article all too happy to say that Nintendo is obstructing 'art' or some shit just because this game happens to think it's better than you, and Kotaku does too.

SolFalling

godot

Ryumeka

andpin

Just as they don't feel Cooking Navi, Poem collections, electronic books, and the like Japan has, but aren't coming to the States?

After all, it's not as though Hotel Dusk set the world ablaze, or any other that was more story and literature then game in nature.

I'm not saying that is the reason, nor that I have proof or evidence in one way or another.
However, why must we always fall into the same pitfalls and go toward the assumptions abound in this post?

Kenofthedead

They did to some extent on the Super Nes, and possibly the Nes (before my gaming time)

Morberis

Nintendo is a business. As a business, their only obligation is to make a profit. Its bad business to publish a game that won't sell, and I honestly don't see where the market for a game like this is.

Edutainment only works on young children, and only when it's actually entertaining. I'm not seeing any hint of deep gameplay; in fact, given that the bottom screen appears to be entirely filled with text, it looks like a simplistic early SNES era platformer... There's no real integration of entertainment and education that I can see. To look at the limited screens I can find, the game looks like it has all the educational value of opening a textbook and using it to hide your GBA. If you look away from the action, you may learn something, but you have no gaming reason to do so and would probably get more out of either the book or the game if you didn't have both.

I'm all for meaningful, socially grand, and artistic games, I just don't think this is the vessel for that. I don't think people old enough to appreciate the historical context and the magnitude of the facts will enjoy the game, and I don't think the younger audience will care enough to bother playing it. I'd say that it's a game for parents to buy for their disinterested children, but most of what gaming takes flack for is that parents have no idea what's in the games they buy prior to the child running over their first whore.

Balius

hanzonaut

Xiedo

This game's description could've been:

"The game follows a young Japanese boy living in Hiroshima during the US attacks during World War II. In order to escape the horrors around him and the impending a-bomb, he imagines a fantasy land that becomes the basis of the game's world."

Point being, there's two sides to the story, if you can't handle it, don't try it.

Skunx

This would kind of blow all the "Nintendo are Nazi Sypathizers" crap that I've been reading in this thread right out of the water.

ハリセンボン

It's the Nazis, man. The Nazis.

Xiedo

Would anyone here say that Nintendo "censored" Mother 3 since it never hit North American shelves?

Miz

Reneg

True. Nintendo has been left behind before because they were afraid to innovate. However, to my knowledge, we (as a collective we) don't know much about this game yet and neither does Nintendo. It'd be a bit forward to immediately say "YES! We will publish this!" when they don't know much about the game yet.

@Fuzzysmith:

Well, the fact that Indiana Jones was heavy fiction with Nazis makes it completely different from a game who's main theme is the holocaust.
I'm not saying that I personally think this is some crazy "Nazi Hiter" game, I'm trying to see what the uninformed public would see.

@Grey_Fox:

It may be, but it's hard to expect a corporate giant to try and push the envelope. At least, that's what I think.
Take movies for an example. Do we get pissed every single time they release something like "Fantastic 4" or some other movie which is made for nothing more than entertainment? Well, maybe some of you do because you're film buffs or critics or what have you. However, most of the population gobbles this stuff up. Now, if someone was making a film about a particularly touchy subject, would you expect movie-comany things to hop at the chance to make it - without even knowing everything about it? (Sorry I don't know the exact words for what I'm trying to say, kinda just woke up and on not too many hours of sleep)

@Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.:

Unfortunate as it may be, I can't help but agree.

---------------

I think it would be great if videogames could expand as an art-form or whatever but it's still a relatively new form of media and a lot of people are still very uninformed about it and - for that reason - fear it.

Channing

I mean, step back and think here. Is it a good game? Maybe it's actually not a good game, more fixated on delivering its points than providing interesting gameplay. I don't know much about it; I can't be the judge. But to jump in there and shout from the rooftops that this game must be great because it's being "repressed" is...pretty silly.

The holocaust is as valid a topic for videogames as it is for stories of any other media, but Nintendo isn't suppressing anything by not releasing the game - especially when one could easily go out and read a book about the holocaust. The information is out there.

It could make a compelling game setting; of that I have no doubt. But, as previously mentioned, it could all too easily be turned to flame-bait for the media, and I wouldn't want to see that.

tenken

Zerozaki Ishiki

Jack Frost

xvorpsm

A game like this isn't too outlandish and shouldn't really pique anybody's "this may piss off the masses" senses.

It may be a very powerful and uplifting story but it may not see release because all people will see is a game about the holocaust and assume it's blatant violence and anti-semitism.

Not releasing the columbine RPG is totally understandable, this on the other hand is really pushing political correctness. What's sad is a game like Manhunt2 will see companies going to court to fight for its release but others won't give this a chance.

egyptomix

Jack Frost

Did a little hunting. Alten8 is a UK-based developer that largely self-publishes where possible. That means their focus is going to be on releasing in the UK, and apparently they've secured distribution partners through Europe. They just haven't got round to the other continents yet, and probably will when and if the game does well.

From Alten8's press release quoted in the NYT article: "Other regions will also be announced ASAP !!". Panic over.

randomnine

Garcian_Smith

swarmster

Both Sony and Microsoft has taken chances and the industry as well as gamers have benefited from it as the medium has expanded beyond its original premise.

What Nintendo is doing is staying in the same rut they have been for a long time. Anybody remember Mortal Kombat and its sweat?

PixelRambo

Just noticed the article that Xbox Live is sending children pornography. Why isn't this mother more informed about parental controls and measures to actually stop this kind of stuff from happening? If she heard Nintendo was making a "Nazi Holocaust" game, do you think she would do her research and find out about this game? Or do you think instead she would become outraged?

Another example is Bully. Before the game even hit the shelves it was already under fire for it's name. However, if anyone has actually played the game you're not exactly the bully. Well, you COULD be, but the game isn't necessarily about that. But look at the reactions it gets. It's already come out once before and the RERELASE is still underfire.

If everyone (mainly parents, media) could take a few minutes to actually read or reasearch what these things are about, they probably wouldn't be so adamamant about stopping the proliferation of video games. Besides, when it comes to media, sensationalism sells. What would stop some integrity-lacking news station from spouting non-sense about the new "Nazi Holocaust" game made by Nintendo?

Channing

platinum

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

Grey_Fox

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

Fuzzysmith

DeLoRtEd1

DeLoRtEd1

ndsOtaku

I'm sure a lot of us remember that school yard incident in which a child had pornography on his PSP and teachers and parents were led to believe that the PSP could pick these things out of thin air. What's worse is that - if I remember correctly - these people held Sony responsible for the pornography that these children got.

I think Nintendo is playing it safe and I don't see anything really wrong with that. Obviously they're trying to appeal to a large demographic and not everyone is as well informed as the rest of you. "Nintendo publishes Nazi game" could be the headline of a newspaper and that would not garner very good attention for Nintendo.

Of course, by the time I actually submit this comment (because I type slow and am slow in the head) I'm sure people will have numerous arguments as to why this should be made and already have a counter argument for everything I've written.
I mean, if you were Nintendo - which only recently has reclaimed a large part of the market - what would you do? Keep in mind most people don't research these games and just hear of them through sensationalist articles or word of mouth.

Channing

Or they just don't want to be bothered by Jack Thompson.

thefremen

Perhaps the word "game" is the problem.

elevenoverzero

Grocerspride

Then again, I don't know of any importer that actually ships games from Europe.

My name changed for an unknown reason

NessD12

DigiMish

Mit

LittleBigPlaneteer

odyeiop

juliopalio

waarbat

bluerondo