11 years ago Germany effectively banned Dead Island’s release in the country. The follow-up, Dead Island: Riptide, was banned a year later. No specific explanations for the banning were ever provided. It was placed on a rating list typically reserved for content featuring violent torture or Nazi references. Germany decided that Dead Island, which admittedly is a very violent and gory game, wasn’t suitable for young persons and as a result banned the game from being sold to adults, too. It should be noted that Germany did relax its ratings and unbanned Dead Island in 2019.
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The good news is that Germany has approved Dead Island 2 for a USK 18 rating. This rating states the game is suitable for adults only and not approved for young persons, but still allows for the game to be sold. The bad news is that, in order to get this rating, developer Dambuster Studios has had to make some changes to meet the censors’ expectations.
According to reports regarding the rating, Dead Island 2 has had to make one strange accommodation. After zombies have been killed by axes, clubs, or molotov cocktails, players will no longer be able to “interact” with the corpses. Assumedly, this means the dead zombie models won’t have physics enabled, so they’ll be frozen or fade away. It’s possible Dead Island 2 allowed for a more complicated type of interaction with corpses, after all it is a brutally violent zombie game, but there’s no indication of that.
What’s worse, however, is that the USK rating also means Dead Island 2 players playing online can’t play with those using another version of the game. That means German players will only be able to play with other German players. Note that these restrictions will also impact some areas of Austria.
It may seem irrational for a ratings board to assign a game a rating restricting it only to adults, only to then require it be further censored. That’s unfortunately just the nature of the USK’s censorship in Germany, however. It’s been criticized for excessive censorship that goes beyond legal requirements in the past, but there’s little to be done. Dead Island 2 will at least be available in Germany at launch, and the censorship shouldn’t be too noticeable other than for those who wanted to play co-op with friends internationally.
Dead Island 2 releases April 28, 2023, on PC, PS4, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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Source: Games Wirtschaft (via ResetEra)
