26 Controversial Games Pulled From Steam In German Crack Down

Published: May 31, 2016 10:00 AM /

By:


German

Scores of controversial games, spanning an era of over twenty years, have just been pulled from the German Steam store.  

The removed games:

    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
    MALE
    Painkiller: Black Edition
    Painkiller Hell & Damnation
    Painkiller Overdose
    Postal
    Postal 2
    Postal 3
    POSTAL Redux
    Rise of the Triad
    Rune Classic
    Shadow Warrior Classic Redux
    SiN Episodes: Emergence
    Star Wars Dark Forces
    The Chaos Engine
    TimeShift
    UberSoldier II

Various bundles that include the removed titles have also been pulled:

    Carmageddon Complete Pack
    Lucasarts Jedi Knight Bundle
    Nordic Games Classic Mix
    Painkiller Complete Pack
    Painkiller Hell and Damnation Standard 4-pack
    Painkiller Hell and Damnation Collectors
    POSTAL 2 4-Pack
    POSTAL 2 + Paradise Lost
    Rise of the Triad - 4 Pack
    Star Wars Collection - 2015 -RP
    The Apogee Throwback Pack
    The Chaos Engine 2-Pack

Whilst there has been no official word from the folks at Valve, this seems to have been done due to the titles appearing on The List of Media Harmful to Young People (also known as The Index).

This list is a collection of media that have various possible restrictions placed upon them to protect children from media deemed unsuitable. It includes things such as games, music, books and movies, and is run by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Person, a branch of the German government.

When a title is placed on the list, it is placed in one of two categories. Games placed on List A are unable to receive a USK rating, the German equivalent of the ESRB, preventing an official German release. It also means buyers of foreign versions must not make the game's content accessible to minors in any way. List A games can't be advertised and physical copies can't be openly sold.

That sound bad? Well, for List B games things get much worse. When titles are placed in this category they can't be sold at all within Germany, so no more selling stuff under the counter for example.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWqZxIeVmcU]

Steam has consistently removed these games from the German store. Alekhine's Gun is the most recent example of a game being removed in Germany, with this being due to its use of Nazi symbols which grants an automatic ban in this region.  

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcAowwmh8x0]

It appears that they have just done some cleaning up of titles that somehow managed to slip by. Although, how such controversial games as Harvester (seen above) and Postal managed to slip by unnoticed is sure confusing.

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


EggRaptor
| Past Author

Censored Gaming is a former TechRaptor Contributor.