Carmageddon: Max Damage Refused Rating In Germany

Published: June 17, 2016 10:25 AM /

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Carmageddon Max Damage

The pedestrian killing bloodbath that is Carmageddon: Max Damage will soon be coming to consoles and PC. The title is a racing game with an emphasis on combat and running over innocent bystanders as you complete your laps. However, due to what some would call “senseless” violence, Carmageddon: Max Damage has been refused a rating by Germany’s USK rating system.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEu-agoA4Rc]

What this means is the title will now be sent to the German government (the BPjM) for further investigation into its potential harm for young people. If found to be a threat to the country, the sale of the game may then be made completely illegal within Germany. This drastic legal outcome has, in fact, happened recently to 2015’s controversy twin-stick shooter Hatred.

The German government doesn’t always agree with the USK though. For example, Mortal Kombat X faced similar issues in Germany, where it was denied a rating and went unreleased. However, months later, the government came back with the decision that the title was actually perfectly fine – forcing the USK to give Mortal Kombat X a rating, which led to the game finally being made available in Germany.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDiqVjOkx0M]

Carmageddon Max Damage is a heavily updated version of last year’s Carmageddon: Reincarnation. The new title brings many updates and finishing touches to the PC-only Reincarnation and owners of Reincarnation will be able to receive Max Damage for free.

As it’s basically an update to an already existing game, you may wonder why Reincarnation didn’t run into this trouble over in Germany. It appears that this is simply due to games on Steam not requiring a rating, and thus, it was only brought to the USK's and the German government’s attention when it was recently sent in due to the new console releases.

Whether the already existing Carmageddon: Reincarnation will now face issues is not yet known. Nor is it known whether the publisher will somehow uphold the free copy of Carmageddon: Max Damage offer, for German owners of Reincarnation.

We've reached out to Stainless Games for clarification on that, as well as a statement on the issue. We will update the story as soon as there is more.

The title will be available for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and is releasing July 5th in the US and July 8th for the rest of Europe.

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EggRaptor
| Past Author

Censored Gaming is a former TechRaptor Contributor.