Censorship is a pervasive issue all across the world, but nowhere is it more evident than it is in China. Here, media content falls under extreme scrutiny before it can be released to the public, and video games are no different.
Chinaās Ministry of Culture has, over the years, released public notices denouncing certain games for content-related issuesāgames such asBattlefield 4ābanning them as well as admonishing them.
https://lastchance.cc/battlefield-4-illegal-in-china-but-it-wasnt-for-sal-1490808375%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Games can get banned by the Ministry of culture for a myriad of reasons. Sometimes these reasons are so tenuous or intangible that they donāt really make sense. On top of that, ever since the āconsole banā in 2000, console games on the whole are technically not allowed in China: since consoles cannot be sold openly in the country, the ministry doesnāt inspect these games at all.
https://lastchance.cc/why-are-consoles-banned-in-china-5587577%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Many console games that were ported to the PC were allowed into China as well, even though some PC games are banned; itās common knowledge among Chinese gaming press, for example, that Ubisoftās Assassinās Creed III wasnāt allowed to go on sale in China despite not being actually banned.
Itās not 100% clear what deems a game unfit for sale in China. The three official criteria are promoting gambling, promoting drugs, and portraying China in a bad light. These pretty much guarantee that Grand Theft Auto will never legally enter China.
The following is a list of 39 games so ābadā that the Chinese government deemed it necessary to openly denounce them. The list is from 2011 and was originally āleakedā by Chinese gaming website 173173.com and gaming forum 3DGame.com
1) Call of Duty 2
2) CoD 4: Modern Warfare
3) CoD 5: World At War
4) CoD: Modern Warfare 2
5) Shellshock Nam ā67
6) Shellshock 2 Blood Trails
7-19) Everything related to Grand Theft Auto
20) Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
21) Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days
22) Mafia
23) Mafia 2
24) Saintās Row
25) Saintās Row 2
26) Total Overdose
27) True Crime: New York
28) Ture Crime: Streets of LA
29) Mercenaries
30) Mercenaries 2
31) 50 Cent: Bulletproof
32) 50 Cent: Blood on The Sand
33) Godfather
34) Godfather 2
35) Scarface
36) Crackdown
37 ā 39) The whole Siren series.
The following games arenāt listed but are publicly known to be banned in China.
Command and Conquer: Generals
Battlefield 4
Looking at the above list, the biggest āgenreā that China seems to dislike are games related to organised crime. Itās interesting that the games on the public lists are mostly console games. There are lists of banned PC and mobile games, but theyāre mostly related to gambling and the like.
Ministry of Culture,3Dgame.com
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian Internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.
Eric is a Beijing based writer and all around FAT man. You can contact him @[emailĀ protected] or follow him on Twitter @FatAsianTechie
