Bethesda’s impressively large new game, Wolfenstein: The New Order was released yesterday on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. While this isn’t particularly big news in countries which have had the franchise since the 1980’s, there are two countries which have just released the game for the first time: Austria and Germany.
Wolfenstein: The New Order is set in 1960, and shows a world where the Hitler’s regime defeated the Allied forces in World War Two; as such, The New Order features a lot of Nazi imagery. Again, this may be something we are used to in a lot of Western countries, but Bethesda has had to censor the game to comply with Germany’s laws banning the use of Nazi imagery. Displaying Nazi imagery in Germany is punishable by three years in prison.
Pete Hines, the head of PR for Wolfenstein has commented on this censorship before, stating that “They have a thing about Nazis [in Germany].”
Despite this, Mr Hines confirmed yesterday that the German release was a franchise first: “In Germany, we’ve removed all Nazi symbols and references. Unlike films and other works of art, videogames in Germany are forbidden to use such symbols and references as they are classified in Germany as toys and not media art.” Speaking in an interview on Gamespot, he added: “[The Nazis] are called The Regime in Wolfenstein in Germany… it’s completely stripped of all the constitutionally banned content.”
Nic Bunce
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