Binding of Isaac Denied 3DS Release Over Religious Concerns

@ajamafalous said:

@ArbitraryWater said:

@JakeLogan said:

Not surprising - disappointing but not unsurprising. Hell, go look back at the Ocarina of Time debacle.

To be fair, that fire temple music does sound a hell of a lot like Muslim prayer chanting.

He's probably talking about the imagery that was changed; dunno if he already replied since I'm not going more than a page deep in the comments.

Yes, I was thinking more about the symbols than the music - although the Zelda wikia tells me they had preemptively made copies with AND without alterations prior to release, the reasons for alteration not entirely explained other than PC blah blah.

http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Fire_Temple_(Ocarina_of_Time)#Controversy

Weird, weird business going on.

This isn't censorship.  This is just choosing to not be a part of something.  McMillen is free to design his game however he wants and Nintendo is free to decide whether or not they want to get involved.

Good to see not everyone uses this news article as an opportunity to take a jab at religion. 'Tis another reason to love the Giant Bomb community.
 
I'm honestly not surprised. Nintendo isn't the type of company to allow content people may consider offensive. The only surprise in this story is that McMillen thought this game would be approved by Nintendo.
 
As a Christian, I don't see any problem with the game. Would I ever play it? Probably not. But there doesn't seem to be anything offensive about it.

Oh religion,

*badum-tish!*

Was Super Meat Boy really going to come out for WiiWare? I am disappoint. At least I have it on PC.

Gotta say, I was more surprised that Nintendo was even considering releasing releasing BoI on the DS.

Super bummed out but not surprised to hear this news.

Whatever, now they are looking over over at PS3 and/or Vita. Works out in my opinion. Sony will put it up as soon as it gets an ESRB rating, they couldn't care less what it is as long as it isn't AO.

Speaking as someone who played the game - briefly - on the PC and did find its tone offensive, I don't think it was Nintendo's right to censor it. I can choose for myself what I do & don't find offensive and make my purchases accordingly. Next time, they'll be censoring something I DON'T have a problem with.

So why isnt this coming to vita or consoles?

A move that is unfortunately to be expected from a corporation pretty much exclusively in the business of producing children's toys. Still, good to read this as a news story on GB considering how much Nintendo pays lipservice to supposedly still providing entertainment of a bigger scope and for an adult audience.

Port it to PSN! I'm sure Sony wouldn't mind. Dante's Inferno was a much worse offender.

i just wish there would be an update for the mac version. the lack of cheevos unlocking is kind of a bummer.

@smellylettuce said:

The pursuit of pleasing everyone always ends up pleasing no one.

Better to piss off the tiny group of fans who wanted this then the millions of parents and religious groups.

Nintendo likes to brand themselves as the family friendly brand, having this game come out would cause a shit storm, a shit storm that isn't worth it. We (people who love this game) are below minority, we don't matter, we can be pissed all we want.

@DoctorWelch said:

Wait, what? This game is religious or anti-religious or something...hmm, weird, I didnt even think it really had a story or anything.

The Binding of Isaac's plot is a spinoff of the bible story with the same name. Isaac, a child, and his Mother live in a small house on a hill, both happily keeping to themselves, with Isaac drawing pictures and playing with his toys, and his mother watching Christian Broadcasts on the Television. Isaac's mother then hears "a voice from above", stating her son is corrupted with sin, and needs to be saved. It asks her to remove all that was evil from Isaac, in an attempt to save him. His mother obliges, taking away his toys, pictures, game console and even his clothes.

The voice once again speaks to Isaac's mother, stating he must be cut off from all that is evil in the world. Once again, his mother obliges, and locks Isaac inside his room.

Once more, the voice speaks to Isaac's mother. It states she has done well, but it still questions her devotion, and requests she sacrifice her son. She obliges, grabbing a kitchen knife, and walking to Isaac's room. Isaac, watching through a sizeable crack in his door, starts to panic. He finds and enters a trapdoor, just before his mother opens his bedroom door. Isaac then puts the paper he was drawing on onto his wall, which becomes the title screen.

The pursuit of pleasing everyone always ends up pleasing no one.

This just made me wanna go play some more The Binding of Isaac.

Funny story, that game also gave me a new appreciation for the original Legend of Zelda, so I played it some on my 3DS.

A Zelda-inspired roguelike sounds fun, but I just hate the hello-kitty-meets-garbage-pail-kids style of this artist. That said, its a shame Nintendo is still walling off their garden to more unique textures.

Admittedly "questionable" is exactly how I would describe the religious content of Bind of Isaac.

One of the reasons I am a supporter of Steam as a digital platform, is that they put the onus on the consumer to know what they want or don't want, instead of making arbitrary decisions about what might be successful or not. As a digital storefront, Steam isn't chained to its platform the way the consoles are....bad publicity (say from some mainstream news organization trying to fill space) won't tie a violent PC game to the fact that it was purchased on Steam, for example. But if it's on a 3DS, Nintendo immediately gets all the flak, even if a game is developed and released by a third party.

Of course, console makers are shrewd devils, and they also take a cut from every game sold using the certification process. Blame Nintendo, they forced a monopoly on cartridge production, taking much more per game than anyone else, which is why they took so long to go to optical discs. $3 per cartridge instead of $ .25 per disc, essentially. Though I expect Sony made up the difference selling memory cards.

Business deals aside, I'm still glad Steam is here to provide us with great indie games. For five bucks, or $2.50 when its on sale, Isaac is a great roguelike with a ton of character, and worth checking out.

Religion? This is the internet. Not even gonna open that Pandora's Box.

I was surprised when they even made Nintendo an offer. I'm not surprised by Nintendo's answer, though. I think the important thing is that this game is out, and it's great! Also, Darksiders was excellent. Bayonetta and Darksiders in the same month! What a month that was. :)

I think Nintendo is fine with something tasteless/obscene as long as it doesn't directly reference their own products. They're specifically trying to avoid being associated with filth that tries to look like Zelda.

What a shame. This game is fantastic, and it could work really well for commuters.

I think Nintendo is fine with something tasteless/obscene as long as it doesn't directly reference their own products. They're specifically trying to avoid being associated with filth that tries to look like Zelda.

@crusader8463 said:

Censorship wins again! I will never understand why people find the concept of not buying things that offend them so hard to grasp.

This is exactly the opposite of censorship. No governmental, parental, or administrative organization blocked the release, but the platform designer itself. It's no different than a consumer refusing to purchase a product for its content.

@djaoni said:

All religious people need to be shot.

And this (albiet hyperbolical) statement shows exactly why religious and anti-religious people are equally irrational.

To my mind, this strikes me as an overreaction to fears of creating negative publicity from religious groups. I mean, the game is still available and playable elsewhere so it's not as much of a big deal. Disappointing nonetheless

Please let it through Nintendo. One of my top 10 2011, would love to have it more places.

I might actually now get this game due to this, Thanks Nintendo for netting them a sale.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Nintendo is totally fine without this game.

That said, the one platform I'd be likely to play it on would be the 3DS or another handheld. So poo, I guess. Though it's still the most unpleasant looking god damn thing I can think of spending money on.

hey im with nintendo on this one..... it's there service and they can do whatever the fuck they want with it....

Well, I'm glad the comments stayed respectful and didn't just start hating on Reli-

Oh ok then, never mind.

@ThePhilatron said:

They cant just take out the intro? Thats probably whats causing the fuss.

I don't think it's just the intro, but there are a lot of other religious references in the game. A lot of the items are named from religious influences. And then you have a room where you go into and make a pact with the devil, with a pentagram symbol on the wall I believe. But yea, I can see why some religious activists can be against this game.

Waaaaaaaaaaait, are they not publishing it or are they not letting anyone publish it? Because if it's the latter, than Nintendo still hasn't learned their lesson from the mid-90s....

Such a shame. Especially since Isaac has the best religious themes in any videogame ever. But hey, Nintendo is the company tha made Square change "holy" to "light" in the early Final Fantasy games, right?
 
FYI, Nintendo, I've played Isaac about ten times as long as I've played my 3ds, which was mistakenly purchased at launch. It's stuff like this that remind me how backwards you are. I think you finally lost me as a customer after 23 years.
 
edit: Also, Patrick, stop ignoring the guy who actually programmed the game, Florian Himsl. Binding of Isaac was primarily made by TWO people, not a solo project by Edmund McMillen, which you seem to keep implying.
 
@Springfart said:

whelp, no reason not to sell my 3DS anymore then.

They cant just take out the intro? Thats probably whats causing the fuss.

@PrivateIronTFU said:

@Scooper said:

But I won't go into a religious debate because I prefer to eat this trifle.

Ooh, you have trifle? Can I have some?

Look. It's all man-made stories imposed on peoples to gain power from...

Oh. Yeah, sure. Help yourself. I got too much anyway.

How is it that nintendo think Mad World and House of the Dead are cool but this is a no no? You used to be cool nintendo (like 20 years ago), what happened?

lol there's barely any "religious themes". There's that little thing at the beginning I guess but you watch that one time. So lame Nintendo.

This game is not rated. If it were to be rated, it would almost certainly receive an AO rating because of its content.

None of the console manufacturers allow AO games on their device. Not Nintendo, not Sony, not Microsoft. This isn't a "oh, kiddie old NIntendo" issue at all but that's obviously the most simplistic and knee-jerk reaction one can have, so I guess that's why so many people are going with it.

(Not you, Patrick. Just the majority of your commenters.)

@JakeLogan said:

Not surprising - disappointing but not unsurprising. Hell, go look back at the Ocarina of Time debacle.

To be fair, that fire temple music does sound a hell of a lot like Muslim prayer chanting.

Hmmm, I didn't know Nintendo screened games like this. Just goes to show they really are running a child oriented company. I haven't heard any back lash against BoI, so I don't know what their problem is. You can play resident evil, but don't question the good word!

@Scooper said:

@MormonWarrior said:

@Scooper said:

Nintendo is just making sure they keep their 'Family Friendly' appearance, and selling a few thousand copies of this game on 3DS is not worth the crazy headlines and stories that they KNOW will happen that will sour their brand in the eyes of some portion of the American consumers (an incredibly worrying portion if you ask me) that take the word of the Bible literally (mentals). Some several thousand dollars is simply not worth the sensationalist twaddle that would end up happening.

It's mental for somebody to believe what the Bible says? That sure is compartmentalizing millions upon millions of people with varied belief systems and lifestyles.

I'd say believing a talking snake tricked a man made out of dust into eating a fruit that contained knowledge to be LITERALLY what happened to be pretty mental, yes. If someone is offended by me saying that, I have no problem with that. Just because millions of Americans may find that offensive to their beliefs doesn't make it any less mental. There's people in Africa that believe there's a great God at the top of the mountain that poured the contents of a magic sack onto the Earth that brought upon all life. Now that is just as crazy as any others, but I don't mind if someone believes that. It's fair enough. It's when the unsubstantiated beliefs hinder free-expression from happening, that annoys me.

But I won't go into a religious debate because I prefer to eat this trifle.

Ooh, you have trifle? Can I have some?

The Binding of Isaac is fantastic, however, this is the most unsurprising news of the day.

@MormonWarrior said:

@Scooper said:

Nintendo is just making sure they keep their 'Family Friendly' appearance, and selling a few thousand copies of this game on 3DS is not worth the crazy headlines and stories that they KNOW will happen that will sour their brand in the eyes of some portion of the American consumers (an incredibly worrying portion if you ask me) that take the word of the Bible literally (mentals). Some several thousand dollars is simply not worth the sensationalist twaddle that would end up happening.

It's mental for somebody to believe what the Bible says? That sure is compartmentalizing millions upon millions of people with varied belief systems and lifestyles.

I'd say believing a talking snake tricked a man made out of dust into eating a fruit that contained knowledge to be LITERALLY what happened to be pretty mental, yes. If someone is offended by me saying that, I have no problem with that. Just because millions of Americans may find that offensive to their beliefs doesn't make it any less mental. There's people in Africa that believe there's a great God at the top of the mountain that poured the contents of a magic sack onto the Earth that brought upon all life. Now that is just as crazy as any others, but I don't mind if someone believes that. It's fair enough. It's when the unsubstantiated beliefs hinder free-expression from happening, that annoys me.

But I won't go into a religious debate because I prefer to eat this trifle.

Not really surprising is it? I doubt it's only religious reasons though, there's a lot more in the game that Nintendo probably didn't like.

Also, seeing the comments, I'm disappointed that even Giant Bomb has its share of people who scapegoat 'stupid religious people'.

@MormonWarrior said:

@Scooper said:

Nintendo is just making sure they keep their 'Family Friendly' appearance, and selling a few thousand copies of this game on 3DS is not worth the crazy headlines and stories that they KNOW will happen that will sour their brand in the eyes of some portion of the American consumers (an incredibly worrying portion if you ask me) that take the word of the Bible literally (mentals). Some several thousand dollars is simply not worth the sensationalist twaddle that would end up happening.

It's mental for somebody to believe what the Bible says? That sure is compartmentalizing millions upon millions of people with varied belief systems and lifestyles.

I haven't checked out this game (even though I love Meat Boy) because it looks hideous and boring. The weird pseudo-religious junk in the game is nearly meaningless...I just thought it looked like a garbage game. Nothing I've seen or heard has convinced me otherwise.

Yup, that totally didn't come across as petty, vindictive or religiously motivated at all. Clearly you really think that this highly critically acclaimed game that you've never even played just sort of sucks for no discernible reason.

I predict next weeks article in which a release date is announced putting it right after Xenoblade and the Last Story.

@djaoni said:

All religious people need to be shot.

How are you any better then?

edit. Still a damn shame that this game isn't coming to 3DS - it could have been the one that made me purchase a 3DS.

@Scooper said:

Nintendo is just making sure they keep their 'Family Friendly' appearance, and selling a few thousand copies of this game on 3DS is not worth the crazy headlines and stories that they KNOW will happen that will sour their brand in the eyes of some portion of the American consumers (an incredibly worrying portion if you ask me) that take the word of the Bible literally (mentals). Some several thousand dollars is simply not worth the sensationalist twaddle that would end up happening.

It's mental for somebody to believe what the Bible says? That sure is compartmentalizing millions upon millions of people with varied belief systems and lifestyles.

I haven't checked out this game (even though I love Meat Boy) because it looks hideous and boring. The weird pseudo-religious junk in the game is nearly meaningless...I just thought it looked like a garbage game. Nothing I've seen or heard has convinced me otherwise.