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Added by Ryan on Oct. 27, 2008 59 comments
It's no secret that Germany has some very specific, very peculiar rules about the content of video games. What's good enough for the rest of the European Union is often not found suitable for der Deutchland. The usual triggers for a ban or a refusal of rating are intense violence and Nazi references, and the old joke is that the easiest remedies are to just swap in robots and green blood where necessary. Apparently these standards apply to box art too. As reported by Kotaku, here's the Left 4 Dead box as the rest of the world will see it.

























And here's the German-approved version.

























Yup, apparently Germany would rather keep its thumbs attached, thankyouverymuch. If this is all they can show of the box art, I cannot even fathom what the game itself will look like to our Bavarian brethren. "We've gotta take these filthy, mindless, bloodthirsty zombies out...on a field trip to the local science museum!" Coincidentally, it kind of ruins the magic of the original Left 4 Dead box art for me, having evidence that the model was just counting to four. It's a shame, because I'm profoundly amused by the 1:1 ratio of words to visual puns they've got going on. It's like I'm playing Classic Concentration, except that every solution revolves around Alex Trebek's insane desire to devour my brains.
Filed under : Left 4 Dead, Xbox 360, PC

59 Comments

dcpc10
on Oct. 27, 2008
I just saw this on some other gaming site, its pretty sad how bad censorship has gotten in germany

LordAndrew is online
on Oct. 27, 2008
The zombies have been replaced by robots in Germany.

sionweeks
on Oct. 27, 2008
That is sad...

Stabbers_McGee
on Oct. 27, 2008
there is a left 4 dead billboard across the street from my apartment. its kinda creepy going to work each morning and seeing a giant dead hand

makari
on Oct. 27, 2008
The guns also shoot bouquets of flowers

Player1
on Oct. 27, 2008
Wow.

Milkman
on Oct. 27, 2008
/facepalm

Bucketdeth
on Oct. 27, 2008
That doesn`t even make sense, wasn`t the whole ripped thumb off idea to show it was a zombie type game? now it just looks like the guy is holding up four fingers, silly german government.

erinfizz
on Oct. 27, 2008
I play a ton of German board games, and they take violence/war references REALLY SERIOUSLY. There isn't even direct conflict in most of them, that's left to American games. I hadn't ever thought about the same rules applying to video games, it must be crazy trying to modify and release things for Germany.

Simsfreak14
on Oct. 27, 2008
EPIC Fail?

kitsune_conundrum
on Oct. 27, 2008
might as well photoshop everything and leave the middle finger behind

Terrell
on Oct. 27, 2008
Definitely not a big deal. If this really makes some people so "upset" that they don't purchase the game, then they weren't going to purchase it anyway. Either way, it's not that big of a deal, certainly not newsworthy in my opinion. The "visual gag" is still present: (A Dead, Left Hand putting up 4 fingers). It's just cultural differences, that's all...

NinjaHunter is online
on Oct. 27, 2008
Wasn't there a movie poster for War of the Worlds like the Left 4 Dead poster? Except it was an alien hand with 3 fingers.

MackGyver
on Oct. 27, 2008
Well, they just put the thumb back. What can I say? At least they didn't completely rework the box art. They did keep the hand in there.

albedos_shadow
on Oct. 27, 2008
Side note:I was playing Classic Concentration last week and it's fucking awesome.

Superspiritgun
on Oct. 27, 2008
i thought it would be a robot hand....really i did

Junpei
on Oct. 27, 2008
that's actually really sad....

zoozilla
on Oct. 27, 2008
"I just saw this on some other gaming site, its pretty sad how bad censorship has gotten in germany"

It makes you think, though - is it bad there because they won't allow such an image to be displayed to the public?

Or is it bad here because we do allow it?

Destroyeron
on Oct. 27, 2008
Hopefully if you live in Germany you live close to a border to hop across and buy the real version lol.

Scratch
on Oct. 27, 2008
Honestly not surprised at all. After a while, this is what you come to expect from Germany.



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