Many video games have certain elements removed or edited due to regional rating standards.
Seventh generation (2004–2013)
Some titles in the PlayStation 3 library have been censored according to the console hardware, resulting in consoles from certain regions directly altering game content, regardless of the region in which the game was produced.
- Beyond: Two Souls – The European version of the game is censored to keep the PEGI rating at 16 instead of 18. Two changes were made to the version, amounting to 5–10 seconds of gameplay.[28]
- The Last of Us – The European release of the game is censored as it does not feature dismemberment and exploding heads in the multiplayer mode.[29] The Japanese version is censored, as dismemberment is not possible. A scene where Ellie is imprisoned and witnesses a man cutting a corpse was also censored as the camera's position does not show the corpse.[30]
- Little Big Planet – In the later copies of the game, the lyric song "Tapha Niang" was replaced with the instrumental version due to suspected quotes from the Qur'an being mixed with music.[31]
- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe – In order to ensure a T rating in North America, two Fatalities in the game were censored.[32][33] In the United Kingdom version, both the Joker and Deathstroke's first Fatality feature them each finishing their opponent with a gunshot to the head, with each respective shot shown uncut from a distance. However, the North American version has the camera quickly pan toward the victor before the shot is fired, thereby cutting the victim out of the shot completely.[34][35][36][37]
- Resistance: Fall of Man – Blood is removed from the game when played on Japanese consoles.[38]
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune – Blood is removed from the game when played on a Japanese region PS3.[38]
- Fallout 3 – The side-quest "The Power of the Atom" was changed in the Japanese version to relieve concerns about depictions of atomic detonation in inhabited areas. In other versions, players are given the option of either defusing, ignoring, or detonating the dormant atomic bomb in the town of Megaton. In the Japanese version, the character Mr. Burke has been taken out of this side quest, making it impossible to detonate the bomb.[39] Also in the Japanese release, the "Fat Man" nuclear catapult weapon was renamed "Nuka Launcher", as the original name was a reference to Fat Man, the nuclear bomb used on Nagasaki.[39][40]
- Silent Hill: Homecoming – The game had difficulties in passing censors in some countries before it could go on sale. The Australian Classification Board, then the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), refused to classify the game, due to "impact violence and excessive blood effects". The objectionable scenes included various body parts being drilled into and the bisection of a character by an enemy. This led to the game being banned from sale in the country. Representatives for publisher Atari mentioned that they would be asking Konami to tone down the violence to allow the game to receive the needed MA15+ rating for its sale to be permitted in early 2009.[41] The German version of the game was also postponed to 2009 in order for cuts to be made to pass the German censors.[42]
- South Park: The Stick of Truth – The European version had all five references to anal probing removed. An abortion minigame was also cut. Ubisoft claimed that it was their decision to censor it.[43] In the German release, swastikas were covered with black boxes on zombies.[44]
- Left 4 Dead 2 – In Australia, the game was originally banned due to the high levels of violence in the gameplay. Valve then submitted a 'censored' version of the game which no longer contained images of "decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies". The game received the MA15+ rating (the highest possible rating at the time in Australia), and was allowed to be released in the Australian market.[45] The German version is similarly censored.
- The Witcher – All the female portrait cards shown after Geralt's "sexual conquests" were censored ("retouched to a more modest standard") for the U.S. release version.[46]
- Gal*Gun – Publishers Inti-Creates was forced by Microsoft to censor the Xbox 360 version due to players being able to look up the girls' skirts, while the PlayStation 3 version remained completely uncensored.[47]
- Football Manager 2005 – China's Ministry of Culture stated that Tibet being listed as a separate country in the game would "pose harm to the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity" so the Chinese release saw Tibet merged into China.[14]