The people of Germany have spoken, and they want their blood and gore back. A petition bearing 73,000 signatures has just made its way into federal hands, and by law, the Parliament must now take the argument into legislative consideration. The author of the petition spoke in front of the Committee of Petitions, advocating for better understanding of the European PEGI ratings system as opposed to the ban.
State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Home Affairs, Dr. Herman Kues, has since announced that the government will now make a bigger push towards public education. The decision has been lauded across the industry board, Senior Vice President at EA Dr. Jens Uwe Intat commented that “The German decision is a very welcome step as we encourage policy makers to better understand the reality of today’s videogame market and give games the same respect as books, films or music” in an interview with GameIndustry.biz.
Happy to see governments moving away from video game bans? Or is regulation the answer? Give us your thoughts below!
Good to see Germany and Australia potentially moving in the right direction. I’m highly against bans… unless the game is something created for the sole purpose of evil. Like ET on the NES.
Even created for the sole purpose of evil I don’t think there should be any bans. There is a reason we have those bans in movies, as the acts on screen are actually committed by real people. But in games we don’t have that problem. The AO rating keeps the worst of the worst from being economically viable; we don’t need a ban, let freedom of speech reign supreme.
Good for you Germany!!