It was recently announced that 2014's South Park: The Stick Of Truth would be getting
re-released for current generation consoles, this being PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and
that there would also be a physical version released.
That makes now a good time to take a look back at the censorship controversy that affected
the game back when it was first released, as well as a lesser known fact regarding the
European release of the game.
You may recall that most versions of The Stick Of Truth released around the world had at
least some form of censorship.
A special German version for instance was created to get around German regulations regarding
showing certain Nazi iconography and this release censored all Nazi content out, with
things like black boxes.
The obstruct approach of censoring things with black boxes seemed very much intended
by the devs and was a way for them to point towards and make fun of the censorship restrictions.
The same approach was then carried forward to the Australian release, where the title
also faced censorship restrictions.
In Australia the title was Refused Classification, effectively banning it for sale in the region.
What prompted the Australian ban was what was described as "sexual violence" in regards
to 2 mini games - one featuring an abortion being performed and the other involving "anal
probing".
In substitute for these scenes, Australian players will instead see a crying koala bear
with text mocking the censorship decision.
However, that wasn't all for the censorship made to The Stick Of Truth.
As well as Germany and Australia, the European version also faced changes.
But, unlike the German and Australian-specific changes, these cuts were only made to console
versions and not the PC release.
Similar to the Australian release, Europe will see a comedic image instead of the mentioned
scenes with text mocking the decision.
However, instead of a crying koala bear, it is a facepalming statue of David.
These changes were also made to the German console release, alongside the Nazi changes.
Why was this decision made though?
Were the offending scenes not allowed by the PEGI rating system?
And why was it ok to show these scenes on PC and not consoles?
The website The Guardian did an in-depth investigation into these points and discovered that, despite
the text mentioning being forced into censorship, this was actually completely not true.
The Guardian contacted PEGI and was told that PEGI rated the uncensored version of the game
with an 18 rating and then also the censored version of the game with an 18 rating.
There was absolutely no need for these cuts and they have no idea why Ubisoft decided
to censor the game.
To quote: "The game was assessed by us and deemed acceptable
for a Pegi 18 rating.
For some games released in the UK, we are obliged to consider UK legislation as the
Video Recordings Act 2010 currently affects video games.
This consideration applies to games that are likely to attain a Pegi 12, 16 or 18 rating
and which may contain potentially harmful or illegal material.
As there was no such issue with the game, it was duly given its Pegi 18 uncut."
“Let me emphasise that we did not censor or edit the game in any shape or form.
Sometime later, the publisher made a decision to make alterations to the game which meant
it had to be re-submitted to us as a different version.
We are not privy to reasons why the game was edited and cannot, therefore, give you any
other details.
This version was subsequently rated 18 uncut also."
From this we can see that there was no need for the European changes to South Park: The
Stick Of Truth.
Ubisoft has explained why they removed these scenes though and they said that this was
a "market decision made by Ubisoft EMEA”.
From this and what PEGI said about the cuts, it is clear that this was not an act of censorship
but a marketing decision, perhaps designed to raise publicity for the game and perhaps
to draw attention towards the real censorship that the game faced over in Australia and
Germany.
This is also why the European PC release is completely uncut.
On consoles the only release so far to be fully uncensored is the American release.
However, considering the true reason behind the European changes, this means it may be
possible for the upcoming PS4 and Xbox One releases to be uncensored as well.
It's not currently known whether this will be the case but Censored Gaming has contacted
Ubisoft about this and will be sure to update you when it is known.
South Park: The Stick Of Truth will be releasing February 13th for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Until next time, thank you for watching.