South Park: The Stick of Truth has been censored for its release in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Those territories will be losing just over a minute of footage from the game, scenes involving abortion and anal probing. You know, typical South Park stuff.
This wasn't done at the behest of some ratings group or government, either-, the decision was made by Ubisoft themselves. BT.com revealed the news, which was included in press notes sent to reviewers of the game. The full text reads-
“Seven scenes of about 20 seconds each are censored in the EMEA console versions of South Park: The Stick of Truth. The decision to cut this content from the game was made by Ubisoft EMEA.”
The scenes censored include:
- A mini-game where a doctor is performing an abortion on the player.
- A mini-game where the player is performing an abortion on the character Randy.
- Five ‘anal probing’ scenes in which characters are ‘actively’ being probed.
The scenes will instead play out with a screen containing descriptive text. It's similar to what was recently done with the Australian version, a version which was censored by the ratings board. Trey Parker and Matt Stone fired back at that decision by replacing the visuals of an anal probing scene with an image of a crying koala with the word "censored" in front of it.
Needless to say, gamers in those territories aren't too happy about receiving a censored version, especially if it was needlessly done. Twitter is currently abuzz with people claiming they won't be purchasing the game, or stating their objections to being told what they can and can't see in a game, especially one that's rated for adult gamers.
That's not to say that gamers won't have plenty to be offended by. Remember that the achievement list for the game includes points for joining the KKK, playing as the "Jew" class, and farting on enemies. There's bound to be something for everyone here.
South Park: The Stick of Truth will be available in one week on March 4th!