Wolfenstein: The New Order is pretty much centered around Nazis and blowing them up with super cool future weapons. So it'll be fun to see what the German and Austrian versions of the game end up looking like after Bethesda announced the versions for those two countries will be censored to avoid any Nazi references.
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This isn't just Bethesda trying to be politically correct - apparently anything Nazi-related is prohibited in Germany by law. Breaking of the laws could potentially earn the violator up to three years in prison or a very hefty fine, so rather than not release the game in Germany, Bethesda is taking out all Nazi content. Apparently there are some loopholes for movies as far as Nazi content goes, but that has not extended to video games as of yet.
"There are few exceptions in regard to the use of Nazi content in Germany, and although there are some cultural exemptions, which include films, under the current legislation these exceptions do not extend to cover videogames," Bethesda's post states.
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As far as Austria, that is a sensitivity issue. Bethesda decided to pull the Nazi references at the advisory of their legal counsel to avoid any potential trouble.
"On the basis of legal advice and industry standard practice, we are also not making the international version available for sale in Austria," Bethesda said.
Lastly, the international version of the game will be region coded so that it cannot be played in either of those two countries.
Interesting situation for what looks to be an interesting game.
