Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Dante's Inferno Banned in Middle East


This is so ridiculous. The rationalisation of inner world spheres needs to be done through the rationalisation of religion (that's some Max Weber goodness). I hope the young people of Middle East will finally put their religious leaders where they belong: In jail. Or elsewhere. But certainly not in state power positions.

Middle East avoids Dante’s Inferno

It’s officially official, Dante’s Inferno is not being released in the Middle East. In a statement that surprises absolutely no one, EA announced that, “Electronic Arts has decided not to release Dante’s Inferno in the Middle East after an evaluation process which is based on consumer tastes, preferences, platform mix and other factors.”

After first setting our eyes on Dante’s Inferno last year, it seemed like one of those titles that might never hit the retail shelves in UAE. Dealing with the afterlife, the game focuses on Hell and its 9 circles of sinners within. Such a premise itself is a very touchy topic within the region, one of the reasons why we think Darksiders got banned here.

In fact, this region is so sensitive to such topics that God of War is also banned over here just because it has the word ‘God’ in the title, despite being based on Greek mythology! After playing the demo last year we were pretty damn sure that Dante’s Inferno will be banned, not least because it goes out of it’s way to shock you with obscenity and total disregard for being subtle in anyway. So no surprise then, that EA decided to back off completely and not even bother trying to get the game past the Media Council. Out of the 4 big action games this year (Bayonetta, Darksiders, Dante’s Inferno and God of War 3) three are not officially available! Still, Bayonetta’s one hell of a game, and banning a game has never stopped anyone from playing it if they really want to.

Source


Dante's Inferno is getting mediocre reviews, by the way. I can't understand that, the demo was enjoyable like hell. Like hell...

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