Bethesda Softworks have decided to censor their epic new game Fallout 3 for the Japanese market by removing the option to nuke the town of Megaton from ‘The Power of the Atom‘ quest.
This is obviously due to Japan’s status as the only country to’ve ever been subject to a nuclear attack. Bethesda Softworks obviously want to avoid controversy and drive sales of Fallout 3 in Japan’s lucrative games markets.
Normally I’m against anything being censored, I’m an equal opportunities discriminator. I tend to think either everything is ok to make fun of, or nothing is.
But in this instance I can see where Bethesda Softworks are coming from. The nuclear attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 killed around 2 million people and is the only time ever that nuclear weapons have been deployed in the history of warfare.
It’s bad enough that most of Fallout 3 actually looks just like Nagasaki did after it was nuked, but to be able to stand around with Mr Burke and watch the town of Megaton get nuked is probably a bit too close to the bone for Japan.
Fallout 3 also features a mini-nuke weapon called ‘Fat-Man‘, just like the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki and killed 80,000 people. Bethesda Softworks have announced this weapon will be re-christened to have another less historically significant name when Fallout 3 is released in Japan in December 2008.
Other Censorship Issues with Fallout 3
Fallout 3 was toned down for the Australian market also because the OFLC felt the:
‘…realistic visual representations of drugs and their delivery method [bringing] the ’science-fiction’ drugs in line with ‘real-world’ drugs.’
Microsoft have said that the game will not be released in India on the Xbox360. It’s believed by many that this is because two-headed mutated cows called ‘Brahmins‘ feature in the game. ‘Brahmins‘ are also a type of religious scholar in India, as well as the cow being a sacred animal in the Hindu religion.
Fallout 3 Resources
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November 19th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
You are 100% correct regarding the censoring in Japan, it would be wholly inappropriate, not to mention insensitive to release as is.
But the Australians on the other hand are way too touchy. There are no specific scenes of people injecting drugs.
The image of a stimpack (health) and Psycho (Fictional performance enhancer) are depicted as needle operated, but in the context of the game (a desperate, post apocalyptic wasteland full of junkies, raiders, and misfits) are certainly not censor worthy
Even less so considering the devices are not shown “being used” as it were.