The lusty school-girl hunting rail "shooter" Gal Gun 2 has been denied age classification by the USK in Germany ultimately preventing its retail release in the country.

In the controversial sequel to the original 2015 Gal Gun: Double Peace (which was also banned in New Zealand but strangely not in Germany), you take the role of a Japanese school boy who becomes the unwavering object of attraction for swarms of daemon-possessed school-girls who you must fend off with your pheromone arrows, putting them in a state of dazed euphoria.

Published PQube commented on the ban:

Today we have received word that Gal*Gun 2 has been refused classification in Germany.

We’ll always try to get games through classification regardless of the possibility of it being denied, as we feel that everyone should have the right and the access to play the games they want to play. It is our opinion that disliking the content in a piece of entertainment or art, and voicing that dislike, is totally fine and even encouraged, but denying that work the right to exist in a market based on personal opinions and prejudices, is something we strongly disagree with.

Unfortunately our appeal against this decision has been unsuccessful. Given that Gal*Gun: Double Peace did receive classification in Germany, we’re doubly disappointed that we cannot bring the highly-anticipated title to our fans in Germany. However, we will have to accept and respect the decision of the USK.

Gal Gun 2 releases on PS4 and Switch on March 15th in Japan and April 27th in Europe and North America.

UPDATE: This discussion has garnered a lot of discussion regarding censorship in Germany and GBAtemp resident member @Uwabami has made a clear and consise post that looks to address some misinformation being thrown around. If you are interested in German censorship I recommend taking the time to read their post on the subject! Thanks @Uwabami !

Uwabami's post on censorship in Germany
Source

 

[FAST6191]

Germany actually doesn't have a free speech clause in their constitution, or at least not in reference to Nazism and hate speech

I had not meant to imply there was, and what little there is appears to be on shaky ground as well.

 

[VitaType]

Germany actually doesn't have a free speech clause in their constitution

It's article 5. Here from the offical translation
(1) Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing and pictures, and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasts and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.
(2) These rights shall find their limits in the provisions of general laws, in provisions for the protection of young persons, and in the right to personal honour.
(3) Arts and sciences, research and teaching shall be free. The freedom of teaching shall not release any person from allegiance to the constitution.

or at least not in reference to Nazism and hate speech

Fair. Alot of countries I would describe as free such as Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Israel, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Switzerland have a law agains Holocaust denial. Clearly limiting the freedom of speech, but I don't think that tomorrow people in Luxembourg have to fear for there lives if they poke fun on there goverment.

or at least not in reference to Nazism and hate speech

I clearly see your problem with that. That is a very controversial topic, which I don't want to go deeper into here but you find alot about that topic on the internet and I assume you already found a position while also having done your investigation about the arguments for and agains it. I don't think that further discussion of it in this thread is a good idea since it most likely would lead to a longer chain of clearly off-topic posts

 

[chrisrlink]

I'm not from Germany but if a game is banned there can you be jailed for importing a foreign version of the game?

 

[YTElias]

im triggered

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I'm not from Germany but if a game is banned there can you be jailed for importing a foreign version of the game?

maybe your account will be banned and you will be tracked with the ip and get into jail
just shower thinking huh?

 

[ut2k4master]

I'm not from Germany but if a game is banned there can you be jailed for importing a foreign version of the game?

are you talking actually banned or just not getting an age rating like in this case? nothing happens if you do the latter, youre free to import it or get it from 18+ shops in the country itself. pretty much the same goes for the former, you could still import it unless the content is actually against the law

 

[chrisrlink]

YTEalias HARDLY I kept within the forum rules I may have been banned from chat twice but i learned from my mistakes and I've never been banned on the forum....btw someone in my state got off a child porn charge (imported Shotacon doujin) on a technicality in US law child porn means actual children were involved the rest of the world afAaik includes drawings anyways thats off topic but thanks for the enlightening info on banned games in Germany

 

[YTElias]

YTEalias HARDLY I kept within the forum rules I may have been banned from chat twice but i learned from my mistakes and I've never been banned on the forum....btw someone in my state got off a child porn charge (imported Shotacon doujin) on a technicality in US law child porn means actual children were involved the rest of the world afAaik includes drawings anyways thats off topic but thanks for the enlightening info on banned games in Germany

i wrote that with some salt

 

[DarthDub]

I think Germany needs some freedom.

 

[the_randomizer]

I think Germany needs some freedom.

But less weeaboo games

 

[chrisrlink]

i find it odd they are against killing hitler in games are the Nazi's still secretly in power?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

i find it odd they are against killing hitler in games are the Nazi's still secretly in power?

It's an issue of historical revisionism, they want everything depicted about WWII to be 100% historically accurate

 

[chrisrlink]

again i smell a secret govermental coup why make ww2 so damn accurate when its such a bloody stain on German history I personally would rather see the jewish get their revenge/have fun doing it

 

[TotalInsanity4]

why make ww2 so damn accurate when its such a bloody stain on German history

The idea is so that it doesn't happen again, because it can't be glorified

 

[chrisrlink]

no matter what it would be glorified by a fractional few same with Islam's Ji'had it's unavoidable besides it's not like you ARE a Nazi in games you're KILLING THEM theres a difference there

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no matter what it would be glorified by a fractional few same with Islam's Ji'had it's unavoidable besides it's not like you ARE a Nazi in games you're KILLING THEM theres a difference there

wouldn't mind a few cracks at him (hitler) myself it wasn't only jews he killed but the disabled too

 

[YukidaruPunch]

I just love how crazy Germany is about these kinda things. They ban a man with a moustache in every game he appears in and they ban voilence in any way. And now even games like galgun are being banned because the game is disliked by the review team. Its really stupid that the people that are just supposed to review the game for a rating ban the game because they find the content inappropiate.

Over forty million people worldwide died because of a man with a moustache. Do you really not see how this is an unremovable stain in the record of a whole nation, to such a degree of shame they would rather never reinforce the man's ideals or beliefs whenever possible, specially out of fear its ideas might resonate again among a vocal group of ignorant people?

Do you really not see the big picture in this, or are you just being naive?

 

[Subtle Demise]

I just love how crazy Germany is about these kinda things. They ban a man with a moustache in every game he appears in and they ban voilence in any way. And now even games like galgun are being banned because the game is disliked by the review team. Its really stupid that the people that are just supposed to review the game for a rating ban the game because they find the content inappropiate.

Well, we're talking about a country that will imprison you for drawing a swastika (which is not a Nazi symbol orignally, btw).

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Over forty million people worldwide died because of a man with a moustache. Do you really not see how this is an unremovable stain in the record of a whole nation, to such a degree of shame they would rather never reinforce the man's ideals or beliefs whenever possible, specially out of fear its ideas might resonate again among a vocal group of ignorant people?

Do you really not see the big picture in this, or are you just being naive?

How is it reinforcing anything just to show a picture of the man? When I first played Wolfenstein 3D with my dad, I was 5 years old. When I asked about the man that was on a bunch of the pictures hanging on the wall, he told me he was the leader of the Nazis and how they were real at one time and were very evil. It gave me a sense of foreboding and fear of these people (if you really could even call many of them that). It's meant to make you hate them and destroy them in gruesome ways. I don't think there's ever been a game where you played as the Nazis and run a concentration camp or anything, it's usually always just killing Nazis. The way the current German government is censoring the media isn't much different than the regime they think they can erase from history. Are they going to start burning books in the streets again too?

 

[mrjoshuaco]

specially out of fear its ideas might resonate again among a vocal group of ignorant people?

And clearly the best way to do that is forcefully preventing them from non-violently expressing ideas you disagree with, regardless of ANY context beyond educational, however distasteful...right? It's not as if the happy compromise concept of "direct incitement" exists.

 

[Justinde75]

Over forty million people worldwide died because of a man with a moustache. Do you really not see how this is an unremovable stain in the record of a whole nation, to such a degree of shame they would rather never reinforce the man's ideals or beliefs whenever possible, specially out of fear its ideas might resonate again among a vocal group of ignorant people?

Do you really not see the big picture in this, or are you just being naive?

You cant change history. Just because it happened doesnt mean we should look away or hide him in any way. If that happens, history is just going to repeat itself. I think the only one being naive here is you.

 

[Deleted User]

Over forty million people worldwide died because of a man with a moustache. Do you really not see how this is an unremovable stain in the record of a whole nation, to such a degree of shame they would rather never reinforce the man's ideals or beliefs whenever possible, specially out of fear its ideas might resonate again among a vocal group of ignorant people?

Do you really not see the big picture in this, or are you just being naive?

Like what Justin said, it's something that Germany, as a people, have to deal with. They shouldn't pretend that it never even happened, because it did, and there's nothing anyone can do about it at this point. They should look it in the eye, expose it for what it is, and collectively learn and move on, promising never to make the same mistakes or stoop to that level ever again.

A lot of countries have black marks on their records. Just look at my home country; the USA. Our government has done some really horrible shit in the past (namely, racism, slavery, and mass persecution, aka, genocide, of Native American peoples, among other things). We have to learn from these sorts of actions made in the past, not just pretend that they don't exist. That's what a lot of people don't seem to understand.

 

[Justinde75]

I am German. And I visited many historical places in Germany. I even visited Auschwitz. I've been dealing with him pretty much my whole life. But many people still find the need to hide it or try to censor it. If we dont look back on history nothing will change. Afro American people were victims of slavery, but nobody is trying to hide that. For some reason the ww2 topic is just so bad that you cant even talk about it, and if you do, you instantly get called nazi or similiar things. I'm sorry for having knowledge about History, and not wanting to hide the history from others.