Goldeneye 007 has been unbanned in Germany

[HomebrewingNeko]

In Germany, the N64 game Goldeneye 007 was banned upon release in 1997, and put on the "Media Harmful to Young People" list. But, just yesterday, the game was removed from the list and unbanned. This is a shock, as it already would have been unbanned next year under the German Youth Protection Act, as section 18 line 7 of the law states that any media on the list is removed after 25 years. This also came with Blood Rayne and Blood Rayne 2 being unbanned, 2 games confirmed to get a remaster. This is fueling rumors that 007 is coming to the Switch, possibly under NSO Expansion. The request to unban might have been from NOE (Nintendo of Europe), who's based in Germany and has to follow German law.

Source

 

[LiborNX]

Fingers crossed

 

[gohan123]

it was banned? almost anyone I know owned it.

 

[JuanMena]

It really has passed 25 years since it's release?
I still remember reading about launch day in Magazines.

Shocked.

 

[Viri]

That "youth ban list" name reminds me of the Chinese ban list name. lol

 

[callmebob]

An official remaster/reboot would be awesome, so does Nintendo "own it"? Don´t get who would be able to actually make one. Isn´t that why the one for XBLA never got released back then?

 

[FAST6191]

Nice to see censorship being unwound. Let's see if they can go further still, though not holding my breath.

An official remaster/reboot would be awesome, so does Nintendo "own it"? Don´t get who would be able to actually make one. Isn´t that why the one for XBLA never got released back then?

That was the story; all rights to make James Bond games were with EA or something at the time, and that included remasters/rereleases. Rare was also sold to Microsoft and that probably also complicates matters here unless MS is going to allow it (they have done some things with Nintendo handhelds before, and have done so for a while. This would be a cut above though).

That said for me Perfect Dark was the superior game anyway and that got an amazing XBLA remaster so I was not complaining.

 

[callmebob]

Not gonna argue with you on that one, still....

 

[Dr_Faustus]

Nice to see censorship being unwound. Let's see if they can go further still, though not holding my breath.


That was the story; all rights to make James Bond games were with EA or something at the time, and that included remasters/rereleases. Rare was also sold to Microsoft and that probably also complicates matters here unless MS is going to allow it (they have done some things with Nintendo handhelds before, and have done so for a while. This would be a cut above though).

That said for me Perfect Dark was the superior game anyway and that got an amazing XBLA remaster so I was not complaining.

Supposedly it was less about different Publishers and more about EON being the rights holder of James Bond and its entire franchise. Supposedly they are very, very VERY picky about how they want their property being utilized with one of the strictest being the focus of only using the "current" James Bond in any newer games regardless if they are based off older properties/movies or not. The only exception being "From Russia With Love" in 2005 and that was possibly due to the time of there being no new James Bond in films yet which may have given the thumbs up from EON to make happen since otherwise they would have wanted their current Bond actor be the face for the game.

Given the scenario in recent times between the Project Bean leak, the overall mass fan desire to still see a remaster made and the current Bond (Daniel Craig) retiring from the role, it could be a rare window of oppurtunity if all the right players put their best hand on the table (and quickly mind you) before its too late.

 

[ut2k4master]

it was banned? almost anyone I know owned it.

it wasnt banned, it just wasnt allowed to be advertised and was only allowed to be sold in 18+ stores or closed off 18+ sections. it didnt have an official release but the german version could still be imported from austria for example

 

[FAST6191]

it wasnt banned, it just wasnt allowed to be advertised and was only allowed to be sold in 18+ stores or closed off 18+ sections. it didnt have an official release but the german version could still be imported from austria for example

I always find this line of thought and odd one in discussions of German censorship.

So a government mandated/backed body, with government agents formally sitting on the advisory body/decision making body, acting with full force of law, sought to heavily restrict the sale (do/did many game shops have said gated off area? I am actually curious there and would love to see pictures), and marketing* of a work. In the absolute technical sense I suppose it was not a ban. For the purposes of colloquial discussion though then hard to argue otherwise.
That there seems to be little factual/rational basis for it either, and how countries of similar history, genetics, culture... fared just fine is just icing on the cake.

*marketing as a percentage cost of development is considerable, and if films are any example (and films and games have broadly the same audience, budget at least these days, technical skills flowing both ways, share artistic concepts...) might even be more than the actual development aspect. If companies did not think it worked, and we also have examples of badly marketed games before (see many a hidden gem, and a lot of stuff in the late 360 era from Japanese companies outside Japan), then they would not pay it for I am sure we have also seen how penny pinching they are in all other aspects, often by necessity (how many game companies make it to their third game or ten years with a general growth trend?)

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

why the fuck was goldeneye of all things 18+? the enemies you're shooting barely even resemble anything close to a human being

 

[ChibiMofo]

I'm relieved to learn that those of you throwing around the word "censorship" are fully informed as to why Germany has for the past 70 found it necessary to do such things. I'd "hate" to think you think they're just morons who don't "get it."

 

[FAST6191]

I'm relieved to learn that those of you throwing around the word "censorship" are fully informed as to why Germany has for the past 70 found it necessary to do such things. I'd "hate" to think you think they're just morons who don't "get it."

Even if I thought the blocks on various Nazi imagery in non educational/documentary were a good idea (I truly don't and think them truly moronic) then is there anything like that here in Goldeneye?
The stated reason is that it is harmful to the youth, which having had experiments conducted by the millions for decades now and any number of research projects say "no link we could find" is also suspect in the extreme.