John-ShepardBack in September, China lifted the 13-year console ban thanks to a new free-trade zone in Shanghai. Yay, right?
But one of the biggest games of the year is already banned. Per a Wall Street Journal report , the Chinese government has banned Battlefield 4 because it now contains content that proves to be a "threat to national security."
The report adds that this probably won't hurt EA's business much, but it's still significant from an industry perspective. It's the China Rising downloadable content pack that China has a problem with; the DLC features four multiplayer maps set on the Chinese mainland. As a result, one newspaper accused the game of "discrediting China's image" and "distorting the truth in an effort to mislead young people." We're not sure EA or DICE set out to do any such thing, but whatever. Common sense doesn't factor into politics.
One of these days, somebody with authority in one of these countries is going to realize something vital: Those playing the game likely don't know or care about who they're firing at; they just want to win. I seriously doubt anyone, even young people, are coming away from playing the China Rising DLC with a "distorted" image of the country in question.
Related Game(s): Battlefield 4
this really doesn't surprise me for the very reason China likes to Control their citizens
and if something conflicts with the way the government sees things then it will get banned
if games constantly conflict with the government in China they'll likely re ban Consoles
Chinese Goverment doesn't really give a damn about their Citizens and they sure as hell don't give a damn as what the rest of the world thinks
I heard that EA nevver planned to release BF4 in China.
The Sars outbreak distorted China, not video games.
Just curious and a bit off topic, if another country labels the U.S. as something evil and false/dangerous in a video game involving conspiracy stuff, would the people here care? We as gamers probably don't, but I'm not sure about our government.
Well, if other media is any indication – no one would care. Have you watched movies and TV over the last couple decades? The U.S. government is very often portrayed as "the bad guy".
Well it's a video game, so it's like not supposed to have the strongest roots in reality.
Wasn't there a hubbub prior to the release of Medal of Honor (2010). Some US politicians were calling for a ban because they didn't want people playing as the Taliban shooting at US troops. Back then it generated a huge amount of publicity for EA, now three years later, talks of another game (also published by EA) generating publicity…poor EA.
"What!? Evil China wants to ban a game from it's citizens?! Well let's buy that game, that'll show 'em!"
Chinese Government: "A video game that depicts Chinese people being shot, wait that's what we secretly do. We can't have people knowing about that."