Current Events > Has your country ever banned video games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Video games were banned nationwide by presidential decree from 1981 to 1986 in the Philippines. Other gaming devices/machines, like Game & Watch and pinball, were also banned. The reason was allegedly due to a moral panic.

I had cousins who secretly played their Game & Watches, Ataris and Odysseys, with the volume muted, doors locked, and window curtains closed. We were told to never let anyone outside of the family know.

I remember a news article where an underground arcade was raided by the constabulary. I think the operators were sentenced to a year of prison and ordered to pay a fine.

USA, there's certainly been politicians who wanted to.

In Australia we had games censored or outright banned sometimes. However, its not as often as people think. We finally got an adult video game rating in 2013 which was good in terms of games like MK9 finally getting released a year after being released everywhere else but we still have politicians who think video games are childrens toys

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t0TGxtnJuU

Only highly monitized lootbox mobile shit. Remember Battlefront 2's lootbox controversy? Our law is partially why it improved

counter-strike was banned here once

I worry that could happen in the US if the Republicans took total power and got everything they ever wanted. They have the potential to turn America into a Christian version of Saudi Arabia. I'm pretty sure some of them want that

only banned game I know about is the one that featured under age chicks topless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guy_Game

Manhunt 2 got banned in the UK

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/jun/19/news.games#:~:text=The%20British%20Board%20of%20Film,we%20do%20not%20take%20lightly.

I ended up getting an Action Replay disc from an old Indy game store, it allowed me to play Import games on my Wii and they had the American version of Manhunt 2 that was uncensored. I got rid of the Wii then about 10 years later I got the UK PS2 version that got unbanned but it was from a second hand shop.

Postal 2 was banned in Sweden for a while.
https://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/141867.html