Skip to main content

Dead Rising 3 denied rating in Germany

Xbox One down one launch title thanks to Germany's strict take on video game violence

Dead Rising 3 has fallen afoul of Germany's ratings board, leaving the Xbox One without one of its key launch exclusives in the country.

The news broke yesterday via the German website Games Welt, and Destructoid since confirmed Dead Rising's fate with Microsoft.

"Dead Rising 3 will not be released in Germany as part of the Xbox One launch line-up on November 22, having been unable to attain an age-rating upon review by BPJM (Bundeprüfstelle für Jugendgefährende Medien), the country's entertainment software self-regulation body," a Microsoft representative said.

"While Microsoft is disappointed with this decision, we respect the views of the review panel and have withdrawn Dead Rising 3 from Germany's Xbox One launch line-up."

According to Game Welt, the BPJM did not describe the reasoning behind its decision to deny Dead Rising 3 a rating, but it is notoriously strict on violence in video games. Indeed, Germany is one of the few Western territories where depictions of sex are treated with more leniency than depictions of violence.

Read this next

Matthew Handrahan avatar
Matthew Handrahan joined GamesIndustry in 2011, bringing long-form feature-writing experience to the team as well as a deep understanding of the video game development business. He previously spent more than five years at award-winning magazine gamesTM.
Related topics