South Park creator: "We weren't willing to change the content"

South Park creator Matt Stone has given his verdict on the censorship of South Park: Stick Of Truth, and suggested that the content would have passed without problems in the television show.

"I was told that Australia has different standards. They have their own ratings system, as does Europe, so I was told that we had to submit it for ratings and they come back and tell you this will pass, this won't," he told The Guardian.

"Ultimately, the full version of the game is in North America, so at least that version is out there, but anywhere it's censored [in the other version], we just put in little black cards explaining what has happened. It's not that big a deal. It doesn't change things that much, but we weren't going to change the game downwards somewhere and just not tell anybody. You'll see how ridiculous that is."

He said it felt a like a bit of a double standard, but didn't have a huge impact on the quality of the game. But he also added that if the content had been in the television show, it could have been shown.

"There is an interactiveness that makes it different. In movies and television you can do stuff that's morally grey very easily, because you get to show consequences, you get to show reward, but in a video game there's a reason why everything is a Nazi, zombie, or alien - these are pretty clear moral choices," he explained.

"There are things that make people more uncomfortable in an interactive world, definitely. But that said, what we had in the game, we could have shown that on TV pretty easily, especially now."

The game is released in the UK today, but the game's release in Germany and Austria has been delayed due to inclusion of a swastika in one scene.