4 Banned Videogames

Video games have excelled in keeping people’s attention, but some games have pushed the limits on what people want their attention to be kept by, causing them to be banned. 

Some games have been in trouble because of their unfriendly subject matter, but the four listed below have caused enough anger to be removed entirely from some places in the world, and we will tell you why. 

GTA IV 

The GTA games have always been an annoyance to parents with their high levels of violence and anarchy, and have avoided being banned for a long time, but in 2008 an 18-year-old high school student was arrested for having stabbed a taxi driver so he could steal money to buy the new game. He said that he was “trying to figure out if it was as easy as the games”. 

Pokémon games 

The Pokémon games are some of the most well-known games of them all, with hardly any upsetting themes, so it was surprising when some of their games were banned. It was done by Saudi Arabia when the nation banned both the physical and electronic versions of the game. This was because the symbol that represents your Pokémon’s power was believed to be a likeness of the star of David, which is a heavily opposed symbol in middle eastern countries.  

Football Manager 2005 

Football Manager 2005 is a seemingly harmless game about managing your soccer team and helping them win a championship. But albeit with its general subject matter, it still managed to create controversy. China banned the game for listing Tibet and Taiwan as individual countries, rather than under China’s sovereign.  

Marc Ecko’s Getting Up 

Marc Ecko’s Getting Up is a game about a graffiti artist named Trane who uses his art to fight against an oppressive government controlling his city, which makes the banning of it very ironic. The Australian censorship committee decided that the game “promoted illegal street art” and banned it, which is ironic as the subject matter of the game is a controlling government. 

Overall, some games have had a rightful reason to be banned, but there will always be some outliers that have been banned for reasons other than normal.