One of the most impressive games that we or anyone else got to see at E3 was Dead Space.  EA’s upcoming sci-fi survival horror game promises to be an intense, action-packed experience that will have gamers terrified of entering the next room.  If an Ars Technica report about the developers' Twitter feed is correct, Japanese, German and Chinese gamers will never get that chance.

According to the Twitter posts, Japan has refused to give Dead Space a rating, essentially banning it from retail shelves, because of the game’s use of dismemberment and references to suicide.  Though no reason is given, another post confirms that China and Germany won’t be allowing the sale of the game.

If this turns out to be true, it would be the first instance of an American game being banned in Japan that I can remember.  There was an isolated incident of GTA:San Andreas being banned in a single Japanese Prefecture, but to me knowledge, no American game has been outright disallowed nationwide.  If it turns out to not be true, it becomes an embarrassment of a marketing stunt.  EA has not commented on the issue, so as of now, it’s still just a rumor.  We’ll keep you updated as this story develops.


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