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MS axes Xbox 360 games in India, Germany

Offense-causing concerns

Fears that a game’s contents could cause offense have spread since the LittleBigPlanet delay, with two upcoming titles banned from sale in some regions.

Gamers in India won’t be pleased to learn that the third game in the Fallout series now won’t be released there, because Microsoft, the titles local distributor, is worried that the title could transgress “cultural sensitivities”.

The firm’s Indian arm hasn’t said how the game’s content could offend folk over there, but the risk of retaliation must have been quite high for Microsoft to have taken such a drastic decision.

Separately, the hugely anticipated sequel to Gears of War won’t make it into Germany, and the title’s release in Japan has also been called into question.

Given that the German ratings board refused to grant the original GoW a classification - effectively banning it from sale in the country - it’s perhaps unsurprising that the second version has been banned there too.

However, it’s still unclear whether Microsoft or Germany’s classification body made the decision to ban GoW 2 from the country.

Several sources have also reported that GoW 2 won’t be released in Japan. However, Edge magazine has since published comment from a Microsoft spokesperson, who stated that "no announcement has been made" either way about plans for a GoW 2 release in Japan.

Sony recently announced that it would delay the global launch of LBP so that two references to the Koran, contained within the game’s background music, could be removed.

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