Why is the Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility list full of shit? I recently bought Guilty Gear XX again because it’s listed as compatible on the EU list, yet when I try to play it on any of the multiple 360s I have access to, I am prompted to install a compatibility update, after which there’s just a message saying that “This original Xbox game is not supported”.

As it turns out, Silent Hill 2 (which I was considering buying a moment ago) is apparently in a similarly odd state:

• Silent Hill 2: Dreams²⁺⁷

² Currently the North American versions of these games are the only ones supported as backward compatible titles on Xbox 360.

⁷ Currently the EMEA/ANZ versions of these games are the only ones supported as backward compatible titles on Xbox 360.

EMEA/ANZ being “Europe, Middle East and Africa / Australia and New Zealand”. Note the decidedly unambiguous use of “only” in both and the application of both to SH2 resulting in a similarly unambiguous clusterfuck. Judging by a bit of research on the Almighty Internet, it seems that the NA version of the game is not region free and won’t run at all on European consoles, while the EMEA version will work fine except for the fact that there’s no video.

What the hell, guys?

Yours,

Outie

Yours,

Outie

Update 2009-03-14: While it is possible to remove credit cards from the My Account section on xbox.com, this also failed for me. The reason for this apparently was that I bought my last 12-month Gold membership with it about a year ago. I assume – I HOPE – that Xbox Live would have noticed that the card is no longer valid and switched to the new card once the current membership expires. After manually re-selecting 12 Months Gold from the Membership Level menu on Xbox.com > My Account and “paying” for it with my new card (which will only happen once the current membership expires), I could remove the old card from my account.

Take that, bitches

Endangered Gamer (via clockwork, Kotaku): god, I’m laughing so hard at this. The invisible coin blocks are sheer and utter brilliance.

Sort of relatedly, this.

“Germans Cut Suicide Bombers From C&C3″ ZOMG CENSORSHIP!!!1

No. No, no, NO. For fuck’s sake, NO. Games aren’t censored by “the Germans” or “the government” in Germany. There are no laws that require the removal of stuff like that. None. At all.

The replacement of humans with robots, blood with green goop or oil, and removal of gibs is NOT enforced by any authority. Doing this is a choice made by the publishers and/or developers, and ONLY them, to achieve a lower age rating. Nowadays, age ratings are legally binding in Germany – that is, it’s a felony to sell a 16+ rated game to a twelve year old. Hence, lower age ratings = more sales = ALL BLOOD MUST GO LOL.

On top of that, which is what’s commonly being mistaken for “banning”, there’s a process called “indexing” for excessively violent or pornographic games – a title that’s been “put on the index” of such games may still be perfectly legally sold to adults. It just mustn’t be displayed or advertised in places accessible to minors anymore, and obviously not sold to them either. The BPjM (formerly BPjS), the authority managing the index, used to be rather twitchy and trigger happy, but with a recent (2003) rework of the law for the protection of minors, their abilities to index games have been reduced and their general attitude about putting stuff on the index has gotten quite a bit more relaxed since the “large amounts of pixelly blood = instant awesome” binge in games of the early 90s. Additionally, media may be re-evaluated and taken off the index again (which happened to e.g. Golden Axe), or are automatically taken off the index after 25 years. The BPjM is also required to make available a statement explaining the reasons for a game being put on the index. Do keep in mind that throughout the whole time a title is indexed, it can still be legally sold by stores and bought by adults.

There is an actual “banning” process of games in Germany, which involves the attorney general finding a game that spreads anti-constitutional propaganda (ie. displays swastikas and Fuhrer pictures), and formally declaring the title “seized” – from this point on, sale, purchase and import of said title in Germany are prohibited. Educational material is exempt from this process as far as I know, but anyone who tries to argue that Wolfenstein is educational will probably be laughed at.

There is a grand total of five or six games in all of video game history that this has been applied to – most notably the original versions of Wolfenstein 3D and Return to Castle Wolfenstein (because of their distorting depiction of the Nazi regime and their rather liberal application of anti-constitutional symbols), the non-German versions of Commandos 1 (again for slapping a swastika on everything that holds still long enough), and Manhunt – the banning of which was a rather controverse decision because it doesn’t fall into the ZOMG SWASTIKAS category. Instead, Manhunt was banned for its blatant disregard of human dignity (paraphrased from memory). I think these are already all games that have been actually banned in Germany, as opposed to indexed.

To reiterate: It’s not “the Germans” or “the German government” who decide that the suicide bombers in C&C need to go for the German release, it’s Electronic Arts. It’s not the Germans who have forced Capcom and Epic to not release Dead Rising and Gears of War in Germany, it’s a decision they’ve made themselves. The rating authority refused to rate the games – they could’ve been released nonetheless, but unrated games are treated the same as 18+ rated games and are also likely to be indexed ((a game that has an age rating cannot be put on the index anymore). In short, all of these games would be perfectly legal to buy and sell without any changes at all, they just wouldn’t have been allowed to sell them to minors, and, if they would have become indexed (likely), advertise them in public. They decided not to bother and just skip the release altogether. In the case of C&C3, it’s not even sure that the rating authority would have denied a rating had the suicide bombers stayed – EA just decided to cut them to remove as many chances of that happening as possible. All to get a lower age rating and more potential sales.

Whinge whinge whinge, bitch rant complain. I could do this all day. Sorry to Kotaku for bitching about them like this, but their post just happened to trigger this. ;)

In short: don’t get pissed off or laugh at “those silly Germans”, get pissed off or laugh at the publishers instead. Nobody forces them to do it.