| Release date | Title | Platform | Developer/Publisher | Reason(s) |
|---|
| 2000 | Dance Dance Revolution Solo | Arcade | Konami | In 2002, a local arcade in San Diego, California removed a Solo 2000 machine after members of the local "Youth Advocacy Coalition" complained that the background movies of selected songs contained images that could promote drug and alcohol abuse, such as a scantily clad nurse, pills in "I'm Alive" and alcoholic drinks appearing in "Club Tropicana". The machine was replaced by a mix which did not contain the imagery.[38] |
| 2000 | Daikatana | PC | Ion Storm | A highly controversial advertisement regarding John Romero's involvement with the game, which caused an equally highly publicized outrage.[39] |
| 2000 | Soldier of Fortune | PC, Dreamcast, PS2 | Raven Software | In 2000, after receiving a complaint from a member of the public about the explicit content of the game, the British Columbia Film Classification Office investigated and decided the violence, gore and acts of torture were not suitable for persons under 18 years of age. In a controversial decision, the game was labeled an "adult motion picture" and was rated as a pornographic film. In Germany, the game was placed on the Index List of the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons. |
| 2000 | Perfect Dark | N64, Xbox 360, Xbox One (Rare Replay) | Rare, Nintendo, Microsoft Studios (now Xbox Game Studios) | As the first M-rated game published by Nintendo, the release of Perfect Dark was met with controversy since Nintendo - at least at the time - was famous for family-friendly video game franchises like Pokémon and Mario.[40] |
| 2001 | Conker's Bad Fur Day | N64, Xbox One (Rare Replay) | Rare, Nintendo, Microsoft Studios (now Xbox Game Studios) | Controversial for its "over-the-top" and "lewd" humor.[41] |
| 2001 | Tear Ring Saga | PS1 | Tirnanog | The game, whose development was spearheaded by Shouzou Kaga, the creator of the Fire Emblem series, was subject to legal actions both during and after development by Nintendo, which owned the Fire Emblem intellectual property (partly due to the game being released for a competitor console). However, Nintendo was ultimately unable to stop the development or the sales of the game. Initially titled Emblem Saga during development, the game's name and other features were later changed to remove all direct references to Fire Emblem.[42] |
| 2002 | Shadow Man: 2econd Coming | PlayStation 2 | Acclaim | An attempt to promote this video game involved placing advertisements on deceased people's gravestones.[43] |
| 2002 | Ethnic Cleansing | PC | Resistance Records | Racially motivated violence, white supremacist themes.[44] |
| 2002 | Kaboom! | Browser | fabolous999 | Players control a suicide bomber, the aim of the game being to kill as many people as possible.[45] |
| 2002 | State of Emergency | PC, PS2, Xbox | Rockstar Games (Take-Two Interactive), VIS Entertainment | Contains Columbine-style violence, including political assassinations and coup d'états. Additionally, the game caused controversy in Washington due to the game's similarities to the World Trade Organization riots in Seattle.[46] |
| 2003 | Postal 2 | PC | Running with Scissors | Violence against both pedestrians and law enforcement personnel, racism, sexual themes, drug use, language, and animal cruelty. Banned in New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.[47] |
| 2003 | Manhunt | PS2, PC, Xbox | Rockstar Games (Rockstar North) (Take-Two Interactive) | Excessive violence and gore. Manhunt gained significant controversy after it was alleged that the game inspired a teenager to commit a murder. Banned in Australia.[citation needed][citation needed] |
| 2003 | Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball | Xbox | Tecmo | Many critics have commented that the game's use of female bodies is often ridiculous at best, and some have found it offensive.[48] |
| 2003 | Whiplash | PlayStation 2, Xbox | Crystal Dynamics | The game generated some controversy over the animal cruelty, mainly by the RSPCA.[citation needed] |
| 2003 | Laden VS USA | Panyu Gaming Electronic Co. | The game was based on the September 11 attacks and the packaging used a 9/11 photograph.[49][50] |
| 2004 | The Sims 2 | PC | EA Games | A player-made mod allowed for the blur effect that appears when a character is nude to be removed. However, the nude Sims are featureless.[51] |
| 2004 | JFK: Reloaded | PC | Traffic Software | The player is given the role of Lee Harvey Oswald as he assassinatesU.S. PresidentJohn F. Kennedy. Criticized for its controversial content matter in recreating the assassination and was condemned by a spokesman for Senator Ted Kennedy as "despicable".[52] |
| 2004 | The Guy Game | PC, PlayStation 2 | Topheavy Studios/Gathering of Developers | An adult trivia game that treated winners to full motion videos of young women in bikinis. One of the women that was part of the footage was unaware that she would be appearing in the game, nor was said woman in an age of consent when the video was filmed. In the subsequent lawsuit against Topheavy, Gathering of Developers, Microsoft, and Sony, an injunction banned further sales of the game. Topheavy however, released an edited version (removing footage of the woman in question) that added new footage and was later published as an interactive DVD title.[53] |
| 2005 | Super Columbine Massacre RPG! | PC | Danny Ledonne | The game simulates the events of the Columbine High School massacre, having the player take on the roles of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and reenacting the massacre.[54][55][56][57] |
| 2005 | Gun | PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Xbox 360 | Activision | The game's offensive depictions of American Indians prompted the Association for American Indian Development to call a boycott against the game.[58] |
| 2004 | The Punisher | PC, PS2, Xbox | Volition | Interrogation, torture, intense gun fights, drugs, and indiscriminate killing. Originally merited an "Adults Only" rating before being edited on appeal.[59][60][61][62] |
| 2006 | Bully | PS3, Xbox360, PS2, Wii, iOS, Android, Shield Android TV, Shield Tablet, Shield Portable | Rockstar Games (Rockstar Vancouver) (Take-Two Interactive) | Based upon its title, it was perceived that Bully glorified bullying. That the main character Jimmy could also kiss another boy was a matter of controversy.[63] Classification boards generally restricted Bully to a teenage audience: the US-based Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) classified the game with a T rating,[64] the British Board of Film Classification gave it a 15 rating, the Australian Classification Board rated it M,[65] and the New Zealand OFLC restricted it to persons 13 years of age and over. In 2007, Yahoo! Games listed it as one of the top ten controversial games of all time.[66] |
| 2006 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | Xbox 360, PC, PS3 | Bethesda Softworks | Re-rated to "Mature" by the ESRB after a third-party mod revealed a nude topless corpse hidden in the game's data files. While the corpse did not warrant a re-rating of the game in and of itself, upon review, the ESRB noted that the game contained much more explicit violence than had been submitted to them in the original rating submission.[67] |
| 2006 | Hitman: Blood Money | PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3 | IO Interactive | Excessive violence and assassinations; magazine ads for the game featured pictures depicting murder victims.[68] |
| 2006 | Mind Quiz | Nintendo DS, PSP | Ubisoft | Recalled in the United Kingdom due to use of the word "spastic", which is considered highly offensive in said country.[69] |
| 2006 | Left Behind: Eternal Forces | PC | Left Behind Games | Accusations that the game promoted religious "convert or kill" violence, sexism and racism.[70][71][72] Some reviewers denied that the game contained any truly controversial gameplay,[73] but instead took issue with the game's clumsy controls, in-game advertising and lackluster AI.[74]Ars Technica called it "a relatively harmless and well-done piece of propaganda".[75] |
| 2006 | Resistance: Fall of Man | PS3 | Insomniac Games | The Church of England objected to the game's use of Manchester Cathedral's interior as a backdrop during a gun battle, and called for the game to be withdrawn or for the cathedral to be removed from the game.[76] |
| 2006 | RapeLay | PC | Illusion Soft | Rape is a core part of the gameplay, as the player takes on the role of a chikan who stalks - and subsequently rapes - a mother and her two underage daughters. Three years after its initial release, significant controversy was raised in the UK Parliament and elsewhere, and Equality Now eventually pressured its distributor to withdraw distribution of it in Japan.[77] |
| 2006 | Rule of Rose | PS2 | Punchline | The Mayor of Rome called for the game to be banned from Italy, saying children "have the right to be shielded from violence".[78] The then European Union justice and security commissioner wrote an open letter condemning the game for "obscene cruelty and brutality". An Italian magazine, Panorama, claimed that in order to win the game players must bury a girl alive, which the game's European publisher disputed.[79] On the UK release day, the publisher announced that Rule of Rose would not be published in the UK, despite the game being approved for release by the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) and Video Standards Council regulatory bodies.[80] |
| 2007 | BioShock | Xbox 360, PC, PS3, iOS | 2K Games | An article in The Patriot Ledger, the local paper of developer Irrational Games,[81] argued that the game is "testing the limits of the ultra-violent gaming genre with a strategy that enables players to kill characters resembling young girls."[82] The game presents an ethical choice to players, whether to kill 'Little Sisters' for extra abilities or save them and receive less. President of 2K Boston Ken Levine defended the game as a piece of art, stating "we want to deal with challenging moral issues and if you want to do that, you have to go to some dark places".[83] Jack Thompson took issue with advertisements for the game appearing during WWE SmackDown's airtime, writing to the Federal Trade Commission and stating that M-rated games should not be advertised when large numbers of under-17s are watching.[84] |
| 2007 | Manhunt 2 | PS2, PSP, PC, Wii | Rockstar Games | Manhunt 2 has been labeled as possibly the most violent video game ever made and is infamous for being one of only four video games to have received an "Adults Only" rating due to violence, with the other three being The Punisher, Hatred, and Agony. Further controversy surrounds the Wii version due to the fact that it actually simulates the violence through motion control, causing it to be dubbed a "murder simulator".[4][21][85] |
| 2007 | Mass Effect | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | BioWare | Falsely accused by evangelical blogger Kevin McCullough of containing "rape and sodomy", which later led to the removal of McCullough's blog entry on Townhall.com. The game was featured on the Fox News Channel following the controversy,[86] with host Martha MacCallum, which included the headline "full graphic sex".[87] In actuality, the game's most explicit content is an indirect "sideboob" shot of a humanoid alien breast.[88] |
| 2007 | Mario Party 8 | Wii | Nintendo | Use of the phrase "Turn the train spastic! Make this ticket tragic!" by the character Kamek caused controversy in the United Kingdom, where the word spastic is considered offensive (which is the same issue that Mind Quiz raised). This led to a recall of the game; it was later re-released with the word changed to erratic.[89] |
| 2008 | Spore | PC | Maxis | Spore's use and implementation of SecuROMdigital rights management, including the game's activation policies, was subject to widespread criticism and lawsuits; the game was listed as the most pirated game of 2008.[90][91][92][93][94] |
| 2008 | Muslim Massacre | PC | Eric 'Sigvatr' Vaughn | The game's contents and subject have been the subject of strong negative response; a spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain said "The makers of this 'game' and the ISPs (Internet service providers) who are hosting it should be quite ashamed of themselves. Anti-Muslim prejudice is already on the increase and needs to be challenged and not reinforced through tasteless and offensive stunts like this."[95] |
| 2008 | Invaders! | Douglas Edric Stanley | An art game exhibited at the 2008 Games Convention in Leipzig. It represents the September 11 attacks in the style of Space Invaders. Players move their bodies to move the cannon and use arm movements to fire.[96] Like the original Space Invaders, death (game over) is inevitable.[97] Many people considered it tasteless and inappropriate, and Taito threatened legal action for unauthorized use of Space Invaders content.[98] The creator later pulled the game.[98] |
| 2008 | Silent Hill: Homecoming | PS3, PC, Xbox 360 | Double Helix Games | The game was banned and a rating refused in Australia and Germany for extreme violence and disturbing images which included graphic sexuality, nudity, copious blood sprays, decapitations, partially dismembered corpses, and numerous scenes of attacks, fights, torture and death.[99] The Australian version was subsequently released with the MA15+ rating and censored graphics, while the Japanese release was cancelled altogether.[citation needed] |
| 2008 | LittleBigPlanet | PS3 | Media Molecule | Lyrics from a licensed song, "Tapha Niang", were removed due to fears that Muslims would be offended, on the basis that it allegedly contained words from the Quran. This led to controversy about the removal itself.[100] |
| 2008 | Too Human | Xbox 360 | Silicon Knights | The game was revealed to being developed using a stolen version of Unreal Engine 3, following a successful counter-suit by Epic Games (makers of the Unreal Engine), Silicon Knights having initially sued Epic Games for "breach of contract".[101][102] In November 2012, the counter-suit was ruled in favor of Epic Games, forcing Silicon Knights to recall and destroy all copies of the game and another Unreal Engine-developed game, X-Men: Destiny, as well as cancelling other titles that had been planned to use the engine.[103][104] |
| 2008 | Limbo of the Lost | PC | Majestic Studios | The game's use of plagiarized assets from other games and movies prompted publishers, Tri Synergy, to stop publishing the game.[105] |
| 2009 | MadWorld | Wii | PlatinumGames | [citation needed] |
| 2009 | Resident Evil 5 | PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Shield Android TV, Shield Portable, Shield Tablet, Nintendo Switch | Capcom | The game came under controversy for a pre-release trailer that contains scenes of racism,[106] according to Newsweek journalist N'Gai Croal in an April 2008 interview. He also stated that organizations and retailers would object to the game and that it would cause controversy on release.[106] |
| 2009 | Saw | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Konami | Several news publishings stated that the game's only purpose was to torture and kill people in violent ways with no sense of restraint or morality whatsoever. Some editorials called it "depraved and inhumane" and stated that "Konami should be ashamed".[107] It was also listed in the "Top ten most controversial games of 2009".[108] |
| 2009 | Left 4 Dead 2 | Xbox 360, PC (Steam) | Valve | The cover art in the UK had to be altered due to a potentially offensive hand gesture being depicted.[109] The game was initially banned in Australia for its excessive violence and gore, but the uncensored version was later rated R18+ in 2014.[110] The game's New Orleans setting so soon after Hurricane Katrina was considered "a bad call".[111] |
| 2009 | Fat Princess | PlayStation 3
PlayStation Portable | Titan Studios | Critics argued that the game concept and title were hostile to women.[112] |
| 2009 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | PS3, Xbox 360, PC, | Infinity Ward | A optional mission in the game entitled "No Russian" has the player assume control of an undercover Central Intelligence Agency operative, joining a group of Russian nationalist terrorists who perpetrate an airport massacre. The player is given the option to skip it at any point,[113][114] and a message before the campaign also notifies players of the disturbing material. The game was discussed briefly in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom after the issue was brought to the attention of MP Keith Vaz, a longtime opponent of violence in video games, with fellow Labour Party politician Tom Watson arguing that the level was "no worse than scenes in many films and books" and criticising Vaz for "collaborating with the Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of video games".[115] The mission was made optional before release[116] and removed from the game entirely.[117] Activision later removed the Favela multiplayer map from Modern Warfare 2 following complaints from Muslim gamers, which shows picture frames on the second floor bathroom of one building within Favela. When viewed through a scoped weapon, the frames contain a quote from Muhammad that translates to "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty", according to Islam Today. One of the paintings is located directly above a toilet.[118] |
