Banned Games Around the World: When They Become an International Issue

Video games have always been seen as entertainment, but that's no longer the case. Today, games tell complex stories, address real wars, politics, religion, sexuality, violence, and even economics. And when these themes cross borders, cultural clashes are almost inevitable. What is entertainment in one country may be considered offensive, dangerous, or even illegal in another.

Over the years, several games have been censored, altered, or banned for reasons ranging from extreme violence, religious symbols, historical traumas, and national security concerns. And the most curious thing: they aren't always "heavy" games. From games like Mario to mobile games, they all enter some thorny territory for some people.

Below, I've compiled some cases of banned or censored games around the world, explaining the context behind each decision.

GTA (Series)

The Grand Theft Auto series has always been controversial. Explicit violence, crime, drugs, prostitution, and an open world that basically encourages you to wreak havoc. Even so, many countries tolerated the games in the series for years.

Thailand had no history of censoring violent games. That changed in 2008, when a young man named Polwat Chino murdered a taxi driver in Bangkok. During interrogation, he stated that the crime seemed easy in GTA and that he needed quick money to buy a copy of the game. The media pounced on the case, turning the game into the main villain of the story.

The repercussions were so great that the government decided to ban the sale of the franchise in the country, and GTA became a symbol of debate about the influence of video games on youth violence. Even without concrete proof that the game caused the crime, Rockstar ended up paying the price.

Mass Effect

Mass Effect is remembered as one of BioWare's best franchises. Your choices change the story, affect characters, and create real consequences within the game. And this freedom brought problems for the game in Singapore.

In Mass Effect, the player can develop romantic relationships with human and alien characters, including scenes of intimacy. One of them involves an alien of the Asari race, who has a feminine appearance. According to Singapore's regulatory bodies, this type of content was considered inappropriate, especially because it involved interspecies relationships.

The game was banned in the country. Years later, with more specific age ratings, the franchise was eventually released, but the episode remains an example of cultural clash between Western narrative and conservative Asian values.

Battlefield 3

The Battlefield series has always strived for visual and narrative realism. In Battlefield 3, one of the missions takes place in Tehran, the capital of Iran. For the developers, it was just another modern warfare setting. For the Iranian government, it was seen as an offensive and hostile representation of the country.

The game was officially banned, with reports of stores being raided and people arrested for possessing copies of the game. Since EA doesn't have official distribution in Iran, most players accessed the game through alternative means, which further worsened the repression.

Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Few countries take the fight against @@@@ as seriously as Germany. The use of @@@@ symbols and any form of related propaganda is illegal, even when the context is critical or fictional.

The Wolfenstein franchise focuses on killing Nazis in alternate realities and has suffered greatly because of this. For many years, the games were banned or released with heavy censorship in the country. Swastikas were removed, uniforms altered, and even dialogue rewritten.

However, in Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, the player lives in a world where the Nazis won World War II, a detail that would certainly cause problems and should’ve been foreseen by the company. The plot includes symbols, speeches, and even a fictional version of Adolf.

For the release in Germany, everything had to be redone. Symbols were removed, dialogue altered, and direct references to @@@@ replaced with generic terms. Only then was the game able to be legally released in the country.

The problem wasn't the violence, but the fact that games were considered "toys" under German law, which made them an even more restricted target in terms of sensitive historical content.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty: Black Ops II became embroiled in controversy for its depiction of conflicts in real countries. In Pakistan, the government considered the game to portray the country negatively and its narrative to be "developed against the country". The same justification was used to ban Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Both games were prevented from being sold.

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, few missions in video game history have caused as much controversy and impact as "No Russian". The player participates in—or witnesses—a massacre at a Russian airport.

Even with Activision allowing players to skip the mission and releasing edited versions, Russia didn’t accept it. Authorities considered the scene offensive and dangerous, especially for portraying Russian citizens as victims in a fictional terrorist attack. The game ended up being recalled and banned in the country.

Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Perhaps the most unexpected case on the list is Mario Kart Tour, a seemingly harmless game that ended up being banned in Belgium because of its loot boxes.

In Belgium, systems of random rewards purchased with real money are considered gambling. Since the game allowed spending money without knowing what would come in the item boxes, the practice was deemed illegal.

The Netherlands followed suit, and even consumer protection agencies in other countries criticized the game's business model. The pressure was so great that Nintendo completely removed the loot boxes in 2022.

In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the character Inkling Girl made a celebratory gesture with her arms, which in some cultures is seen as offensive—equivalent to showing the middle finger.

After complaints in European and Latin American countries, Nintendo decided to remove the gesture via an update to avoid an increase in the age rating and possible sales restrictions.

A form of preventative censorship, demonstrating the care companies must take when adapting their games for different audiences.

Pokémon and Pokémon Go

In the 90s, Pokémon became a phenomenon. Animated series, Game Boy games, trading cards, and a seemingly unstoppable craze. But not everyone embraced Pikachu with open arms.

In Saudi Arabia, the franchise was banned after religious authorities claimed that Pokémon promoted Zionism and gambling. According to them, the trading cards contained symbols considered un-Islamic, including interpretations of some geometric shapes that resembled the Star of David.

The trading and competition system involving cards was compared to gambling, something severely condemned in the country. The franchise ended up being banned, both in games and related products.

Nintendo responded by saying that it never intentionally created religious symbols and that Pokémon was always intended as children's entertainment. Even so, the damage was done. In other countries, the franchise also faced partial restrictions, but none as radical as in Saudi Arabia.

Pokémon Go also suffered; the game revolutionized the mobile market by mixing augmented reality with real-world exploration. But this innovation raised concerns in several countries.

In Iran, the government claimed that the use of GPS, maps, and location data could pose risks, especially in strategic areas. Other countries even restricted access in specific locations, such as military bases, but Iran was the first to ban the game completely.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Australia has one of the strictest rating systems in the world, and The Witcher 2 ended up conflicting with these rules.

According to regulatory bodies, the game used [b]{"sex as a reward"}, something considered problematic in Australian culture. To circumvent the situation, CD Projekt Red altered a specific mission in the Australian version, while the rest of the content remained virtually intact. A curious solution, but necessary to release the game in the country.

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is an RPG set in a world devastated by nuclear war. Radiation, destroyed cities, atomic bombs, and the consequences of the apocalypse are all part of the franchise. For Western audiences, this has always been treated as dystopian fiction. In Japan, the subject is much more delicate.

During the development of the Japanese version, Bethesda had to make changes to a side mission called "The Power of the Atom". In it, the player can decide whether or not to detonate a nuclear bomb located in the center of a city. The mission itself was already unsettling.

The biggest problem was the presence of the weapon called Fat Man, a direct reference to the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. Given the historical trauma the country suffered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this type of reference was considered extremely sensitive.

To avoid controversy, names were changed, dialogues adjusted, and references softened. The game wasn't banned, but it underwent meticulous censorship to respect the historical memory of the Japanese people.

Far Cry 3

Many people, while playing Far Cry 3, noticed the similarities to Indonesia. Tropical islands, coastal villages, armed mercenaries, drug trafficking, and rampant violence form the game's setting.

For many players, this is just another exotic environment to explore. For the Indonesian government, the game portrayed the country as a wild, corrupt, and violent place, reinforcing negative stereotypes of the country to the world.

The backlash in the country was enough for the game to be banned. Even without official confirmation from Ubisoft about the direct inspiration, the damage had already been done.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

This is a rare and quite specific case. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 was, to this day, the only game officially banned in Mexican history.

The reason was its depiction of Ciudad Juárez. In the game, the location shows intense armed conflicts, with guerrillas, foreign troops, and urban chaos. The problem is that, in real life, Juárez already faced an extremely negative image due to violence linked to drug trafficking.

The city's then-mayor considered that the game further reinforced this negative view and formally requested that the game be banned. The request was granted by the government, and the game was banned in Mexican territory.

These cases teach us one thing: video games have a real impact on the world—and that scares a lot of people. Games are much more than just a pastime; they carry culture, politics, religion, historical memory, and social values. What seems normal to one country may be offensive or entirely unacceptable to another.

The more realistic a game tries to be, the greater the chance of it suffering from cultural limitations. And with the industry growing ever larger, it's safe to bet that this list will only increase.

And you, what did you think of these bans? Leave your opinion in the comments.