From gratuitous violence and vehicular carnage to same-sex romance and, uhm, rampant graffiti, a great many games have been censored, refused classification or banned entirely in a variety of countries around the world. The legal wrangling and content changes that follow such decisions have seen games being delayed, heavily modified or, some cases, entirely withdrawn from sale in one region while another barely bats an eyelid.
So, what does it take for a game to be banned and what does that even mean?
Usually, when we talk about a game being banned in the US, UK or Australia, it means that the relevant ratings board in that country has refused to bestow an age rating to the title, effectively making in illegal to sell. This can happen for a great many reasons and it’s not always as black and white as it might seem.
Source: IGN Video Games