Way back in the day, nearly two decades ago, Germany banned “Doom.” Well, they didn’t ban it, but you could only buy it in adult stores, so basically nobody could buy it.
That finally lifted, as Germany’s Board of Media Harmful To Young People Despite No Research Ever Substantiating This Is the Case seems to have loosened up: they also approved the third “Gears of War,” even as the first two are still being treated like “She Bangs, He Bangs 15”. Microsoft is looking into getting Germany access to the rest of the Gears franchise.
Most people are covering the story on “Ha ha, Germany finally unbanned a pixellated game from the Phil Collins era.” But the real story is that the German authorities are loosening their stranglehold on media to the point where games aren’t treated like second class artistic citizens. Maybe Germany will actually see some more freedom of speech instead of having everything vetted by a board of busybodies?