Topic: Dead or Alive Dimensions Banned in Sweden

[NWR_pap64]

The high-kicking fighter will not see release due to child porn laws.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/26362

Dead or Alive Dimensions, a 3DS fighter developed by Team Ninja, has been effectively banned in Sweden due to child pornography laws.

European gamers have been receiving e-mails from GameStop and GAME stores informing them that the game will not see release as Bergsala, the title's distributor, received threats from the police regarding the issues the game brought forth. A post on NeoGAF elaborates that the decision was to enforce the country's child pornography laws, stating that even in fiction, if a minor is presented in a pornographic situation, it is violating the law. Dead or Alive Dimensions features a game mode in which players can take photos of the characters. This mode was used as the foundation for this claim.

Besides Sweden, the game was also prohibited from being sold in Norway and Denmark, and the stores that offered the game are now eliminating it from their databases and returning players their money if they reserved a copy of the game.

[Ceric]

I wonder who in particular is less then the legal age in DoA?  I'm sure TY would know.

[ShyGuy]

Has the Swedish Chef commented on this?

[pandaradox]

Walk where you wish, but expect the grass to whine. 

[Enner]

I wonder who in particular is less then the legal age in DoA?  I'm sure TY would know.

I'm curious as well.
A Dead or Alive wiki has the youngest fighters, Ayane and Eliot at the age of 16.

[NWR_pap64]

In Japan Kasumi, Ayame and Hitomi are 16. In other areas, however, they are listed as , indicating that they are indeed minors. Note that in the games they not only have big breasts they are often exploited the most. My guess is that with those characters wearing revealing outfits and a camera mode that lets players take revealing photos of them the Swedish thought this was cause for alarm.

[Ceric]

Its obvious that their is time between the games why not just bump their ages up to where they would really be in the timeline which should be legal.

[BranDonk Kong]

This is the stupidest thing ever, but not because they are blocking the game...

[KDR_11k]

lolwut, how is that pornographic?

[Podings]

What a complete travesty of a decision.
 
I do NOT doubt that Team Ninja has made this game borderline pornographic, and just inappropriate in a number of ways, BUT: while all of Scandinavia bans pornography featuring anyone under 18, the sexual minor age is 15. The girls in this game are not paid for the photos but are participating for fun, hence, it is not pornography in the traditional sense, and 16 should be fine. In any case, the age of the photographer is not disclosed. For all we know, the girls could be shooting each other.
Furthermore; Denmark and Norway simply have no child pornography laws covering fiction in the first place.
 
Concerning the full Scandinavian ban, I can only assume that Bergsala, being a swedish company, fear legal jeopardy even if they only released the game outside Sweden (which includes Finland too, but I guess people just ignore them out of habit.)
 
Or, they feel the release becomes too unprofitable without the swedish market.
 
I don't believe either, though, and I think in the end the decision just indicates Bergsala not wanting their reputation tarnished among the swedish public and fellow businesses.

[AV]

  I thought Europe was a-ok with nudity they hated violence. I would understand it being banned in Alabama not in Sweden. DOA never actually shows the nudity anyway its just a stupid tease. Has any other DOA game been banned from that country?

[KDR_11k]

They wouldn't mind it if the characters were officially declared 18 years old (they could probably do it without retconning, after all time passes and people get older).

[ShyGuy]

Europe is so uptight and prudish.

[Urkel]

while all of Scandinavia bans pornography featuring anyone under 18, the sexual minor age is 15

[mudjah]

Being swedish I would like say something about this.

Sweden has rather strict laws against child pornography,  and that is great and I am all for it, but...

But in recent times people have been brought to court just for owning manga picturing young cartoon characters in some kind of sexual context, and this has gone so far that artists are scared of how their art is being interpreted and so on. Right now displaying classic art picturing naked kids could be subject for police arrests.

Some guy at a free speech forum decided he would report this game and the distributor to the police just to show how out of hand and stupid the law has become.

the swedish distributor got cold feet and decided to pull the game, so at this time we will not see a court decide if video game characters are child porn or not.

Sweden really needs to test a case like this in high court, otherwise people, filmmakers, artists or video game makers will continue to be very nervous and we are back in eighties crazy censorship times all again.

The game is in no way child porn, hell, I even own a dead or alive game, I wish a court could decide upon this once for all, so I don't have to worry the police to come and arrest me for owning pedo-porn, but I guess nintendo sweden didnt want their product to be the subject for such legal experiment.