Remember Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata explaining region locking on their consoles? Remember when he talked about "cultural acceptance and legal restrictions, as well as different age ratings?" You may not have liked it when he said these things back then, but it seems week after week evidence is starting to mount that what he said then rings true for everyone in the industry.
We've been reporting about Australia's stringent ratings for a while. Now, Europe is getting the short end of the stick as Sony has finally confirmed that they have deliberately censored multiplayer mode in The Last Of Us to meet regulatory requirements in that region.
Now, European players have actually noticed this for a while now. When playing online, they have noticed they could not dismember their opponents, and there is less blood generated than what they've noticed in gameplay elsewhere. Fans have been asking Sony for explanation for a few months.
Finally, one forum member received a private message on the Sony message boards, which he then made public. To quote verbatim: "The gore and violence ratings are subject to local regulatory boards in various countries, so the game must be slightly changed in order to accommodate those choices."
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The Sony employee went on to say the censorship was enacted on Europe and UK, but players across the Americas get the full uncensored game. It is important to remember that the core single-player campaign is uncensored for all regions.
More recently, Naughty Dog Creative Director Neil Druckman confirmed the censorship and added that they can't do anything about it.
You can get more details on the censorship on the game from Playstation's official forums at the link below.