Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

Microsoft won’t be releasing Fallout 3 around these parts. The reason? They are afraid some parts of the game aren’t very much suited to ‘Indian sensibilities’.

…in light of cultural sensitivities in India, we have made the business decision to not bring Fallout 3 into the country (source).

Over at GamePolitics it was suggested that they might have been trying to be sensitive about the nuclear issue, since relations between India and Pakistan have been standoffish for longer than ever, and we’re nuclear folks too, and no one wants to upset that.

Much more likely to us, is the presence of mutated two-headed brahmin cows that will kill you. A lot. It’s the sort of thing which might make anyone hate cows, and lets face it, we’re very sensitive to the whole cow issue aren’t we?

Microsoft India was to launch the game in India on October 28 – a day that will now pass us by eventlessly. Microsoft’s PR folks have decided to keep mum about the said ‘sensibility’ issue. Coming hot on the heels of the LBP delay, it makes you wonder if anything remains acceptable now.

Oddly enough, the move might have been inspired by a dislike the Hindu community recently took to the announcement that the hit Virgin Comics title ‘Ramayan 3392 AD‘ is going to be made into a film. Economic Times reported:

Even as Indians gets ready to celebrate Diwali, marking Lord Rama’s return home after vanquishing Ravana, Hollywood has started making a film on the re-imagined Ramayana, based on a Virgin Comics series, and Hindu groups are already imagining that it will distort the most loved epic.

Mandalay Pictures has picked up the rights to the comic series, “Ramayana 3392 AD“, created by New Age guru Deepak Chopra and filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor, entertainment trade magazine Variety reported.

A few months back UK Hindus got together to protest the killing of the sacred cow Gangotri. The BBC reported:

While monks were praying, a vet from the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA) put the cow down on welfare grounds last December.

An RSPCA spokesman said the cow was suffering and vets advised euthanasia.

Hindu protesters danced and chanted at the House of Commons and later at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs while holding placards saying “RSPCA – suited and booted murderers” and “while we pray the RSPCA slay”.

So clearly Hindu communities around the world can take offence to things. Things which might have flown under the radar over here in India. But no. Lets protect the sensibilities. And close the market, because hey, the Indians will pirate the game anyway, so why take any flak?