Battlefield 4 Banned in China! A New form of Cultural Invasion?

[WYP]

With all the recent news surrounding EA's military shooter Battlefield 4, more is surely unsurprising.

This time it is not the bug inside the game, the price of EA's shares or even AMD's Mantle API making the headlines but a full blown Ban in China

China's Ministry of Defense has accused the US developer EA (Electronic Arts) of a new form of "cultural invasion", with the Chinese Ministry of Culture prohibiting all materials relating to the game including; Game downloads, Demos, patches and news reports.

The word "ZhanDi4", the Chinese translation of Battlefield 4, is already censored on Chinese social media.

The game is set in the future in the year 2020, where a fictional war in China is triggered by a Chinese Admiral looking to over throw the current government with Russian support. The player fights as a US soldier fighting against the coup and the Chinese Army alike.

China have claimed the game has "smeared china's image".

Battlefield 4 since its launch in October has been nothing short of a publicity Nightmare, with major technical difficulties on all platforms and a lawsuit against EA lead by Investors and now an outright ban.

What do you guys think of this? Is the government in China right to ban a game showing open rebellion against their authority or should they have just left it alone? Please post below.

Source - zdnet.com

 

[Feronix]

Censorship is never a good thing, but see what happens when we create a game in which you play as a Russian soldier who saves American civilians from the American government that tries to kill them.

Don't think any country would be too happy with this, although BF games were always mainly about the multiplayer which has no storyline.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Still, strikes me as a little odd that it's banned in the country that:

1. Would be most offended and therefore not buy it anyway.
2. Would know that it unrealistic or whatever.

 

[Dicehunter]

Why can't there be a game where America is the bad guy and we must blow them up ?
Would make a nice change from the yanks blowing up the world.

 

[WYP]

Why can't there be a game where America is the bad guy and we must blow them up ?
Would make a nice change from the yanks blowing up the world.

Demz fightin wordz!!

'Murica!

On a more serious note it would be interesting to have such an option explored.

The story of a soldier fighting against an allied, overpowering foreign force looking for non-existent WMDs and spreading what they call democracy and liberty.

 

[Greenback]

Why can't there be a game where America is the bad guy and we must blow them up ?
Would make a nice change from the yanks blowing up the world.

Because it's more believable that America invades another country, and most of the games are made by American companies or funded by them, also if they made Americans the bad guys they'd probably lose half the sales in America.

 

[Kopesetic]

I don't want to get into a regional debate but why exactly is america the bad guy because china banned a game because it hurt their feelings?

 

[ShaunB-91]

Meh don't know how I feel on this, would they do the same if it was a movie?

 

[Conchubair]

isnt GTA americans being the bad guys?? and that sells.....

 

[SeekaX]

meh, kinda split on it. it's bad for EA's/DICE's sales, so that makes me glad, but it also mirrors the state of free speech in china, which is bad. i'll call it a draw.

 

[Icekube]

Not surprising to be honest. China are ridiculous at the best of times but especially with censoring game content, I remember when I played WoW they didn't allow the Chinese based players to have access to the 2nd expansion pack out for like 2 years for absolutely no good reason.