According to various Chinese news outlets, Battlefield 4 is now banned and labeled as “illegal” by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, as it depicts an “aggressive attack on [Chinese] culture”.

With a flurry of new patches and updates being administered to all versions, things were finally starting to turn around after Battlefield 4‘s troublesome launch; after the release of the “China Rising” DLC expansion, more technical problems began to arise across all platforms, but most of those glitches and bugs have been taken care of. However, the multiplayer expansion has caused yet another problem, one which no one probably expected: According to China’s Ministry of Culture, Battlefield 4 includes content that “endangers national security”, and is an “aggressive attack on [Chinese] culture”. According to Chinese site QQ, this was an effortless attempt from DICE to “demonize the image of China’s People’s Liberation Army”, and that Chinese players refuse to accept the historical inaccuracy of an included “General Chang”.

Social search engine site Weibo has already banned all searches relating to Battlefield 4; the Ministry of Culture also gave an order that all copies of Battlefield 4 and additional DLC  must be deleted within 24 hours.

While this particular instance may be irrational and extreme, the act of banning titles or refusing to localize certain video games is a pretty common practice; a handful of titles each year never make it to Australia due to the strict standards of depicted content. and plenty of titles never come to the US without heavy editing for similar reasons.

Metal Wolf Chaos for instance, depicted a gun-crazy, mech-piloting President of the USA who was hell-bent on destruction for the cause of the people; at the time of its Japanese release, it probably wasn’t viewed as a culturally acceptable title to have in the US market……In other news, Saints Row IV released in the US earlier this year.

Sources: Polygon, QQ, South China Morning Post, China.com
Image courtesy of DICE