Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Gets Region Locked On Steam In Germany

Wolfenstein has been one of the most popular World War II video game series since its initial release in 1981. It has made a return to relevancy in the past few years with some great games like Wolfenstein: The New Order. However, the franchise is the center of a lot of controversies, mostly due to its World War II setting. The game’s portrayal of Adolf Hitler and World War II has resulted in a ban several times. Germany is obviously the main place where it has been censored and locked many times. Recently, a new find tells us that Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is not available in Germany.

Earlier today, we found out that Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is restricted from being purchased on Steam in Germany, according to SteamDB. It isn’t available for anyone from the country to access as this is a region-specific restriction. What’s weirder is that the game is available on the Splash Damage homepage without a lock and isn’t even indexed in the country on Steam.

Furtherthermore, according to the update history of the game on SteamDB, this restriction was quietly implemented on the storefront 21 days ago. It’s no secret that the Wolfenstein franchise has been very controversial in Germany. Several censorships have cut the game many times in the country and the reasons are very fair. The franchise depicts Nazism, a very dark part of Germany’s history – something that the people of the country are trying to leave behind, so a popular game depicting the whole event again doesn’t really help with that.

However, we haven’t seen a full ban on any Wolfenstein games from Germany yet. Return to Castle Wolfenstein is indexed in the country since its release in 2001 but it isn’t outright banned. Indexing means that a game can’t sell openly in a market, however, you have to get exclusive permission to play it. Wolfenstein: The New Order obviously had some censorship which got a lot of media attention. Adolf Hitler’s moustache and the swastika symbol were not present in the German version of the game. However, Germany even lifted this ban in 2018, so the censorship is pretty light now.

What do you think about this? Do tell us your opinions in the comments below!

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