Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/15/singapore_bans_mass_effect/
Singapore has banned the Xbox 360 video game Mass Effect because it apparently contains a raunchy lesbian love scene.
No video? You'll need to download Flash Player from www.adobe.com
Local newspaper the Straits Times reported today that the science fiction role-playing game - which is due to be released in the UK later this month* - has been rejected by Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA).
The motivation for the MDA's decision? The game supposedly shows a human woman and female alien kissing and caressing each other - a union the organisation believes inappropriate for gamers to examine.
Singaporean law prohibits games which feature "exploitative or gratuitous sex and violence, or denigrate any race or religion".
The MDA’s decision has apparently caused a mass outcry among gamers in the region, who have branded the organisation’s move as too strict.
Singapore has already banned other video games, including God of War 2 and The Darkness.
Singapore's second minister for information, communications and the arts, Vivian Balakrishnan, has claimed the city is "liberalising", while retaining "a very strong conservative core".
As an example, Agence France Presse notes the powers that be recently "legalised oral and anal sex between heterosexual couples but retained a law which criminalises intercourse between gay men".
*Form an orderly queue, please
MS bashes Gay(wood) Xbox Live gamer (22 May 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/22/xbox_gamertag/
Macworld invites kiddies to 'Make Bouncy Bouncy' (3 January 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/03/make_bouncy_bouncy/
Sega denies Dreamcast revival (7 December 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/07/sega_denies_dreamcast_update/
DivX comes to the Xbox 360 (5 December 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/05/xbox_360_gets_divx/
Arnie's back - in videogame format (20 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/20/terminator_video_game/
Singapore allows sale of 'lesbian' video game (19 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/19/mass_effect_ban_lifited/
'PlayStation-deprived' teen admits part in plot to pop parents (6 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/06/teen_console_murder_plot/
Manhunt 2 leaked by Sony Europe employee (22 October 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/22/manhunt_2_leaked_by_sony_europe_employee/
Oz censor bans Soldier Of Fortune: Payback (18 October 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/18/oflc_bans_solider_of_fortune_game/
Manhunt 2 banned by UK censor - again (9 October 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/09/manhunt_2_bbfc_ban/
Manhunt 2 tweaked to beat US sales ban (28 August 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/08/28/manhunt_2_beats_ban/