One of the images from the trailer of the most recent installment of the saga.
Foto: Xbox
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The measure was taken after content regulatory authorities tested the full version of the game, which was released worldwide on October 25.
This has also forced the distributor of ‘Call of Duty‘, Activision, to return money to users who had already purchased the game in advance.
Sources consulted by the official Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas indicated that the main reasons for prohibiting the release of the game are the inclusion of scenes from the Gulf War, the burning of oil wells in Kuwait and the representation of Saddam Hussein, who ordered the invasion of that country by considering it a province of Iraq.
On the other hand, the media indicated that the Kuwaiti authorities even rejected meetings with Activision to modify or eliminate some of the scenes from the video game, with the intention that the new ‘Call of Duty’ could reach the Arab country.
Other video games banned in Kuwait
Kuwait, and other Arab countries, has a long history of video games being banned or ordered modified and adapted for their audience for various reasons.
One of the most controversial releases was that of ‘The Last of Us Part II’, which was banned in the vast majority of Arab countries in 2020 for containing scenes in which homosexual relationships appear, which are even criminalized in several of these nations. and can even lead to prison sentences.
On the other hand, ‘Max Payne 3’ was banned in 2012 due to violent scenes and sexual content, which led most Arab countries to make the same decision regarding the video game.
Likewise, the famous video game series ‘God of War’ was banned in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Arab countries due to its sexual content and explicit violence.
The name of the game itself also provoked condemnation due to its clash with Islamic beliefs, according to media reports from these Muslim-majority countries.
More controversies in the Arab world
The release of the video game ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ was also censored in Saudi Arabia due to scenes in which the protagonist searches for the tomb of a prophet in an Arab country to find the secret of immortality, something that the Saudi authorities considered ” an attack on religious beliefs.”
The United Arab Emirates also banned ‘Spec Ops: The Line’ in 2012, because in the video game chaotic scenes appear in the futuristic city-emirate of Dubai, which appears partially destroyed and plagued by insecurity and crime, something that also led other countries to stand in solidarity with UAE and censor the game.
All in all, Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that has banned or censored the most video games in recent years, and they number in the dozens.
For example, its authorities ordered to censor and modify some parts of the famous video game series ‘Grand Theft Auto’ (GTA) due to its violence and explicit nudity; while ‘Resident Evil 6’ upset Saudi Arabia for its “exaggerated” scenes of horror and violence.
In fact, the General Commission of Audiovisual Media of Saudi Arabia announced in 2018 the ban of a long list of almost 50 titles for different reasons, among which is the children’s video game ‘YO-KAI Watch’.
