Beyond: Two Souls censored in Europe to avoid 18 rating

Beyond: Two Souls censored in Europe to avoid 18 rating
David Scammell Updated on by

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UPDATE: Sony has provided VideoGamer.com with an official statement on the cuts made to the European version of Beyond: Two Souls.

“We can confirm that three minor aesthetic changes were made to the PAL version of BEYOND: Two Souls,” said SCEE. “These changes are purely cosmetic and do not affect gameplay or the overall story. The modifications were made in order to meet the requirements of regional ratings boards in the PAL region, and with the full support of the development team who do not feel that the title has been compromised in any way.”

ORIGINAL STORY: The European version of Beyond: Two Souls has been censored to avoid receiving a PEGI 18 certificate, product manager Ross Alexander has revealed.

Though it isn’t yet known what content has been censored, Alexander claims that only 5-10 seconds of gameplay has been edited to ensure a PEGI 16 rating, and that it “does not affect the game’s story at all”.

“There are only two amends between the EU and US versions of the game, amounting to about 5-10 seconds of gameplay that’s not been removed, just edited slightly to be in line with a PEGI 16 rating,” Alexander said while responding to comments on the EU PlayStation Blog.

“For BEYOND we wanted to make the game available to as many people as possible, hence applying for a PEGI 16 rating. The 5-10 seconds I mention above would have upped our rating to a PEGI 18, so it made perfect sense to make these two VERY minimal changes to get our planned 16 rating.

“I can assure you that this does not affect the game’s story at all, and that if you didn’t know these scenes had been amended, you wouldn’t even notice.”

It isn’t yet known what content has been cut, but speculation on industry forum NeoGAF suggests that it could be related to a death scene of one of the game’s characters.

VideoGamer.com has contacted SCEE for comment and clarification on the edits.

Beyond: Two Souls launches in the UK next Friday, October 11.

Source: blog.eu.playstation.com, neogaf.com