Germany’s Red Faction ban to be lifted after 13 years

THQ shooter Red Faction will this year be available in Germany for the first time since its release in 2001.

Red Faction was originally placed on Germany’s ‘index’ of potentially harmful media in 2003 due to its then graphic 3D depiction of violence. Even a resubmitted version, stripped of all blood, dead bodies and some sound effects, were not enough to sway the verdict.

However, a decade and a half on THQ Nordic PR and marketing director Philipp Brock has told Polygon that the company has successfully argued that the now ancient graphics have negated any such concerns.

"For us, clearly the mission was we have it on the Index and it’s definitely not supposed to be there," he said.

"We like to take care of the stuff we own, and we do have a very broad and wide array of different genres in our portfolio. And Red Faction is definitely one of our, I would say, key brands, core IP if you will, and therefore we just sorted it out."

Why does the publisher care, all these years on? Red Faction is due for release on PS4 as part of the PS2 Classics line, so adding Germany to the roster will undoubtedly give the game a commercial boost.

Nowadays Germany is more lenient with its rulings. Bethesda’s new Doom, for instance, was released earlier this year without any edits.