We've just received some early reports that Ubisoft is recalling Rabbids Go Home from UK stores due to it containing "language that some users may find offensive".
Actual details are hard to come by, but we'd hazard a guess that the line in question is "No penetration allowed in this zone". We could be wrong, of course.
We'll keep you updated on the situation and will try to get Ubisoft's side of the story, but those of you that already own the game could be sitting on a potential goldmine in the near future - recalled games almost always rise in value.
UPDATE: Ubisoft has gotten back to us to state that the title is NOT being recalled, although they company is preparing an official statement relating to the content in question, which suggests that something may well be amiss.
As soon as we have the statement from Ubisoft, we'll post it up here.
Comments 37
AHAHHAHAHHA they need to get a life!
Games are being released for tons of consoles with bigger issues than the ones mentioned above!!!!
The problem is that Rabbids is aimed at kids. Until we know exactly which piece of dialogue has caused the recall, we can't really comment.
Sounds like that "again again" tellytubby thing, where some thought it said "I got a gun", wonder what was said.
Is this recall British only, or do I need to race down to GAME to buy me a copy before they pull it back?
Censorship. Boooooooo.
Meanwhile... teenagers across the nation, slaughter innocent civilians in an airport.
Ridiculous!!!
@ JayArr: How is that censorship? It's a self-restraint, but no censorship. If Ubisoft wanted to keep the game as it is, they'd be perfectly able to.
See, NOW I want to get this... sigh.
Also, given the reasonably good reviews it's been getting I wouldn't say Rabbids was "aimed at kids", I think the phrase should be "family friendly". In any case I've seen more adult jokes in Ice Age 3...
Why is this only for europe ? Does that verison have cuss words or something ???
ive got the super rare "lets turn this train sp@stic" edition of mario party 8 pal, which was recalled
We seem to have some bad luck with games being recalled
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
It's not offensive - it's more of a double entendre. Little'uns won't get it, old'uns will. And they shall smirk! Smirk, I tell you!
This title is probably the world's best suited game for being stamped with "Comical mischief."
In full its
You have to be a real spastic to find this offensive!
I find the term "BWAAAAAAAGH" highly offensive, racist, facist, sexist, agest and quite blasphemous.
I would only recall a game if it was made of lead. Some "offensive language" doesn't bother me. I understand that its because of kids, but odds are they wouldn't get it anyways. Compare language in this game to the original conkers bad fur! That didn't get recalled!
If Europe's video game rating company said it was okay, what's the big deal?
So... penetration means a game should be removed, yet Banjo Kazooie is still on XBLA? I mean come ON! How many sexual references did that game have, everyone knew at least ONE of them >_> (and don't forget BT with Mingy Jongo o_o)
I guess American football should be canceled worldwide too. There is tons of the p word happening and commentators mention it all the time. How offensive. I will now never be the same.
Man I thought the US were the only ones way too concerned with trivial stuff....
That's kind of a clever use of that line IMO, and sexual inuendo-laced humor is nothing new. Heck they use it creatively in kids shows to keep parents chuckling in a lot of cases, and nothing about the Rabbids series has ever been for ages lower than 13...and I feel by 13 you aren't gonna get messed up in the head by that quote (or at any age).
I watched Beavis and Butthead when I was 5 and I still turned out ok tweaks out
I had to look up spastic on wikipedia.
It carries no offensive connotation whatsoever in the States, so I found it strange that silentmountain would edit the spelling of it with the @ symbol and that the game would be pulled.
Hmm... apparently it's VERY offensive in Britain. In the States, it's commonly used and is an essential term for describing certain players or certain actions in poker.
cmon it took 3 years to find that hacked element in GTA San Andreas. And it takes like 2 days to find a little wordplay in a Rabbids game?
didn't the esrb notice say mild language, suggestive themes? What's the problem?
"No penetration allowed in this zone." I loved that line. I guess it didn't completely get pass the radar eh?
Yeah, like brandonbwii said, it's rated for the like in the first place.
I don't see what the problem is. In fact, if it loses some of it's language and double entandres it will effectively lose some of it's personality (anyone who played it should know of those Nurse Betty moments. Classic!).
This is nothing new for animated movies from which it gets it's inspiration. I mean, Ratatouie had that scene where the guy talked about a rash and his "little chef" and Shrek had to "save his ass". This is the same deal. They didn't have to censor those moments, why should Ubisoft censor theirs?
I also have never heard of spastic used offensively, but anyway. I can see the penetration line being noticed and laughed at, but it is not necessary to pull the game. Only the parents or a really naughty kid would even think of innuendo in that situation. It's been proven that our minds have been corrupted and in some instances, innocent kids will see something entirely innocent. We will see a pair of breasts but innocents will just wonder what we are laughing at.
Also, "although they company" is grammatically incorrect.
Where in the game does the "No Penetration" message appear? I mean, if it were scrawled on the back of bikini bottoms, that'd be one thing, but I'm guessing it's just a random sign somewhere, yes?
@Machu: I was gonna make that reference!
So, one double entendre causes all this fuss? Jeez. I played GTA: San Andreas when I was young (surprisingly it taught me some stuff about life through someone else's eyes, and the phenomena that is cheat code overusage ) and I'm fine as a gamer. Now I own GTA: Chinatown Wars. Don't see anyone fussing over that.
I (somewhat) repeat Machu's notion: So they found time to figure this out while teens like myself are killing innocents and causing Russia (and Infinity Ward) to be susceptible to mass-media hysteria?
P.S. I don't have MW2! I have a Wii and the entire DS family (except DSi XL of course).
@Chibi Link: nope, not at all - and there are other words out there that work the same way (as in terrible in EU/AUS but a-ok here in NA), but you can discover those on your own. :3 check out this Wikipedia article if you're interested, it's got a pretty good writeup of how the term in question here evolved both in the UK and in the US.
It's all to do with the content versus the game's rating - yes, Modern Warfare 2 has lots of blood and killing, but it's also illegal to sell it (in the UK at least) to anyone under 18, and in other territories it will have a suitable age rating. Rabbids Go Home clearly has some other content (possibly the penetration line, possibly something else) that is at odds with its 7+/kid-friendly age rating.
We're still waiting to hear back from Ubisoft but we'll update when we know.
@28
It's said through a loud speaker in the hospital if I remember correctly. To my understanding though, what got everyone's underwear in a bunch (see what I did thar?) is how often the word piss was used (if you scare a dog while it's being walked the human will say "stop pissing off my dog" for example).
And yet I never once heard that word, and I was playing with subtitles on too! Bizarre.
I love the Rabbids.
The only "Spaz" in this instant are the people who are crying wolf. I have heard this term used many times before, and have never heard reference to its inappropriate use. Ironically, we often use the term to refer to someone who either has the jitters from consuming too much caffine, or has freaked out emotionally over something incredibly minor.
But to be perfectly fair, I can't recall a single instance of ever hearing/reading the word "spastic", which is apparently quite a different word from the US derivative "spaz". Kind of like people in the UK call cigarettes "f@gs", which is considered a slur word for prejudice against gays in the US.
That isn't irony - you're likening a person with uncontrollable physical responses to someone with poor motor control often derived from a degenerative disease. There's nothing ironic about that at all.
You said you would update this, but you never did... :/
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