Can't Find Dying Light On The Switch eShop? It Might Be Because It's Currently Banned In Germany

Strange, because I swear on 3DS at least, different European nations had different products on offer in their eShops, and even in the Theme Store. My 2nd 3DS is set to Germany, and I remember seeing a few items that were just not available on the UK one. Considering this, is the Switch eShop not the same, and if it is, can they not just list it in the countries’ eShops that can distribute it?
If not, I suppose the issue is that Germany legally cannot allow them to sell it, even to users in other countries, as that is where the server and/or business is based. 🤔

@Markiemania95 I can confirm this is still in effect on Switch. Senran Kagura games are not available in the Swedish eshop but is available in Norway and UK for instence.

The differece with Dying Light is that Nintendo Europe is located in Germany where the game is banned. I guess they can't legally accept payment for the game in that country, even if the money comes from a foreign purchase.

@GrannyWhiskey to do that you need to either change the region of your account, lose any spare credit you have and top up with a US gift card or create a specific US account that would need to connect to the internet each time to check you were eligible to play AND still go find a US credit source. that would leave out about 99% of the potential Switch audience.

@GrannyWhiskey Most people, especially casuals, would rather not go through the struggle of making another Nintendo account for purchases elsewhere. It's not as simple as just using your eShop, or even importing physical games.

And besides, how are you supposed to pay in USD if most Europeans don't have that currency in their bank account.
_{^{Also technically the region-locked Switch thing is only 95% true since the Chinese version of the Switch (outside of Honk-Kong or Taiwan) is region-locked.}}

Interesting. From what I can tell Wolfenstein The New Order shipped for the Switch before Germany lifted the ban on the swastika being shown in video games. Was there any impact around that game due to Germanys laws that impacted other countries? I don’t recall any issues from the time, but I didn’t specifically follow that title or what censorship may have been applied to which markets.

@Zimon

Banned or not rated Games/Media can be sold, but it is not allowed to offer them openly or to advertise them.
It is also not allowed to review them in Magazines.

For Example, i bought Quake 3 and Rune in the local Store here in Germany just by asking the Employee if they have them

They were just not allowed to display them.

Thats why they often do a censored Version, since it is a big Market.

Doom was often discribed as: "That Game with Demons everybody knows." haha.

Edit:
What i am not understanding, why don't they let rate the Game?
They changed the Law for Resellers, so that they have to sell Games rated 18 to Persons being at least 18 Years old (wasn't the Case back then).
Since that, they haven't banned nearly any Game, only Games with Nazi Symbolism and even that changed the last Years.

Companies as Bethesda gave Games as Wolfenstein 3D and Doom to rerate them and they're now openly aviable.

Why is this game banned in Germany?

Bruh that was my original post from reddit! I'm so happy to see it's being reported on:)

@HotGoomba It's actually very easy to pay in other regions eShops. And no you don't really need a second account. Just change your location here: https://accounts.nintendo.com/profile/edit

Next you'll need a credit card from that region or buy prepaid eShop cards. Just google for them and you'll find them. However do note that you will lose the remaining eShop credit if you switch regions again. So making a second account is preferable.

this makes no sense as there are several other euro switch games not available exclusively in germany.
i.e. the uncensored version of the wolfensteins

@BloodNinja Apparently because you're killing a few baby zombies at some point. At least that's what a friend told me yesterday when i asked him and i mean, that definitely would be stuff that Germany's rating board has an issue with

It's wrong that one country's decision affects so many others like this.

Reminds of how we have to deal with all the same movie censorships (or even screening bans) as Russia just because there is apparently one distributor for all of the CIS. Quite a bummer to be dealing with such things almost twenty-one years into the twenty-first century - if having all this stuff restricted by your own country's government can be unpleasant, then what about having it effectively restricted by the laws of a country you've never even been to?

So this is why the first game wasn't in the European direct

@BloodNinja because it's fun.

As usual Germany ruins everything for the rest of Europe and beyond.

@HotGoomba just buy it from over seas physically

@StefanN Is Dark Souls banned, too? That has skeleton babies! 2 spooky 4 me

@Lordplops Heh.

@Smigit Ahaaaa. I always wondered why Wolfenstein was not purchasable. I think it still is 't. I browse past it from time to time and you can't buy it.

@Smigit Wolfenstein: The New Order never released on the Switch.

Why exactly was it banned though?

@SmaggTheSmug
Its more that they are afraid that some will use it to propagate that Ideology.
The Symbol is banned and the usage is forbidden, except of Art.

Video Games as Rock Music before wasn't seen as Art, so the Usage of it was seen as something bad.
As Time passes and Video Games are seen more as a Media as Movies, the usage gots more and more allowed.

@SmaggTheSmug Do you actually know any Germans or have you ever been to Germany? they don't try to hide their 20th century history and children are taught about it in at least 3 different classes at school. The Symbol is banned as its seen as a hate symbol and this has become more charged lately as you see the emergence of groups like AFD ect.

@BTB20 yeah just double checked not long ago and realised that. Just the sequel and that co-op spin off.

@SmaggTheSmug Okay, you clearly don't know what you are talking about. The reason the depiction of Nazis and their symbolism weren't allowed in videogames is because they aren't allowed in general. (the exception are works of art or with an educational value, which games are only slowly referred to in recent years). And that's not for erasing history, but to prevent Neo-Nazis and other idiots from re-using them for their own propaganda or to glorify the NS-regime. So it's quiet the opposite of what you wrote.
In fact Germany as a society and the government are always pretty aware of the crimes of the Third Reich. You probably won't find a topic more documentaries are filmed or more history articles/books are written about in Germany.
And as for the point of Germany ruining things for the rest of Europe: Tell that to the refugees. Still a lot of problems on the national and international front, but your view on the country seems pretty short-sighted, one-dimensional and undereducated.

@SmaggTheSmug If you don't think a party with multiple links to neo nazi' is far right, then we're probably not going to agree on much

@SmaggTheSmug damn AFD is not far right, sure keep telling that to yourself.

@Migoshuro This isn't the place to discuss politics, but you know that wall between Greece and Turkey for stopping refugees? Germany paid for that. And they're strangely quiet about the Belarus situation.
Also my original post was a history joke

Does the old workaround of simply regesting another Nintendo account saying that you're American or Japanese or whatever when you do in order to access that country's e-shop not work anymore?

@Gwynbleidd
i think the two is available because techland already made the game board rating friendly and it was approved to sell OR because is a cloud version and the actually game running is not in the e-shop server but only the small client starting file

i already have my physical copy on hand right now from amazon uk is my first game-card on switch normally ii only buy digitally , this evening i will fire it up on my switch

@SmaggTheSmug That has nothing to do with that in Germany. There is still an underground Neonazi movement going on in Germany they are struggling with, so that is why they didn't want it to show up in games and bring German youth on wrong ideas and join that movement.
But I guess they finally figured out that banning games, only makes them more attractive and won't stop youth getting these wrong ideas anyway.

But in this case with Dying Light, it's just a simple case where the distributor of Dying Light screwed up by not having the game rated in Germany for some reason.

@Zimon That's very interesting, I didn't know about that, but it's not for legal reasons, right? Unless they are afraid the games could be considered child pornography under the actually pretty strange Swedish law regarding that.

@SmaggTheSmug Stop drawing political conclusions from the situation in Germany. You really don't have a grasp on the topic as you demonstrated repeatedly.

@Strumpan apparently a group of parents threatened legal actions back in 2013 over Senran Kagura Burst for 3DS and claimed it was child pornography. That scared Bergsala and Nintendo so they haven't dared to release a Senran game since. That's the reason according to the publisher. Nintendo did not want to upload it in the swedish eshop. I mailed and asked them because I was curious.
The irony is you can find Senran games on Playstation Store in Sweden since no one threatened them.

@6thHorizon
"It's wrong that one country's decision affects so many others like this."

Right? ... That's what I always say about the U.S.

I'm sure Nintendo will figure this out.

But the game is still available physically in the UK? Also is it all on the cartridge or is it a download code

@UltimateOtaku91
yes and is the whole game with all DLCs inside , a part the day one patch of course (1.2 GB)
i bought mine from amazon uk

I want to buy the game but for some reason the version with physical bonuses is coming later… sigh.

Techland could just sell the download codes through their Polish webpage and it would resolve the issue. ¯(ツ)/¯

@HotGoomba The bank will just normally exchange it for your local currency ?
I often order from aliexpress, its payed in USD, and my bank converts it to CZK (which is my account currencyú

With "Halloween games" such as Murder House, Corpse Party, Murder Diaries 1&2, Henchman Story, etc. being released in Germany recently (and tons of other 18+ rated games readily available), I wonder what content makes Dying Light so much worse than all the other horror games on Switch? I'm intrigued and curious. I thought we had grown out of this banning bull...

Hopefully this situation will be resolved by the appropriate people sooner rather than later so that everyone can have a chance to enjoy this game if they choose to do so. I have always been a firm believer in giving everyone the opportunity to be equal, and that includes the purchasing of video games.

@Zimon Why is it in Germany in the first place?
It's the only country in Europe who bans games. Doesn't make sense to have a e-shop for everyone there.

@Gwynbleidd How is it anti-consumer? If DL2 wasn't on the cloud it wouldn't be on the Switch at all because the console can't run it, going by things i heard the PS4/X1 versions aren't great either and its very much a game you should get on the next gen machines or PC so yeah there's no way Switch is running it.

If its nintendo holding this up, then screw em. You should expect this from such a hateful and depraved company.

@Noconfidenceman unlike the UK where they whitewash what the empire did in schools and can't say a bad thing about Churchill.

@DannyBoi so you didn't bother to read up on why this has been banned in Germany then. It doesn't take long to do a bit of research. Instead you wanna throw Nintendo under the bus lol

@Piyo Thats not correct. I went to eShop right now and Wolfenstein 2 which have 18 year rating shows up for purchase.

The question is. Why are Wolfenstein 2 allowed and not Dying Light? Shouldn't it be the opposite in Germany?

As for advertising for games with 18 year rating.
I get official news mail from Nintendo which sometimes includes games rated for 18 year olds.
It's not like Nintendo ignore these games.

@kobashi100 I didn't go to secondary school in the UK so I'm not sure whats taught on the history curriculum at GCSE and A Level.

@Piyo Sorry for late reply. I understand what you mean.

This is just dumb, well for me and everyone else in the uk. It may be nintendo eurotrash eshop but uk are not part of europe anymore so why are we under a european ban from nazi's i mean german's no i mean nazi's trying to spread their facist ideals on the rest of europe like it's ww2 again smh