The lights are on
The Entertainment Software Ratings Board, an organization that assigns ratings to games in North America, has deemed the cover of Risen 2: Dark Waters to be too graphic.
The original cover of the game depicted red paint that the ESRB determined could be interpreted as excessive blood, which goes against its marketing guidelines. The red color has since been changed to a lighter blue (see above).
Publisher Deep Silver confirmed the edit to Game Informer this afternoon. "The color backdrop to the game's skull was changed to comply with ESRB guidelines pertaining to elements that could possibly be interpreted as blood," a representative said.
"These changes pertain only to the artwork for North America - all of our other territories will use the original artwork."
The ESRB has been contacted for a statement on the change.
Deep Silver's cover for Dead Island was also altered last year due to ESRB restrictions. The hanging corpse was removed in favor of a zombie.
Risen 2: Dark Waters is out in North America on April 27 for PC and May 22 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
I can't believe this was actually discussed by the ESRB. Pretty soon they'll have to be covered like porn magazines.
The Dead Island thing was stupid but this is ridiculous, I think the blue looks better anyway so it works out but a little blood splatter on the cover isn't going to hurt anyone.
The blood has officially been changed to red jelly and the blood soaked background is now a happy rainbow.
the PC version of dead island still has the original logo