With Midway Chicago's magical fighter Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (PS3, 360) nearing its November 16 release, the game has seen some of its more violent fatalities scaled back in order to attain the lucrative T for Teen rating from the ESRB.

"At least three" revisions have been submitted to the ESRB, creative director and series co-creator Ed Boon told Kotaku, with The Joker and Kitana's fatalites tweaked.

In previous builds of the game, The Joker's fatality saw the famed villain shoot a fake gun, complete with "Bang!" flag, before pulling out a real gun and shot them in the head. Now, players will only see the fake gun bit, with the real headshot occurring offscreen.

As for Kitana, the ESRB took issue with a fatality that saw her jab razor-sharp fans through an opponent's forehead and torso. In order to be T-complaint, the head injury portion was modified, with both fans now entering an opponent's mid-section.

The Joker's Original Uncensored Fatality (via GameTrailers)

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Another game renowned for its violence--this time Epic's Gears of War 2 (360)--will not see store shelves in Japan or Germany.

"We can confirm that Gears of War 2 will not be available in Germany or Japan indefinitely," said a Microsoft spokesperson to Edge.

The first Gears of War was Microsoft's first big break in Japan, as the game was the first Xbox 360 title to break into the Japanese sales charts.

The cover-loving shooter is the latest in a string of graphically violent games that face not going on sale in increasingly censor-happy countries. EA Redwood Shores' Dead Space faced bans in the same countries as Gears of War 2 and Australia, while PlatinumGames' MadWorld is expecting it to be impossible to release in its home territory of Japan.

PlatinumGames' MadWorld, the action-adventure Wii game from the studio composed of Resident Evil, Viewtiful Joe, God Hand and Okami veterans, is so violent that publisher Sega isn't optimistic about getting the game released in Japan.

And PlatinumGames and Sega are both Japanese companies.

Sega doesn't even plan to show the game at next week's Tokyo Game Show, according to MTV Multiplayer. In fact, "any Japanese release will be evaluated... Read more

Bethesda VP Pete Hines finds the outcry over Fallout 3's censorship just a touch overblown.

"It is seriously the biggest non-issue in the history of video games," said Hines in a Shacknews interview published last night. "It got way more attention than it merits," he added.

Continuing, Hines emphasized that the net effect on the game is zero: "Have you noticed [the change]? Does it make a big difference that it's called something other than Morphine? I mean, who gives a--"

"Australia weren't the only folks that had brought this up," Hines pointed out. "It had actually been brought up in a number of places. Like, 'Hey, referencing real prescribed drugs is kind of a little concerning.'

Bethesda's solution to the problem was rather laid-back, as well. "We went back and looked at it and went, 'It's not like it's in the original game, we just made it up. So why not just change it to another made-up name?' ... We couldn't possibly care less."

Glen Schofield, executive producer of EA Redwood Shores' sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space, added to the speculation circling around the game's possible ban in three countries.

In an interview with IGN Australia, he confirmed that the extra-gory title has been banned in Japan, but for now it's of no concern. "No cuts. We're not softening it for anybody. I think a part of it was, he's not a killer. He's killing aliens and that's why we thought for a while we'd get it through in Germany. And they were like, 'Well, the fact that he can get dismembered pretty grotesquely is bad, so...'"

Schofield also had a lot to say about Electronic Arts, the game's publisher: "At one point, one of EA's marketing guys said, 'Hey - let's get a big ... Read more

Bethesda has revealed that following trouble with the ratings board in Australia, all versions of Fallout 3 will be identically censored when the game is released in October.

"We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform," Bethesda VP Pete Hines told Edge.

Fallout 3, a sequel expanding on Black Isle's classic PC RPG series, was initially refused classification in Australia, effectively banning the game from sale. The game was modified so that "the reward and incentive" for in-game drug use was reduced significantly and then given an MA-15+ rating.

Names for real-world drugs have also been removed from the game.

Hines asserted, "An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names."

Update: Dead Space is not yet banned in Germany, as the game is still under review at ratings board USK, according to Eurogamer.de. (Link is in German.)

Original Story: EA Redwood Shores' sci-fi survival horror title Dead Space, which was recently pushed up twice for finishing early, has hit a snag: the game has been outright banned from sale in Japan, Germany, and China, reports Destructoid relaying the Dead Space site.

According to the report, publisher EA has not yet announced whether or not it will re-work the game for release in those countries. On our shores, the game is still set for its new early launch date of October 14 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A PC version will arrive on October 20.

Germany is no stranger to video game censorship, as the country often receives versions of games with violent content toned down. China is also moving in a similar direction, but Japan--a country that produces violent games like Capcom's Resident Evil and Dead Rising--may come as a surprise to industry watchers.

As part of its ongoing attempts to protect youth from video games, the Thailand government has officially banned five video games from sale within the country and established a set of guidelines to help prevent access to "dangerous games."

The government claims that gaming is "a problem which is obsessive and has an (adverse) effect on the behavior of children and teens," going by a translation of an official press release by CNET Asia writer Jesada Chandraprasert.

The five banned games are as follows:

• Hitman
• 300
• Killer 7
• Hitman: Blood Money
• 50 Cent Bulletproof

The above represents almost half of a Thailand-issued list of dangerous and banned video games. As GamePolitics notes, Thailand's list curiously mirrors an earlier list of influential violent games that was penned by Detroit prosecutor Kym Worthy.

While Grand Theft Auto IV is not technically banned in Thailand, the government has essentially banned the game by halting its sale and distribution... Read more