10 Video Games Banned Overseas For Ridiculous Reasons
9. 47 Random Games (Saudi Arabia)
After the suicides of two Saudi children in 2018, one of the country's responses was to ban a list of 47 different video games. Among them were Assassin's Creed II, Grand Theft Auto V, Life is Strange, The Witcher III, Final Fantasy Dissidia NT, One Piece Burning Blood, Okami and YO-KAI Watch.
What do these games have in common?
Absolutely nothing.
Sure, some of them are violent. Sure, some have sexual content. But a game based on the anime One Piece? Final Fantasy - specifically just Dissidia NT? YO-KAI Watch is a children's game!
The Saudi government alleged that these games were somehow associated with the 'Blue Whale Challenge,' an Internet game that challenges participants with 50 tasks over 50 days, the final one being suicide. There were two Saudi children as this "Challenge"'s latest victims at the time.
What connection these games have to the sick challenge is a mystery. Again, some encourage violence, but the list hardly includes every violent game. For example, God Of War 1, 2, and 3 are all banned, but every other game in the series is fine for some reason.
It's impossible to say why these 47 highly specific games were targeted. Maybe some government official just didn't like playing them very much.