Singapore lifts ban on Xbox game with lesbian scene

Singapore

11.18.07 -- 12:13 PM

By AFP

Singapore has lifted a ban on an Xbox video game featuring an intimate scene between two female characters, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The game "Mass Effect" would now be sold with an "M18" label, meaning it cannot be legally purchased by anyone under 18, the Straits Times said, citing the city-state's media watchdog, the Media Development Authority (MDA).

The futuristic space adventure video console game made by Microsoft was banned on Thursday because it contained what the Board of Film Censors described as a "a scene of lesbian intimacy".

It is not known when the ban was imposed but it was reported in local media on Thursday.

Under local guidelines, video games sold in Singapore cannot feature exploitative or gratuitous sex and violence, or denigrate any race or religion.

This also marks the first time Singapore has given a rating to a video game, ahead of a video games classification system due to be implemented next January, the report said.

The Board of Film Censors said in a statement Friday it would "selectively use games ratings to enable highly anticipated games to be launched in Singapore" before the ratings system comes into effect, the paper said.

MDA chairman Tan Chin Nam was quoted as saying the agency would reconsider its earlier bans on video games once the rating system is in place.

"Mass Effect" is to be launched globally next week.

Singapore is Southeast Asia's most advanced economy but the government maintains strict censorship laws.

Earlier this year the city-state banned two other video games, "God of War II" for nudity and "The Darkness" for excessive violence and religiously offensive expletives.

Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's second minister for information, communications and the arts, has said the city-state was liberalising but retained a very strong conservative core.

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