Violent games may soon be a thing of the past in Germany. GamePolitics reports that the country's sixteen interior ministers have banded together to petition the Bundestag (Germany's equivalent of Parliament) for a ban on both the production and distribution of violent games. If approved, the ban could be fully enforced before the next German elections in September, forcing companies like Crytek to either relocate or outsource development work.
The country has been hard on video games in the past with bans on Manhunt and Dead Rising taking place, or even going as far as to require alterations to the cover art for Left 4 Dead, but an outright ban on every violent game would significantly hurt the European market for mature games and threaten the country's games industry. The proposal is gaining a lot of attention as it comes in the wake of a school shooting in which sixteen people were killed, with the 17-year-old shooter being revealed as a Far Cry 2 and Counter Strike fan.