Images of ‘Hanged Man’s Tree’ Censored in UK Trailer for Nintendo Switch Port of ‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’

Images of ‘Hanged Man’s Tree’ Censored in UK Trailer for Nintendo Switch Port of ‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’

The recently debuted trailer for the Nintendo Switch port of the third game in The Witcher series has been censored in the United Kingdom.

On June 11th, Nintendo surprised audiences by dropping a trailer for a Nintendo Switch port of the critically acclaimed CD Projekt Red game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt during their E3 2019 Nintendo Direct showcase:

Near the beginning of the trailer (0:16) the protagonist of The Witcher series, Geralt of Rivia, passes by an in-game landmark known as Hanged Man’s Tree. Geralt stops near the tree and glances solemnly up towards the numerous bodies hanging from the branches before the trailer proceeds to zoom out of the game and reveal the trailer playing on a Nintendo Switch console.

Though the same scene appears in the UK trailer (0:13), one major detail is absent: Geralt no longer looks up to see the corpses of dead men, but instead sees a collection of empty nooses hanging from the tree:

The difference in the trailers can also be seen in the following comparison images:

It appears that the trailer-specific edit was made for regions covered by the Pan European Game Information rating system, specifically due to a clause in their Code of Conduct regarding content in advertisements and promotions:

“All advertisements shall aim to avoid content that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence to the average consumer targeted.”

It can be assumed that the multiple images of hanging corpses initially violated this clause, and thus it was changed for the relevant markets. Thankfully, there has been no indication from Nintendo or CD Projekt Red that the contents of the game itself have been altered.

What do you make of the trailer being censored? Do you think it should be censored?

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