Scores of controversial games, spanning an era of over twenty years, have just been pulled from the German Steam store.

The removed games:



Aliens versus Predator Classic

Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

Blood: One Unit Whole Blood

Blood II: The Chosen + Expansion

BloodRayne

BloodRayne 2

Carmageddon Max Pack

Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now

Harvester

Kingpin — Life of Crime

MALE

Painkiller: Black Edition

Painkiller Hell & Damnation

Painkiller Overdose

Postal

Postal 2

Postal 3

POSTAL Redux

Rise of the Triad

Rune Classic

Shadow Warrior Classic Redux

SiN Episodes: Emergence

Star Wars Dark Forces

The Chaos Engine

TimeShift

UberSoldier II



Various bundles that include the removed titles have also been pulled:



Carmageddon Complete Pack

Lucasarts Jedi Knight Bundle

Nordic Games Classic Mix

Painkiller Complete Pack

Painkiller Hell and Damnation Standard 4-pack

Painkiller Hell and Damnation Collectors

POSTAL 2 4-Pack

POSTAL 2 + Paradise Lost

Rise of the Triad - 4 Pack

Star Wars Collection - 2015 -RP

The Apogee Throwback Pack

The Chaos Engine 2-Pack

Whilst there has been no official word from the folks at Valve, this seems to have been done due to the titles appearing on The List of Media Harmful to Young People (also known as The Index).

This list is a collection of media that have various possible restrictions placed upon them to protect children from media deemed unsuitable. It includes things such as games, music, books and movies, and is run by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Person, a branch of the German government.

When a title is placed on the list, it is placed in one of two categories. Games placed on List A are unable to receive a USK rating, the German equivalent of the ESRB, preventing an official German release. It also means buyers of foreign versions must not make the game's content accessible to minors in any way. List A games can't be advertised and physical copies can't be openly sold.

That sound bad? Well, for List B games things get much worse. When titles are placed in this category they can't be sold at all within Germany, so no more selling stuff under the counter for example.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWqZxIeVmcU]

Steam has consistently removed these games from the German store. Alekhine's Gun is the most recent example of a game being removed in Germany, with this being due to its use of Nazi symbols which grants an automatic ban in this region.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcAowwmh8x0]

It appears that they have just done some cleaning up of titles that somehow managed to slip by. Although, how such controversial games as Harvester (seen above) and Postal managed to slip by unnoticed is sure confusing.