If you are wondering why Watch Dogs is not available in stores in the UAE & other parts of the region, the reason is simple - the game has yet to be approved by the National Media Council (NMC).

Watch Dogs released on PC and consoles on May 27, and garnered both critical and fan appreciation despite suffering from performance issues on the PC. However, despite its main theme of hacking, the game features some strong references to sex, drugs and alcohol, and that might one of the reasons why Ubisoft's open-world action-adventure is yet to see a release in the region.

According to ESRB, Watch Dogs contains "several depictions of topless female characters. One prolonged scene depicts a topless women standing in a bedroom; another sequence depicts close-ups of topless women sitting down. The game also includes a few instances of sexual activity, including an obscured depiction of masturbation; a woman performing fellatio on a man; and a man thrusting against a woman from behind" even though the "camera angles obscure the sex act and no nudity is shown". The central character, Aiden Pearce is also shown consuming "large amounts of alcohol", and in some scenes, other characters are shown injecting "themselves with drugs" using needles.

When asked, the local distributor responsible for Ubisoft's public relations Red Entertainment said that the game is still under review and they are waiting for an official reply from the NMC before commenting on the story.

Other than retail stores, the game is not available on online stores as well. Both Steam and PSN feature Watch Dogs, but the option to buy is either greyed out or removed.

We will update this story once we receive any further news about the game's availablity. For now, check out our review of the game here.