The Swiss National Council has passed a law that could make it illegal to distribute, sell or even create violent video games in Switzerland.
According to MCV, the exact details of the law haven't been revealed yet, but the government will likely use existing Pan European Game Information (PEGI) ratings to determine which games are allowed for sale in the country. The law's original motion called for a ban on games that include "cruel acts of violence against humans and humanlike creatures for in-game success."
The writing's been on the wall in Switzerland for roughly a month now. In February, Swiss parliament presented a bill that not only included stricter rules to prevent minors from buying violent games, but an additional resolution that called for an outright ban on violent games for everyone. Since then, the vast majority of game retailers in the country have obviously expressed their discontent, offering to instead adopt stricter voluntary measures to keep violent games from minors. Unfortunately for adult gamers in Switzerland, the government wasn't interested in those concessions.
We've been down this road before in neighboring Germany, where parliament last summer considered an outright ban on violent games, including development. That law was put on hold due to an Internet petition, which gathered the 50,000 signatures necessary to force a government review, and I can't find any reports that say the law was ever passed. Kotaku notes that Swiss citizens can have the last stand in a national referendum if they gather 100,000 petition signatures.
The recent release of Heavy Rain illustrates why these blunt bans on mature-rated games are antiquated. That game has a PEGI rating of 18+, and it includes nudity and violence, but it tackles those mature themes by making players deal with the consequences of their actions. Not every violent game is as meaningful, therein lies the problem of a government system that doesn't care.
