Wolfenstäche (2017)
Created with Alon Karmi and Nadav Hekselman.
German translation by Benedikt Hummel.
Play it online or download it, totally free, in the game's webpage
This little game got quite a lot of press. you can read about it in -
English: Motherboard, PC Gamer, Kotaku, Comicbook, Tablet, Jpost*
*NOTE: the Jpost article is hilariously biased.
German: Wired, Lost Levels
French: Gameblog, l'Oujevipo
Hebrew: Mako, Yediot, Gadgety, Geektime, Kikar Hashabat, 103fm (audio)
As well as in Greek, Hungarian, Italian, and Spanish.
This how we see it, anyway:
In what should go down in history as the stupidest act of revisionism ever, Bethesda decided to shave Hitler's mustache in the German version of the game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, effectively making him a diet-Hitler. They also changed all the swastikas into funny triangles, deleted mentions of the word 'Nazi' and replaced mentions of Judaism and Jews with "Traitors" or "Poles". All that self-censorship, in a game franchise known more than three decades for being all about shooting Nazis, was to avoid the chance of being sued in Germany for violation of section 86a of the German criminal code, which prohibits the use of Nazi symbols outside the context of education, research or art. Apparently Bethesda does not believe games are art.
(here's a deeper discussion of the legal issue in a German gaming website)
They also decided not to release the Wolfenstein games in Israel at all, and ignored all requests, by gamers and reporters alike, to explain why.
In summary, Bethesda took an anti-Nazi game and decided to turn it into a revisionist work for Germans, and to deny it from Jews.
Wolfenstäche: the New Censorship is our answer to these actions. A tiny game made with love by gamers in Tel Aviv for gamers in Germany, containing just the parts that were cut out of the German version of W2:TNC. Or at least so we think... we still can't buy the damn game.
December 2017 UPDATE:
We noticed W2:TNC quietly appeared on the Israeli PSN store over the weekend, and as far as we know, this is the first time it happened since the franchise reboot in 2014. No official word from Bethesda yet, but perhaps our game (and the significant media coverage around it) got to them?
August 2018 UPDATE:
Reports are everywhere that Germany is softening its Nazi symbols ban, following a long public debate that Wolfenstäche was part of. Not the achievement we set out for, but an achievement nonetheless.
March 2020 UPDATE:
The New Order and Youngblood have been made available on Israeli Steam and GOG online stores. The New Colossus still remains hidden: is Nazi collaboration with KKK where Bethesda draws the line? (we were able to find TNC with a direct URL, but there is no store link leading to it). Meanwhile, on the German side, we saw reports that the uncensored version of TNO was made available in Germany somewhere around late 2019. Progress?
