Indian Dragon Age: Inquisition release cancelled due to obscenity laws

EA has decided against releasing Dragon Age: Inquisition in India.

"In order to avoid a breach of local content laws, EA has withdrawn Dragon Age: Inquisition from sale in India and the game is no longer available for pre-order,” the publisher told Kotaku.

Customers who pre-ordered the game will be contacted directly and will be fully refunded. The decision here is in relation to local obscenity laws, but not specific to same gender romance."

The nature of the ‘obscenity’ in question remains unclear. Clarification that it is in no way linked to BioWare’s usual inclusion of sexual orientation equality (the game includes what the studio has controversially previously referred to as its first fully gay character”) opens the door to assorted possibilities including violent or sexually explicit content – all of which can be found in the title.

Kotaku goes on to question EA’s claims, however, highlighting not only that a great many violent games have previously been released in the country but also that section 377 of India’s penal code that allows for the criminalization of homosexual acts and relationships”.

Indeed, the game’s Indian distributor Milestone Interactive told NDTV that the game’s gay content is behind the ban.