EU versions of Black Ops banned in Germany

German consumers hoping to get their hands on the PC version of the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops will not be able to play PAL versions imported from other EU territories.

The strict censorship laws in the country mean that many games – and particularly those with an historical military setting – have to undergo strict checks regarding their use of insignia and depictions of war.

PC Games reports that as a result the Steam network will only authorise fully localised German versions of the titles. Every installation requires a Steam activation.

Any copies imported from other EU regions such as the UK will not work in the country, despite the fact they share the same PAL region encoding.