Considering the fact that South Park: The Fractured But Whole's development process included heavy involvement with the show's creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, fans of the popular animated television series and video game franchise certainly expected the forthcoming title to push the boundaries of satire and general decency. Of course, this led many to wonder whether or not some of the raunchier aspects of the title would be dialed back or censored outright in different regions of the world, but it seems as if that won't be the case this time around.
According to South Park: The Fractured But Whole's associate producer Kimberly Weigend, no matter where players are on the globe, they will experience the exact same content with absolutely nothing excluded or cut from the game. This was revealed by way of an interview Weigend had with The Daily Star, with the title's associate producer saying that "nothing is off the table for this."
"We just got our ratings back: there are no content issues across all countries. Everyone around the world will play the exact same content. It was such a bummer that certain people couldn’t play certain parts [in South Park: The Stick of Truth], but this time it seems to be more progressive and the ratings board must’ve been like ‘this isn’t so bad, let’s just go with it.’ [laughter]"
For those unaware, South Park: The Fractured But Whole's predecessor The Stick of Truth faced censorship in various regions of the world, with fans in Europe and Australia having experienced some scenes of the game differently than those in North America. To be specific, certain scenes involving alien probing and a trip to an "Unplanned Parenthood" clinic proved to be too much for censors outside of the United States.
Taking all of this into account, this is a major win not only for South Park: The Fractured But Whole and its fans, but also for artistic expression as a whole. Rather than an undisclosed group of ratings board members playing the part of moral arbiters to deem what it believes people should or should not see, the forthcoming game will thankfully be available in its full form as it was intended to be experienced. So, as the novelist and essayist Salman Rushdie once famously said, "What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist."
South Park: The Fractured But Whole is scheduled to release on October 17, 2017 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: The Daily Star