Back in 2009, under the Federal Department for Media Harmful To Minors, Fallout 3 was banned in Germany. By the countries standards, the game contained overly violent content that was not deemed appropriate for minors. Due to enough badgering from Bethesda’s German fans, a censored version of the game was eventually released for purchase. The official ban of the game was stated to prevent the distribution of Fallout 3 for ten years. But after seven years, IGN Germany has reevaluated the contents of the game. Various German delegates and officials have deemed that “its content is no longer classified as harmful to minors from today’s perspective.”
While there have been no further comments as to why the ban was lifted. Though this change of heart may have to do with the uncut version of Fallout 4 being released in Germany months prior. These signs and the fact that Fallout 3 is now backwards compatible for the XBox One may be pointing in the direction of a remake of the game. Bethesda has also declined to comment on any speculation of the sort. Though they did add to why the ban had been put in place in the first place:
“Recall that the German release had lower violence. Not related to anything other than our German office asking them to reconsider their original ruling, particularly in light of the recent release of Fallout 4.”
Fallout 3 is available on PC, XBox 360, with backwards compatibility on XBox One, and PlayStation 3.