Kane & Lynch 2 footage is too murderous for TV, advert is edited down to nanoseconds

Square-Enix criminal shooter is outlawed on UK screens

Words: GamesRadar_NathanIrvine on August 12, 2010

Square-Enix's Kane & Lynch 2 is about to hit UK stores on the 20th August 2010 so it's not unusual for them to need some air-time to push some sales, right? Of course. So that's just what they did. They packaged up one minute and 26 seconds of footage to be used on UK television and sent it off. But they probably couldn't have envisioned the censors hacking apart their film like a drunken butcher. Take a look at the video and see if you can see the difference between what they wanted and what they got...

August 12th 2010

Platforms:

PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Topics:

Square-Enix , WTF

27 comments

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hardcore_gamer1990 - August 22, 2010 10:55 p.m.

ASDA is like the UK's Walmart. Actually, I think it IS the UK's Walmart *checks Google* Yep. They're not going to pay for all that air time.
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HawtKakez - August 13, 2010 3:08 p.m.

Seriously? Seriously?! They just kept less than 5 seconds of the original footage? I really feel bad for their society.
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BlackElement17 - August 13, 2010 6:25 a.m.

I prefer the first cut of the trailer.
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mippy - August 12, 2010 9:31 p.m.

"I think there's some sneaky marketing at work by SquEnix on this one. Firstly, TV spots in the UK for games and films are usually in the region of 10 seconds - there's no way a sequence of footage as long as the original would make it as an ad in the UK; secondly, aside from the shots of people being shot (as opposed to being "shot at") there's nothing in the footage that would bother a post-watershed broadcaster in the UK." You're half right. I work for the body that pre-clears advertising in the UK, and we do clear some trailer-length spots. Some of the action here *would* bother 'post-watershed' broadcasters - we have a post-11pm restriction which we can and have used for videogames as games are more realistic these days and it's usually used for violence/gore. However, the 2nd ad here isn't the same as the trailer at all. This is a 'retail tag' - where a retailer wants to make people aware that product x is available to buy there - these are never much longer than 20-30 seconds. These are usually careful about the footage used as it's more useful to them to avoid later timing restrictions. Oh, and the super about footage - people have complained when scenes shown in commercials never turned up in the actual game, so it's to prevent that happening in future.
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Cwf2008 - August 12, 2010 8:47 p.m.

Gotta love the brits and their lack of freedom of speech or expression
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Whit - August 12, 2010 8:16 p.m.

More jiggly boobs and less cop violence and it might not have been edited so heavily...
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bron1417 - August 12, 2010 7:15 p.m.

haha wow that has got to be the worst thing i've ever seen. censorship must be terrible over there. it's not even a preview it's just gunshot sounds and the cover of the box. wow just wow.
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pollenski - August 12, 2010 7:07 p.m.

I suspect money changing hands from Square Enix to GR in a shameless stunt on a quiet news day to highlight a trailer for an upcoming game which has loads of PR already on this site (See up. down, left and right). ...and yet we also have to watch a trailer before the footage begins. This article's all just a money spinner for GR! It does entice me to click on those links to the other youtube videos though, if only to see if there's a less grainy version.
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db1331 - August 12, 2010 6:22 p.m.

I'm willing to bet that the problem wasn't that they were shooting PEOPLE, it was that they were shooting police officers. I know it's just a game and I believe that any sane person is able to understand that that stuff wouldn't fly in real life, but you could understand why people would be hesitant in showing it on TV.
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romensuarez - August 12, 2010 5:57 p.m.

i don't want to sound like a total pussy here, but the trailer WAS a little over the top. I've yet to see a trailer like that here in the States. But it's true that that kind of censorship in uneccesary. They could have cut it up in a better fashion and left more of the game footage for the spot. but true i don't think a supermarket would pay for that much airtime for a game.
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Felixthecat - August 12, 2010 5:28 p.m.

That's ridiculous, we don't even have that strict censorship rules in the UK. The unedited version was awesome, and it wasn't THAT violent, maybe a little. But the edited version is just stupidly short and pointless.
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marioman50 - August 12, 2010 5:15 p.m.

Oh, and btw, that commercial was balls. Some sound effects, and the last shot of the original trailer? Rucking Fidiculous!
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marioman50 - August 12, 2010 5:10 p.m.

Maybe I just suck, but I died quite a few times in the demo. I like the look of the game, though. I'm interested to see what kind of reviews it gets. I definitely want to rent it at least.
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Jacko415 - August 12, 2010 5:09 p.m.

the demo was just a little too short to really get a feel for the game.
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Jacko415 - August 12, 2010 5:07 p.m.

Douchebags! Btw I played the demo and i really enjoyed it. seems like a lot of people like to jump on the Hating bandwagon more than the Liking...
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poosmacker - August 12, 2010 5:06 p.m.

i actually thought that was pretty brutal, i like it
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irepminneapolis - August 12, 2010 4:35 p.m.

To be honest, I enjoy the first game quite a bit and have no idea why the review scores were so bad. Unique character in lynch ( I'm excited to play as him this time around) and unique missions. (The skyscraper and prison were ill.) Looking forward to pickin up this game.
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fallenink - August 12, 2010 3:43 p.m.

No the censorship isnt bad in the U.k. anything like this can be shown after 9pm, but if u look its "ASDA" which is a supermarket! A supermarket isnt gona buy advert time 4 a whole trailer, their just advertising that they have the game instock, If Edios wanted the whole trailer played then they'd have to pay a shit load 4 air time.
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buckybantam - August 12, 2010 3:33 p.m.

I think there's some sneaky marketing at work by SquEnix on this one. Firstly, TV spots in the UK for games and films are usually in the region of 10 seconds - there's no way a sequence of footage as long as the original would make it as an ad in the UK; secondly, aside from the shots of people being shot (as opposed to being "shot at") there's nothing in the footage that would bother a post-watershed broadcaster in the UK. I think it's more a case of an internet trailer being edited for time (and therefore cost) rather than due to the actual content.
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db1331 - August 12, 2010 3:20 p.m.

That is some ridiculous censorship. The trailer was one of the best I have seen in a while, but nearly everyone who has played the demo came away "meh". I really can't make myself be at all interested in this game after the way the devs got so butt-hurt when everyone panned the first one. If you make a bad game, own up to it. Don't get somebody fired because he made an honest review on a site you paid advertising money to.
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