Devotion is a horror game centered on a family living an isolated life, as the father becomes increasingly dependent on an insidious cult nearby, resulting in some truly horrific scenes and imagery. It is also banned.

Devotion was infamously banned in China -- and, in turn, the rest of the world -- because it included background assets that made fun of Chinese President Xi Jinping, comparing him to Winnie the Pooh. Xi is apparently particularly sensitive to the comparison to Pooh, and, has banned Winnie the Pooh throughout all of China. What makes this worse, however, is that the game developers removed the assets, but the game remains banned everywhere. Recently, GOG was going to release the game, but then, mysteriously, selected not to. Presumably, this was due to pressure from the Chinese government.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been a blessing for many people during this pandemic, stuck in their homes. Well, that's not the case in China. Users apparently used Animal Crossing to create anti-communist party propaganda on their islands. This motivated the Chinese government to ban the game. While the game is available in the legally murky "gray market," China has banned the game as of April, with no intention to lighten its restrictions on the game.

Omega Labyrinth Z You might not have played Omega Labyrinth Z before. That might be because this anime-inspired game managed to get a lot of countries angry. Germany and the United Arab Emirates have both banned the game due to its sexually explicit content. While the digital version is still available in the UAE, Germany put harder restrictions down on it due to the game featuring characters who look like minors being put in sexually explicit situations. According to its ruling, possessing an uncut version of Omega Labyrinth Z in Germany is a criminal offense under its child pornography laws.

Pokemon Go seems like a fairly innocent game by all standards, but this mobile game was banned in both Iran and Malaysia, though for different reasons. Malaysia initially banned the game due to it inspiring "a search for power," which authorities believed would lead to gambling addiction. On the other hand, Iran banned it for "security reasons," though due to the vague nature of this statement, it's uncertain if the Iranian government was afraid of players wandering off into dangerous areas, like a mine-field, or accidentally stumbling upon government secrets with the game's GPS.

Valkyrie Drive Bhikkhuni is an action game that seemed to get every country angry at it. The game was banned in China, Germany, Iran, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Why? Because, depending on which country you ask, Valkyrie either promotes homosexuality or incest. Granted, some of the bans did not prevent the game from being distributed digitally, but it is remarkable how so many countries have such a volatile reaction to two girls kissing.

It's very rare to find a game banned in America -- or, indeed, everywhere. However, The Guy Game found a way to do it. The game is a "trivia game" interspersed with candid footage of women in skimpy clothing talking and stripping. However, as it turned out, the girls were filmed under dubious consent. Not only that, but it turned out that more than one girl was a minor. This resulted in the game, which had already received abysmal reviews from critics, being taken off the shelves.

The entire Metro series is banned in Saudi Arabia. This might seem odd that a whole series is banned, but the reason Saudi Arabia banned the game had honestly little to do with the game itself, but rather how it was believed it tied into the Blue Whale Challenge. The Blue Whale Challenge was a strange trend in 2016 where people took part in a "game," that issued a series of challenges over a fifty-day period, culminating in the player killing themselves. Saudi Arabia banned Metro and over 40 other games after authorities found the games in the possession of two girls who killed themselves, supposedly as part of this challenge. They believed that the games had served as some sort of initiation into the Blue Whale Challenge.

Danganronpa V3 was banned in South Korea after a real-life murder. In 2017, a 17-year-old girl dismembered an eight-year-old child in a brutal murder. The South Korean authorities, justifiably, believed it would be in poor taste to release the then-newest Danganronpa game -- a game centered on children being subjected to intense violence and murdering one another -- following a very public, real-life murder. While the game wasn't necessarily banned, its release was canceled indefinitely.

Roblox is a game your younger siblings probably love. It's also banned in, where else, but the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates banned the game due to user-generated content being explicit in nature. While the game inherently had little to nothing they objected to, they saw great potential in individuals using the game to create content they didn't agree with. This is remarkably similar to what China did with Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Injustice: Gods Among Us was banned by the United Arab Emirates for...well, actually, we don't really know why. Despite being marketed there and, eventually, being released, the game was banned for a significant period of time for unknown reasons. One popular theory is that the game was banned due entirely to its title. The game was, for a time, marketed as Injustice: The Mighty Among Us, leading people to speculate that including the term "Gods" was deemed offensive to censors. However, no official reason has ever been given to explain this temporary ban.