The Last of Us Part II seems to be banned in parts of the Middle East like the United Arab Emirates.
Reddit user dragovicc asks fellow users about the game’s availability to pre-order in the country. Countries like India and the United States are able to view the game page on the PS store and put down their money for their pre-order. This had led to the idea that it may have been banned due to Ellie’s sexuality.
What makes it hard to distinguish is that the Left Behind DLC for the first game, which reveals Ellie as a lesbian by kissing her friend Riley, was not blocked in the Middle East. To further continue the confusion, players can have access to avatars and themes for their PS profiles.
Much of the Middle East tend to be stricter on the LGBT community than the U.S. and Canada. That said, Cyberpunk 2077 goes further with its freedom for players to choose their sexuality and gender, which is open for players in the Emirates and surrounding countries to pre-order.
The Last of Us Part 2 is set to be extremely violent, as we have seen in gameplay footage. That said, with other games that make it to these sometimes stricter countries, that often does not entirely stop them from releasing. Sometimes somethings will get censored like Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia, until an uncensored version came in 2014.
War-related games like Battlefield and Call of Duty may get in hot water due to political reasons. Battlefield 3 got banned in Iran due to depictions of the U.S. attacking the country’s capital Tehran.
The Last of Us Part 2 has a chance to not be banned as its launch is still three weeks away. We will keep you posted if any update occur to Naughty Dog’s next big release. The game comes out on June 19 exclusively for PS4.
