In June this year German ministers met at a conference in Bremerhaven where they agreed to pass a bill to stop the distribution and production of all violent videogames.

Ministers decided that any videogame "where the main part is to realistically play the killing of people or other cruel or unhuman acts of violence against humans or manlike characters" would not be sold to the public - that included games such as the Call of Duty series and Grand Theft Auto.

Though the law was agreed in premise, it still had to be passed through Parliament, but now German gamers have delivered a petition to ministers that has halted the governments plans.

An online petition against the ban, hosted on the official forums of the Bundesta, has received in excess of 50,000 (67,000) signatures, which by German law means that Parliament has to review the issue.

It may seem like a small victory for German gamers at the moment, but the ban may still go ahead. Recently an online petition against internet censorship gathered over 100,000 signatures, but the law was slightly amended and passed anyway.

If the ban in Germany does get passed, German-based developers such as Crytek are likely to leave the country in order to continue developing "violent" videogames.

German gamers still have until August 19th to sign the petition.

Source :: GameZine