No Dante's Inferno debut for the Middle East

Dante's Inferno won't be coming out in the Middle East according to gaming site, GamesLatest, based out in Dubai. Following an "evaluation process which is based on consumer tastes, preferences, platform mix and other factors.", EA has apparently decided not to risk publishing the title in the region.

The article indicates that it likely ran the risk of getting banned in the same way that Darksiders and Bayonetta were due largely to the sensitivity that certain topics can elicit there. A ban doesn't mean that the game is impossible to get, but that it can't be sold where it takes place in. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that it can't get into the hands of players willing to import it, either.

It's not that surprising considering the Xtreme angle that the marketing for Dante's Inferno has employed to drum up excitement over the game despite the controversy it brought down on them from last year's E3 to the last minute changes to their proposed trailer for the Super Bowl. But its interpretation of Dante Alighieri's classic has also drummed up as much concern here, especially from those that had actually read the original work it is based off of.

One thing that I honestly don't think it's going to do is to get more players to look up the classic despite the efforts being made for the book. It'll bring more attention to it, that I have no doubt, but I'm not entirely certain that players will be hitting up Amazon to get to it, either. How many players do you know had read through Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms after picking up the latest iteration of Koei's Dynasty Warriors?

But you have to give them props for even trying to bring attention to a classic like this and it will be interesting to see just what kind of imaginative interpretation the designers bring to it, even if the kind of attention it brings doesn't necessarily fit between the covers of the original book. Or within the public boundaries of every culture.