A few months ago there was trouble over Dead Rising in Germany, getting into trouble for its excessive violence. Now it appears that Epic’s upcoming horror-shooter, Gears of War, will be banned from the German market.

German USK, responsible for videogame ratings, refused to give the game a rating, despite several submissions from Microsoft. Microsoft and Epic decided not to make a less-violent version for the German market because it would “fundamentally change the gameplay”, resulting in compatibility issues with different versions on Xbox Live.

This is certainly a blow for the German Xbox360 owners, Gears of War is just as anticipated a title in Europe as it is in the US, and Europe’s largest gaming audience will either have to forget about GoW, of import a version from some of the neighboring countries.

[Thanks, Leon]