News
Console Versions of ‘Agony’ will be Censored, PC version Remains Uncut
In a recent update on Kickstarter page, in the process of continued polish and preparation for release of Agony (which was delayed from its original March 30th release date), Madmind Studio has unfortunately run into censorship issues.
“As mentioned many times, every version of Agony, regardless of the platform, is identical in terms of content,” states the team. “However, in order to be able to publish the game, we had to make some compromises.” These compromises thankfully don’t involve cutting out entire sequences from the game, but “modify [the game] enough (e.g. just slightly changing the camera’s frame) to get an M (Mature) rating instead of AO (Adult-Only) rating.”
For those wondering, an AO rating is the equivalent to NC-17 for films. And just like those films slapped with the NC-17 rating aren’t allowed to be advertised or to be played in some theatres, the AO rating means that some retailers won’t carry the game. Or in the case of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the games can’t be granted a release, physical or otherwise.
Fortunately for PC users (which aren’t as restricted by the AO rating), Madmind are preparing “a special, optional patch for PC that will remove the aforementioned ‘censorship’. We would love to do something similar for consoles but from a technical and legal point of view it is simply not possible.” As a consolation, those backers who bought the console version of the game will have the opportunity to convert it into a PC version of the game, though those details won’t be provided until a later Kickstarter update.
So, what exactly was censored? The team isn’t going into specifics (spoilers, you know), but they do state that “none of the elements you have seen in Agony‘s promotional materials (gameplay, trailers, screenshots, GIFs) have been censored.” So yes, you do get to see all the hellish delights that we’ve seen so far in their uncensored glory in the game (which hopefully gets a firm release date soon).
All of us here at Bloody Disgusting are deeply saddened to learn that George A. Romero Foundation Founder and President Suzanne Desrocher-Romero has passed away.
GARF shared in a statement on socials, “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Suzanne Desrocher Romero. Suzanne passed away of natural causes on June 24 at her home in Toronto after a prolonged illness.”
The statement continues, “Suzanne was the fierce leader of the George A. Romero Estate and The George A. Romero Foundation. She worked tirelessly to preserve George’s legacy. Her work at the foundation will continue to inspire and live on for generations to come. The family asks for privacy at this time.”
Desrocher-Romero founded GARF in 2018, after her late husband’s passing in 2017, and has been a fierce advocate for his legacy and the arts. It was her mission to “strengthen horror as a serious field of global study,” and she was a tremendous fighter on behalf of Romero’s works and supporting new filmmakers inspired by his legacy.
It was Desrocher-Romero who spearheaded the recovery and restoration of The Amusement Park, and, as the person in charge of the George A. Romero estate, worked closely with author Daniel Kraus on completing unfinished novels like Pay the Piper and The Living Dead. She most recently celebrated the restoration of her favorite of Romero’s zombie films, Day of the Dead, and was hard at work producing the upcoming film Twilight of the Dead.
That passionate advocacy led to Suzanne Desrocher-Romero becoming family to Bloody Disgusting as well.
2023 marked the start of an ongoing partnership between Bloody FM and GARF on The Dead, a scripted audio series spanning multiple seasons that saw Desrocher-Romero working closely with the Bloody FM team and mentoring the series’s contributing writers with GARF. To say her loss will be felt internally is an understatement.
“Anytime George Romero is mentioned is good, because what we are doing is to provide a healthy legacy. We’re uplifting his legacy, we’re supporting the archive, and we’re also supporting the Horror Study Center. So, all of these three things are what the Foundation is striving to do. As far as I’m concerned, the more we say George Romero’s name, the better it is,” Desrocher-Romero recently told BD.
It’s the perfect encapsulation of her unwavering enthusiasm for supporting Romero’s legacy and the horror genre, and just a glimpse at how much she contributed to preserving it. She is, in short, an inspiration.
We send our deepest condolences to Suzanne Desrocher-Romero’s family, friends, and GARF.
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