Far Cry 4 players were recently surprised to see some big changes to the PC version. More than a decade after its release, Ubisoft released an update for the game that seemingly removed all nudity. The change was spotted by users on the Far Cry subreddit, who immediately began speculating about the rationale behind the decision. It’s not unusual to see developers making unannounced changes to games behind the scenes, but this raised a lot of concerns over censorship, especially given the age of the material. Thankfully, it seems that the actual changes were unintentional, and there’s actually a reasonable explanation.
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Replying to a post on X/Twitter by Insider Gaming, Ubisoft directly addressed the changes made to Far Cry 4. According to the company, “the update was the result of a mistake during deployment. Content intended specifically for the Japanese version of the game was accidentally pushed to the global Steam version.” Basically, this was never meant to be seen outside of Japan. This also isn’t a new change for the region, as “the Japanese version of Far Cry 4 has included that censored content since launch.” Following another update, it seems the issue has now been resolved.
“The team has since corrected the error by reuploading the proper global files to Steam. If players are still seeing anything unusual, restarting Steam and checking for updates should resolve it,” a post from the official Far Cry account reads.
Even the perception of censorship has been a hot button topic in the video game industry for several years now. It’s not unusual to see content changes that are made for specific regions, and sometimes they’re actually a strict requirement in order to receive a passing rating just to get a release. Of course, anytime that anything remotely resembles censorship, fans often tend to assume the worst. There’s a healthy debate to be had about the intentions of the artists and creators, and how publishers are often forced to make decisions for commercial reasons. It turns out, nothing of the sort happened this time, and that’s a very good thing.
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Thankfully, this issue seems to have been resolved with the latest update, and fans can continue to play the Steam version of Far Cry 4 as it was originally envisioned when it was released inside North America and Europe. Several moments from the game were temporarily altered as a result of this “regional packaging error,” with female characters getting bras newly added, and male characters receiving loincloths where there weren’t any before. Following the new update from Ubisoft, it appears everything is back to normal. It’s possible we could see similar mistakes in the future, but hopefully Ubisoft’s developers will be a little more careful the next time, so players don’t jump to any conclusions!
Did you notice this change in Far Cry 4? Do you feel strongly about censorship in video games and other media? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky atย @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram atย @Dachampgaming!
