Shannon 'Pharamond' Drake, Community Manager of Funcom, reports that Age of Conan just gotten its rating, and he can now give us the full and complete story on what we will and won't see in each 'version' of the game:
"Please note this isn't a design decision or something we can reverse. It's a legal (or as good as legal) requirement to sell the game in that particular territory.
With that said:
The US version is rated M for Mature by the ESRB. If you buy the US version, you will not see nipples.
The German version is rated 18+ by USK. The German version has full gore, but will not have decapitation, dismemberment, and over-the-top type fatalities.
The 'elsewhere in Europe' version is rated 18+ by PEGI and is unchanged."
Updates:
Update from Shacknews: Contradicting earlier statements, Funcom community manager Shannon Drake now claims that the North American version of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will include nipples, though the German edition will still be edited to reduce in-game violence.
"It has come to our attention that the North American edition of the game was submitted (by [publisher] Eidos) to the ESRB without any server-side censorship," Drake clarified. "Funcom apologizes for this small error (or maybe two small errors)."
