Dead Island: Riptide, like the original Dead Island, won't be released in Germany, home base of publisher Deep Silver. Riptide creative producer Sebastian Reichert said at Gamescom he "wouldn't bet" on the game being available in Germany, but now he's stated it officially.

"We have no censored version of the game," Reichert told PCGamesN. "So we cannot release it in Germany. It feels f*cking awkward to have one of the most successful games in years and nobody in your country knows it."

We double-checked with publisher Deep Silver to make sure there wasn't anything lost in translation and a company representative confirmed Riptide wouldn't be available in Germany. The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle (USK) must follow government-enforced criteria that, along with other elements, note a game can't have extreme violence against human-like enemies.

Under a microscope, the USK's determination of such things can get awfully fiddly. It was a surprise back in 2011 when Epic's Gears of War 3 passed the censors, while no other installment in the series had made the grade. It wasn't just a surprise to us, but to Epic itself.