Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is effectively banned in Kuwait, so Activision is issuing refunds for pre-orders: 'We remain hopeful that local authorities will reconsider'
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is finally here, but if you live in Kuwait you won't be able to play it, at least not legally: Activision has confirmed that the Kuwaiti government has not approved the new shooter for sale in the country.
The effective Black Ops 6 ban in Kuwait was first revealed last week, but came to wider attention following a more recent AP report. The Kuwaiti government has not commented on the ban, or even acknowledged it, but Activision confirmed in a statement that Black Ops 6 "has not been approved for release in Kuwait."
"All pre-orders in Kuwait will be cancelled and refunded to the original point of purchase," Activision said. "We remain hopeful that local authorities will reconsider, and allow players in Kuwait to enjoy this all-new experience in the Black Ops series."
It's not hard to make a reasonable guess as to the reason for the refusal to approve the game. Black Ops 6 is set amidst the events of the 1991 Gulf War, which was touched off by the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. The game is heavily fictionalized (so I assume) but pre-release marketing materials have featured both re-enactments and archival footage of news clips and real-world political leaders from the era, including George Bush, Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Colin Powell, and Saddam Hussein.
For many players that might just be ripped-from-the-'90s-headlines entertainment, but for people who lived through the Iraqi invasion and subsequent US-led assault to evict them, the events of the Gulf War are not so easily trivialized.
"The move to block this game may seem theatrical, because people will find ways to buy this game if they really want it, whether via VPN or pay a premium price in the black market," a local gaming analyst told The New Arab (via Polygon). "What's more interesting here is the motivation of the authorities to block a game set in what was a traumatic period for Kuwait—the Gulf War.
"Kuwait, to this day, has difficulty engaging with that specific moment in history, for good or ill."
It's a risk inherent in using real-world events as the backdrop for videogames, and it's hardly the first time the Call of Duty series has run afoul of one government or another. Activision has attempted to get around those exclusions in some instances—it removed the infamous No Russian level from the Russian edition of Modern Warfare 2, for instance, and cut a clip of Tiananmen Square from a Black Ops – Cold War trailer after complaints from China—but given that Black Ops 6 as a whole turns on Gulf War-related events, that may not be an option here.
I've reached out to Activision and the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information for comment and will update if I receive a reply.