Xbox Indie Games deny game set in "Vagina and Rectum"

Channel 4, not usually associated with video games, have recently ploughed money into a project called "Privates", a platforming game scheduled to hit the Indie games section on the Xbox marketplace right the way up until it hit the brick wall that is Microsoft.

Game maker's Zombie Cow Productions received funding from channel 4 who were looking to market the title as "educational", where its setting is in the unique location of the human anatomy. Microsoft made a statement which read:

“This game has not been submitted to our pre-publication peer review process, and it has not been approved for distribution on Xbox Live Indie Games. We have guidelines in place that closely track requirements of content ratings boards worldwide and, among other things, prohibit the publication of strong sexual content.“While we haven’t seen this game, we can confirm that if it is consistent with the description we have seen on the Internet, this game would not pass peer review and would not be permitted to be distributed on Xbox Live.”

In simple terms, they are calling the game 'sexual' due to its local and setting being in the female genitalia.

In an interview with Zombie Cow's lead man (Dan Marshall), he states that the game was designed and could be marketed to promote safe sex amongst young men, specifically in an interview with Seattle PI:

The whole thing is essentially aimed at teenage boys. That said, we’re doing it in an entertaining, funny way, so it’s approachable by people of all ages. It’s a really interesting project.

There was always going to be a risk it won’t pass Peer Review, but obviously we’ll do whatever we can to get the Xbox version out. It’d be a shame if a huge number of teenagers missed out on some quality gaming and vital education because of some abstract, cellular-level innards and pubic hairs.

The feedback I’ve had so far suggests it shouldn’t be a huge problem, and I’m sure the guys doing the peer review will judge it fairly and accordingly based on a thorough playthrough of the game. Although the content nudges the boundaries of the XBIG terms, I’m pretty sure we’re acceptably within them – particularly when the educational value of the title becomes apparent.

When we’ve got a beta build, we’ll talk to Microsoft about it and see what they say, but it’s a little too early to start worrying about that sort of thing now.

With the possibility of the title not reaching Xbox Live and now that it's likely got your attention as well as mine, the game is planned to be launched for free on the Channel 4 website. Forget Little Big Planet 2, this is what I want to get my hands on...

...probably a bad choice of words, there.

Anyway, official website with more information can be found here.