Six Days In Fallujah, Konami’s Gulf shooter, was always going to be a game that courted controversy. From the moment it was announced, everyone from the (wholly invalid) Daily Mail to the (completely valid) Iraq war veterans stepped in to have their say, and rightly so. It’s a game about a sensitive topic, especially since the topic in question is a still-ongoing war.

But is it too sensitive to be released in the West? According to the blogosphere, Konami might be considering avoiding a European release completely. Read about it over the jump.

Six Days In Fallujah, if you’ve forgotten, is the upcoming war shooter set in the titular Iraqi city during a violent deciding conflict of the second Gulf War. It’s all being based on real experiences – drawing from accounts of civilians, former insurgents and members of the US Army – so the accounts will be harrowing and down-to-earth rather than layered over with Hollywood-style glitz and glamour.

Naturally, the game’s being made – as claimed by developer Atomic Games – to tell the story of the various Iraq vets who might otherwise be forgotten. After all, the History Channel and a couple of made-for-TV documentaries will only draw in so large an audience. People are probably more likely to be interested in something if it’s a video game.

Then again, there are plenty of people saying that, understandably, it’s far too soon for a game based on a conflict that’s still ongoing. It might incite more hatred, or give people the wrong sort of message (since it’s a first-person shooter).

Konami appears to be considering the latter, or so Joystiq would have you believe. At a Gamer’s Day last week in Frankfurt, Germany, they revealed that the release of Six Days In Fallujah in European territories would depend on how Atomic Games portrayed the action in the Iraqi city.

Konami themselves have openly admitted that they don’t know how violent the final game is going to be; are enemies simply going to go down with a splash of red or are we going to see shrapnel wounds, serious injuries and obscene amounts of the red stuff? There’s gritty realism and violence, certainly, and there’s simply indulging in too much claret. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Before anybody questions why the game might still see the light of day across the Atlantic, keep in mind the very loose usage of the word “Europe” in the games market. In the industry, there seems to be three regions: Japan, the US, and everywhere else. European offices of publishers and games companies seem to cover everywhere else; the UK, actual Europe, Australia and yes, the Middle East.

Naturally, a European withdrawl from sale would include all of the countries mentioned above (probably makes for easier bureaucracy, or something) and so would appear somewhat justified. It would seem a little silly to bring out a game about the Iraq war – which many an Iraqi is against – in territories such as Iraq.

What do you think then? Should Konami avoid a European release altogether or are they being a little too touchy about the region as a whole? Or…should they just can it altogether?

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