Video game pulled out of India for having a gay character in a key role

The role-playing game Dragon Age: Inquisition – produced by Bioware - will not be released in India.

Publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has reportedly cancelled all pre-orders for the game from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The cancellation of the release happened because the game contains a key male character who has a homosexual orientation. Apparently, players can choose to have a romantic and sexual relationship with him only if they play as another male character.

A statement said: "In order to avoid a breach of local content laws, EA has withdrawn Dragon Age: Inquisition from sale in India and the game is no longer available for pre-order.

"All affected purchases for Dragon Age: Inquisition will be refunded. This applies regardless of payment method or date of purchase.

"Customers who pre-ordered the game will be contacted directly and will be fully refunded."

The game distributor's site says: "Rather than face the wrath of some of India’s more prudish segments of society, EA have pre-emptively decided to make the game unavailable in India, without confirming or commenting on which local laws were being breached."

EA’s regional marketing director Simon Smith-Wright said: “The current action we’ve taken only affects Dragon Age Inquisition.”

The game was not expected to perform very well in the Indian market. However, the sudden pull-out of the game from India comes both as a disappointment for gamers and a cause for suspicion. EA says the game has been 'withdrawn from sale' in India, which means it was originally going to be released. What prompted EA to make a U-turn?