Germany's game rating agency USK announced today [Google translation] that videogames will now be given the same consideration as movies with regard to allowable content—which means that, as works of art, they are exempt from the ban.

That doesn't necessarily mean all swastikas, all the time, but a hard "no" will no longer be the default. "Through the change in the interpretation of the law, games that critically look at current affairs can for the first time be given a USK age rating," USK managing director Elisabeth Secker told CTV. "This has long been the case for films and with regards to the freedom of the arts, this is now rightly also the case with computer and videogames."

The German Games Industry Association issued a statement welcoming the change, saying that it has "long campaigned for games to finally be permitted to play an equal role in social discourse, without exception."

"Computer and videogames have been recognized as a cultural medium for many years now, and this latest decision consistently cements that recognition in terms of the use of unconstitutional symbols as well," managing director Felix Falk said. "We in the games industry are concerned about the tendencies we see towards racism, anti-semitism and discrimination. We are strongly committed to an open, inclusive society, to the values laid out in the German constitution, and to Germany’s historical responsibility."

"Many games produced by creative, dedicated developers address sensitive topics such as the Nazi era in Germany, and they do so in a responsible way that encourages reflection and critical thinking. The interactive nature of games makes them uniquely qualified to spark contemplation and debate, and they reach younger generations like no other medium can."

The association explained that the USK will now examine games on a case-by-case basis to see whether Germany's "social adequacy clause," which allows the use of symbols belonging to unconstitutional organizations—the Nazis—"as long as they serve an artistic or scientific purpose, or depict current or historical events." That law hasn't changed, but its interpretation by the Supreme Youth Protection Authority of the Federal States—or Oberste Landesjugendbehörde, as the locals call it—has, and now places games "on an equal footing with other forms of media."