Activision has removed footage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre from its Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War teaser trailer. The original trailer was released at the tailend of last week, and while the clip in question lasted less than a second, it was enough to get the censors rolling in and land it a ban in China.
This prompted Activision to release a shorter, revised trailer that omitted the footage and replaced it with blank, black screens while the audio still played out underneath.
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Since then, the gaming giant has now replaced the whole trailer with the edited version worldwide.
The original teaser (which is still available on YouTube) ran for two minutes, and featured a lengthier version of a 1984 interview with former Soviet KGB informant and defector Yuri Bezmenov.
On an old school looking TV screen, he discusses a Soviet strategy to end US dominance with four stages - demoralisation, destabilisation, crisis and normalisation.
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The new version is just one minute long, cutting a fair chunk of Bezmenov's speech as well as the Tiananmen clip.
While the events of the Tiananmen Square crackdown are widely known, it remains a taboo topic in mainland China, reports South China Morning Post.
The nation is known to dispute the facts of the incident (known to them as the June Fourth Incident) and have strict censorship on any and all mentions of the infamous event, in which many thousands are believed to have been killed.
In the west, we know it by the image of the lone man standing in front of a column of tanks, refusing to yield to their oppressive military dominance.
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Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be officially unveiled by Activision and developers Treyarch today (26 August).
If you're as excited as a kid on Christmas, you'll probably be interested in the major leaks that give fans a heads up on what to expect from the title in the coming weeks and months.
According to COD Tracker, pre-order bonuses of the game will include early access to the open beta.
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Special editions of the game (which are usually tiered into things like, standard, enhanced, collector's editions, etc) will also receive some cosmetic items to be used in-game.
Listed is a Confrontation Weapons Pack, Land Sea and Air Pack and Season 1 Bundle Pass, but the most intriguing for fans will be the Woods Operator Pack in Modern Warfare and Warzone.
Of course, as is the case with all leaks, you've got to take them with a pinch of salt, but it's exciting stuff nonetheless.
Featured Image Credit: ActivisionTopics: GAMING, Call of Duty, China, Ban