I contacted the USK rating board and Take 2 Germany to hopefully clear all rumours about the demo.

The German USK was the original source of the rumour. In late July, it revealed that a Bioshock Xbox 360 demo has been rated with "Mature". Afterwards, the information about this demo disappeared at the USK website. Why did this happen?

I wrote Christine Schulz, team leader at the USK. She replied that the whole process of rating and the result can remain secret, if the publisher wishes so. The rating of the product must be revealed at its release, though.

Christine Schulz also said that publishers can order to take a rated product out of the USK database before release. This is what Take 2 must have done with the Bioshock demo info.

It seems like Take 2 wanted to keep the demo as a secret for a while.

That's why I called Jochen Färber, PR Manager at Take 2 Germany. When I asked him today about the demo, Färber replied:

"I can't talk about it. Let us surprise you."

I told him about the USK rating and that the demo info disappeared. He replied:

"Let us surprise you...maybe it was rated for the GC (Games Convention) and we wanted to show it there?..."

All in all, we are still left without a real info. It seems like it's really up to Elizabeth Tobey, to announce something or not.

Take 2/2K's ambitious attempts to hide a demo let us ask for a reason. A demo after release is no big thing for real Bioshock fans, who like to play the game now.