Fallout 3 developer Bethesda has made a sudden email request to numerous game websites to “immediately remove” all trailers for its highly anticipated RPG.

In a seemingly forlorn email to multiple websites hosting the videos, Bethesda Softworks marketing VP Pete Hines has requested the offending trailers are to be removed "in connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines." 

The emailed request did not state precisely why the trailer has been flagged by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, though it is very likely that one particular trailer – the developer walkthrough at this year’s E3 – has been identified by the ratings board as a breach of 'Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Advertising Practices’ (of which you can read in full here).

The E3 trailer, which currently remains on user-content sites such as YouTube, features a succession of shootouts with multiple enemies, and on several occasions recorded a camera zooming in on an enemy head as it exploded in slow motion. It is highly likely that this was seen as a breech of the ESRB’s advertising principles, which state that no adverts should feature “graphic or excessive depictions of violence" and "graphic or excessive depictions of blood and gore”.

The controversy could not have come at a worse time for Bethesda, who see the release of Fallout 3 today in the US and Friday in the UK. However, some observers have noted that for the very same reasons the controversy, and ensuing and column inches, couldn’t have come at a better time.