Same principles, but not as sincere, as there is no interactivity. Also the movie-makers are much more willing to sell 18+ movies, then gamemakers to make 18+ games. So you get them to see in cinemas and you can buy and rent DVDs easily. Uncensored games on the other hand have often to be imported - the publishers don't even try to create a german translation, that does not get "16" or lower and they don't care to have the international versions rated (which gives them an 18+ automatically).
German TV is a different thing obviously, as most channels want to show the movies (or what ever is left of them) in the 20:15 slot, which requiers a age-12-compatible cut .

(as for cinemas and DVD, the german censors can acutally be benefical: though there are a bit concerned about violence, there are much more open to natural things like sexuality. The "Watchmen"-disk lying at my side actually carries 3 different "18" ratings -would carry "R" in USA-, but german USK gives a "16")

You are right about Crytek chizow, they really think about leaving Germany, but not because of the rating system but because some politicians want to have laws that prohibit the creation and distribution of so-called Killerspiele (killer games) in Germany.

Blizzard wants to have the "12 and above" rating for Starcraft 2.

Wow thats lame, isn't Crytek threatening to leave Germany because of this also? I say leave it to the rating system to decide, no need to censor, but I guess Blizzard is trying to get an equivalent T for Teen rating instead of M for Mature? Maybe German version can be modded with NA files to get the full gore.....