Australia and video games just don’t play well together (just ask Saints Row IV , which had a prolonged fight with Australia’s Classifications Board ). The land down under has swayed back and forth on its feelings toward mature-rated games. It only recently received an 18+ ratings classification, and shortly thereafter, it quickly classified several games as too severe for even that. Now, it is re-examining many of its MA15+ games, a rating somewhere between our T and M ESRB ratings, to see if they are actually far more violent than the board originally thought.
The list of games up for reconsideration includes: Killer is Dead , Alien Rage , Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist , Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cu t, Company of Heroes 2 , God Deadpool , The Walking Dead , Gears of War: Judgment, and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct . The request for reconsideration comes from South Australian Attorney General John Rau, who believes that Australias classification rules are not being used strictly enough. He references the ratings of the games in American and European territories and states that Australian ratings should fall in line.
On one hand, it is a little weird to see Australian games carry lower ratings than American games. On the other hand, Australian games have been notoriously censored for blood and violence. What do you think? Do these games need to carry a higher R18+ rating in Australia?