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Long have Australian gamers lamented their plight as citizens of a country that federally regulates videogame content ratings. Despite a majority of Australian attorneys-general agreeing that an adults-only rating should be rolled out to accommodate titles with violence and objectionable content above Australia’s current top rating, MA15+, there has always been a strong dissenting voice preventing forward progress. It appears that this dissent has finally been quieted. Australia has reached an in-principle agreement to create an R18+ rating, which will replace the existing MA15+ entirely, reclassifying all violent games as for adults only. The specifics of this new classification have yet to be solidified, but the current proposed guidelines state that games containing “high-level” violence will be classified as for adults only. Games with “extreme” violence, however, will continue to be denied classification and, in effect, banned. 
It’s somewhat disappointing to see that this new rating isn’t planned to be all-encompassing, opening the country’s borders to games of all stripes. But progress is still positive. |
The image featured at the top of this post is ©The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III key art.