Customs preparing for Mortal Kombat

PALGN News | Watch yo back.

Mortal Kombat won't be available in Australia. You know it, we know, and everyone is still furious. Rightly so, but our views can't prevent Australian Customs and Border Patrol from doing their jobs.

Gamespot contacted a spokesman who issued the following statement; "As Mortal Kombat has been refused classification in Australia it is considered objectionable material. It is therefore a prohibited good, and illegal to import into Australia...Customs and Border Protection works closely with Attorney General’s Department to identify imported games that are banned in Australia. This includes games purchased over the internet from foreign websites. Attorney General’s Department regularly updates Customs and Border Protection about classification decisions on publications, films and computer games, including the reclassification of material, and about different versions of computer games (some of which may be refused classification), and how to identify those versions at the border. This information is then used to assist in identifying and seizing banned versions of games".

And just to put the final nail in the coffin; "Any copies of the games detected at the border, including via international mail, will be seized".

That's going to be your only warning. If caught, you could be issued a fine of up to three times the retail value of the product, or in extreme cases - AU$110,000. The same problems arose during the Left 4 Dead 2 fiasco, so this approach is to be expected. What do you need to know about attaining a copy of Mortal Kombat? You need to be careful, discreet, and lucky. Or else go for a holiday in New Zealand.

Related Content

Customs preparing for Mortal Kombat
15 Mar, 2011 Watch yo back.

Mortal Kombat reboot refused classification in Australia
25 Feb, 2011 UPDATE: It's official.

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe not censored after all?
07 Nov, 2008 European version sees Joker get the last laugh.

20 Comments

Fetidchimp

2 years ago

I for one am glad my excessive tax dollar goes toward stopping me from playing these evil games.

Benza

2 years ago

didn't we have a thread for this all ready? Were did that go?

Cian

2 years ago

It was deleted by mistake when theory was clearing up a bunch of spambot posts.

myzz

2 years ago

sounds like a challenge to me - I accept!

theory

2 years ago

Cian wrote

It was deleted by mistake when theory was clearing up a bunch of spambot posts.

I apologise. The thread was full of awesome. Damn spambots.

Nick

2 years ago

How can they actually tell what game is inside the parcel unless they open it? Does this mean they are going to open every single dvd-sized parcel thats coming into the country?

Benza

2 years ago

Nick wrote

How can they actually tell what game is inside the parcel unless they open it? Does this mean they are going to open every single dvd-sized parcel thats coming into the country?

Uh, yes? That's what customs do, they open and inspect parcels to make sure there's nothing illegal coming in. It's kind of there entire point of existing.

They won't open all of them but they will deffintley be opening some of em.

Crank

2 years ago

Nick wrote

How can they actually tell what game is inside the parcel unless they open it? Does this mean they are going to open every single dvd-sized parcel thats coming into the country?

Yes, that is what they are going to do...

Then again, their response could just be the standard thing you would expect them to say. They are hardly going to say that they only check a small percentage of packages, that drugs and weapons are their main priority, and that they will be highly unlikely to check your game order from overseas.

sobriquet835

2 years ago

PALGN wrote

What do you need to know about attaining a copy of Mortal Kombat? You need to be careful, discreet, and lucky. Or else go for a holiday in New Zealand.

I hate to come across as a bit of a nancy or whatever, but this quote comes across as the website being supportive of illegal activity. I understand it's frustrating that this game is not being sold here, (especially in the light of our broken ratings system) but you still might want to be careful making comments like that.

moonhead

2 years ago

Well what did you expect them to say?

"Look we know it's illegal, and you know, we're kind of in the business of upholding the law, but just this once I think we'll let it slide."

The response is pretty much nothing more then a canned response that could just as easily be applied to anything being imported.

Battle_Goat

2 years ago

Yeah fair call, obviously they are doing their job, even so, this is such BS....

theory

2 years ago

sobriquet835 wrote

PALGN wrote

What do you need to know about attaining a copy of Mortal Kombat? You need to be careful, discreet, and lucky. Or else go for a holiday in New Zealand.

I think it's illegal to sell... it's legal to own in certain states, I think? And if it's legal to buy in NZ, those two things match perfectly.

GooberMan

2 years ago

The only state it's illegal to possess RC items is WA. NT can consider it illegal under their emergency control laws (you know, the ones to "control" the "locals") but otherwise it's legal to possess.

Ken_Gooner

2 years ago

I thought customs officers didn't pay too much attention to banned video games. Cos they're just video games.
Wouldn't have thought they'd open every single package unless they deem it suspicious. I.E. strange weight, scan shows something weird in it, etc etc

and opening up every dvd shaped package would take forever...

Benza

2 years ago

They wouldn't be opening all of them, just increasing the percentage that they do open.

Slipvayne21

2 years ago

ok well, can somebody put up a the website that they will use to purchase this game?

My 2 wont be shipping MK here:

playasia
gamehubs (cant confirm if they getting it at all)

That would be great.

yvanm

2 years ago

Best not to list the stores that sell them in-case they receive emails about it. Just use the old google.

Tsargrad

2 years ago

Ive already had 1 game confiscated this year. I don't think I'll go for 2.

mikezilla2

2 years ago

Tsargrad wrote

Ive already had 1 game confiscated this year. I don't think I'll go for 2.

what was it ?

Tsargrad

2 years ago

mikezilla2 wrote

Tsargrad wrote

Ive already had 1 game confiscated this year. I don't think I'll go for 2.

what was it ?

Blitz the League II - I forgot it was banned when I bought it. LOL - $10 from play-asia so no real money loss. At least they still let my other legal game through. They shoudlve given me the case and manual at least. It was only the disc which is illegal, not the spare case I wouldve had