Left 4 Dead 2 banned in Australia

The OFLC has placed upcoming 360 and PC title Left 4 Dead 2 under the banner of Refused Classification, meaning it cannot be released in Australia.

You can peruse the official determination here, though it includes no specific details on why the game has been given its RC rating.

An EA spokesperson has told Kotaku that they “are still working through the submission process with OFLC and want to explore all opportunities before making any comment.”

Given that this is the first high-profile title to be given an outright ban for some time, it will no doubt reinvigorate the debate about whether Australia should have an R18 classification for videogames.

Take a look at http://everyoneplays.org.au for more information about introducing an R18+ rating for video games in Australia.

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109 Comments

dloiscute

4 months ago

GTA 4,Saints Row 2, Resident Evil 5.. check.....

L4D2..nope...

Seems reasonable.

GoldenEyeRa

4 months ago

EA? Why are they involved, I thought their Valve jurisdiction only extended to PS3?

And what the heck is Kotaky? Wacky kotaku, I presume...

Given that this is the first high-profile title to be given an outright ban for some time

Fallout 3 was given an outright ban. They changed it, it was released. Same thing will happen here.

ManeKast

4 months ago

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

TIME. FOR. ACTION.

Serioulsy, what can we do? This is incredibly embaressing, our backwards classification board needs a SERIOUS backlash.

I cant take any more of this.

I guess its good in a way, might get people more active.

Sambo110

4 months ago

Just import it from cdwow or somewhere, PC games don't have region coding. But this is pretty stupid, must be a lot more violent than the first game.

genxevo

4 months ago

welcome to australia, and at the moment we have the biggest ban hammer in the world.

take that noobies!

i wanna do something like create a blog and have people from aust take a picture of their banned game and like something that proves that they're from australia (like a newspaper or something)
Problem 1: I hate blogs (i don't own myspace, facebook or twitter)
Problem 2: I'm too lazy

oh the humanity!

Nietzsche

4 months ago

Are they insane. L4D2 is made by Valve and has already had success in the past. This game will be the thing that forces change, either to make it so all high profile games get banned or the R rating is established.

ashlar

4 months ago

My copy of Manhunt 2 on Wii says they can't tell me what I can play.

What were they thinking doing something like that to a game that's got so much hype on it and is a SEQUEL people, it's not like it's different from the first.

I blame Michael Atkinson. It's all his fault because he refuses to allow a R18+ classification for games. 1man opposed it, I'm glad it's a democracy we have here. I think we need to do something about this now, this has just been elevated beyond a joke.

benspyda

4 months ago

Wow, did'nt see that coming. Hopefully it is still released on steam. This is certainly a sticky situation with this R18 thing. Unfortunatly we have non gamers making decisions about games for us. Thats politics for you.

We really need to do something but I have no idea what. I've signed a million pertitions on this but they really do jack all. Move to america I guess haha.

XtremeXfactor

4 months ago

They will regret the decision when there is a zombie invasion and we are not properly prepared for it!!

trixSTAR

4 months ago

doh, if they released it on the PS3 at least I could import the US version. This just means I will just have to import the US PC version, the steam code should work fine, I hope, fingers crossed!!

Jellyfish

4 months ago

You might think that the Steam code might work here but you're forgetting something. Steam already knows your country by IP address, remember Activision charging higher prices for Australia than anywhere else? That same "technology" can block Steam game activations for RCed games as well so you might want to hold off purchasing from another country just yet.

Shadow Wave

4 months ago

damn, thats stupid. Hate OFLC!

I think this is going to piss off Steam users the most.

Lord Haart

4 months ago

I could almost believe that EA is doing this on purpose to promote sales, nothing screams "awesome game, must make my mum get it for me" to 15 year olds like having the govt ban it (and later rerelease it).

I can't for the life of me see how the violence would get it banned, since you're strictly targeting zombies (you can't dismember teammates afaik). It might me that there is "drug use" a la' Fallout 3's Morphine.

Sambo110

4 months ago

I like the article name for this on games.on.net

Quote

Classification Board boycotts Left 4 Dead 2 so you don't have to

Sinthesys

4 months ago

What is with all this **** anti-drug reasoning anyway? Kids aren't going out and magically scoring morphine because they did it in some game and it made them powerful. I laugh at the hypocrisy that you can watch hundreds of shows that involve drug taking, but in a game? No way! It will make kids do it! Mind control! Lets completely forget the fact that you just shot the head off your enemy or drove a knife into a civillian, drugs are bad, m'kay...

Nic_231

4 months ago

Decision report can be accessed here:
http://www.news.com.au/files/left%204%20dead%202-%20classification%20board%20decsion%20report.pdf

To quickly summarize it, the game is too violent. They seemed to have the biggest problem with the new melee weapons which apparently had copious blood spray and even showed bones and internal organs on infected who had been damaged by them.
Hopefully we can get away with a patch that reduces the gore effects so that we can access the game. However, we shouldn't have to. We should live in a society where our entertainment of choice is ranked and regarded equally with other mediums.

Camm

4 months ago

Another purchase thru buyusa on my steam account if this **** sticks.

Shadow Wave

4 months ago

So its the melee weapons then.... lame!

Hopefully if an edited version is released here, importers/world wide residents can still play with the edited version.

DogSoldier

4 months ago

Say no to game censorship in Australia! Show your support and sign below:

http://www.petitiononline.com/l4d2inoz/petition.html

Sambo110

4 months ago

DogSoldier wrote

Say no to game censorship in Australia! Show your support and sign below:

http://www.petitiononline.com/l4d2inoz/petition.html

When has that website ever fixed something?

grim-one

4 months ago

I'm certain Valve will address the issues and getting a modified build evaluated. Let's imagine for a moment they don't though.

Would it still be legal for Australian ISPs to host servers for a RC-game?

I'm thinking it wouldn't be, which would effectively force all Aussie players onto New Zealand servers. That'd be a laugh

Soap of Death

4 months ago

I'm hoping the third season of Underbelly will be filled with violence and gore just to further show how ridiculous the standards over here are, it'd be labelled gritty and edgy but will not get banned.

FYI I'm not a fan of Underbelly.

MikeZombie777

4 months ago

I will be importing as I normally do when this sort of thing happens. Exorbitant prices, coupled with censored content, there is no way HELL I would be buying locally.

The CB will not stop I, an adult, from playing this game. I am sick to death of this nanny state they call Australia and the government can go to hell.

You all think Australia is a free country? Pigs ass. You think "she'll be right mate"? Pigs ass. There you have it people, due to your apathetic BS we have finally lost one of the biggest games of the year.

Congratulations. I hope you're happy.

Camerooni

4 months ago

To me it sounded like their biggest problem was:

"The Infected, who are living humans infected with a rabies-like virus that causes them to act violently".

Looking at that line by itself almost makes it easier to understand why the latter details were so offensive to the majority of the review board. I'd feel less cool killing masses and masses of 'people' as opposed to 'living dead zombie horde'.. It's also the first point they make, which leads me to believe that this was their main concern.

They've never had a problem with dismembering 'Zombies' (Eternal Darkness, on N64) or 'Aliens' (Dead Space, on Practically Everything).

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