Australian gamers won’t get a chance to play Eidos’ Reservoir Dogs title when it comes out later this summer. It seems the Office of Film & Literature Classification has deemed it too violent for the folks from down under.
According to APC, since the country doesn’t have a restricted title classification, the violence level makes the game unclassifiable. This means it’s going to be illegal to sell in Australia. Right now games have to fit into one of four categories to be sold there: G, PG, M, MA15+. Seems Reservoir Dogs the game doesn’t fit any, per the office, but the movie does.
Fickle, huh?
The game is a first-person shooter based on the popular Quentin Tarentino movie of the same name. In it, players get to negotiate their way through the aftermath of the infamous movie heist gone bad. Additional plot lines from the movie are explored, too. Players can actually find out what happened to Mr. Pink and the diamonds.
I’m not going to expound too much on another country’s laws, other than to say this is precisely what Americans have to watch out for. There are plenty of people who would be perfectly happy to have America’s censoring system match that of Australia, completely taking the right of self-censoring away from the viewing public.
Be warned.
Reservoir Dogs is due out in August for several platforms, including the PS2 and the Xbox.
Article comments
1 - RJ Elliott
Good thing I don't live in Oz! I plan on purchasing this game as soon as it comes out...
2 - Snarkattack
Christ, that is so backward. I hate living here sometimes. Mind you, the same thing happened with GTA: San Andreas Fault. Oh no, hang on, they actually let that sell before deciding to ban it. Arsewipes.
Sorry, that might have come off as nasty. It just sounds ridiculous to be told a video game is too violent so won't be released in this country. Geez, I don't watch the news because the real violence actually gives me nightmares. Perhaps the AOF&LC should consider banning that. As if.
It would be nice if they actually bothered to explain to the public exactly what their purpose is in banning games. The banning would seem less draconian then, and we could find out exactly what the government is protecting consumers from?