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Saints Row IV Denied Classification In Australia…Again

Well, they tried.

Deep Silver's controversial, over-the-top Saints Row IV was initially refused a rating by the Australian Classification Board. But the game had a second chance when the Board opted to reevaluate and reconsider.

Unfortunately for Aussie gamers, the title will remain without a classification. As seen at the ACB website , Volition's product will not be given an R18+ rating because "drug use related to incentives and rewards is not permitted." Makes sense, I guess.

The Steam page is currently listing a "Low Violence" version of the game for Australia, which will be available on August 23. It's the unedited version that won't receive a rating, it seems. The ridiculous part about this is that the country in question passed the law that allowed for individuals of over 15 years of age to play video games. Prior to that, games that were deemed for adults were essentially banned because they couldn't get a rating.

Now, you have the rating but you won't use it. So why bother passing the new law in the first place?

Related Game(s): Saints Row IV

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WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
10 years ago

Did they have Bioshock Infinite? You weren't getting far in that game without the power incentives of drinking Vigors.

Akuma_
Akuma_
10 years ago

That is a completely different story. That is a fictional substance. The part of SRIV which had drugs was a side mission that had things called "alien narcotics". This alludes to real life "narcotics usage". Not defending, just explaining 🙂

___________
___________
10 years ago

and alien narcotics are not a fictional substance?
i can understand state of decay being banned, because that used real life drug names, and there concerned about people saying ohhh that looks cool and googling the name and buying it.
but alien narcotics?
seriously?
hey, black market?
yeah, id like to buy some alien narcotics.
sure, meet me at area 51 at precisely 2:17am and ill hook you up.
look for the eary sounds, and thin circular object hovering in the sky.

Akuma_
Akuma_
10 years ago

The use of the term narcotics is what defined it.

If they chose "Alien Boost Juice" it would have been a different story.

Vigor's are a substance which give you superhuman abilities by drinking a liquid. This doesn't allude to any kind of narcotics usage at all.

Using an item coined as "Alien Narcotics" insinuates that they are a form of narcotics, which are a real life substance.

Akuma_
Akuma_
10 years ago

It was actually the publishing company who made an appeal of the original decision.

Not really sure why they wasted their money doing that though, when Deep Silver had already stated they would modify the game for AUS.

SRIV doesn't interest me, it had SOME interesting concepts, but the low-brow humour got old with me when I was 16. I am really looking forward to where they take the series next, SRV could be great if they really go through with their plans to change the series.

___________
___________
10 years ago

might want to do some research before asking such silly questions!
they are using it, under the guidelines passed for the R18 rating submit that drug use leading to beneficial results, and sexual violence are still banned outright.
thats exactly why it got banned, because of the sexual violence of the anal probe, and the drug use.

what i cant understand though is deep silver ponied up the classification fees AGAIN to get the decision appealed, without changing what needed to be changed.
there was no freaking way in hell it was going to get passed in the state its in!
so why appeal the decision?
hey if you so disparately want to throw money away, ive got plenty things you could spend it on for me!
it will release though, a "australian edition" (oh burn!) was playable at PAX last week so obviously the necessary cuts have already been made to get it rated, they just wanted a second bite at the cherry.
but why, i mean come on there was no way in hell this was going to get passed!

wish EB would hurry the &^%$ up and open up preorders for this, its so stupid steam has had preorders open for weeks and retailers still wont put it up.

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