Games

Fallout 3 Banned in Australia, No Reason Provided

Bethesda is not commenting

By Andrei Dumitrescu, Games Editor

10th of July 2008, 14:18 GMT

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Apparently, the Australian government does not like post apocalyptic scenarios too much. I say this because

I can't see any other reason for the banning of the upcoming Bethesda title called Fallout 3 in the region. A governmental site shows the fact that the game has no rating at the moment but no official reason was given by the government for the rating refusal.

Games in Australia are handled a bit differently than in other countries. The 18 rating which can be used in the United States or in Great Britain is not available for videogames in Australia, even though it can be used when it comes to movie releases. The highest possible rating is MA15 , for games that are too violent or offensive. Titles such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Manhunt have been earlier refused release in the country and Dark Sector has recently been rumored to also get banned.

Fallout 3 was scheduled by the classification board to receive an age rating by July 4. The deadline is long gone, and given the fact that there's no rating posted, we can safely say that Fallout 3 fans in the Land Down Under will have to settle for imported copies if they want to play the third part of the post nuclear game.

It might be that the subjects upon which the game touches were deemed controversial. We have recently learned that Fallout 3 would deal with slavery, homosexuality, drug addiction and will contain pretty hard options of dealing with some characters. The game will not feature any mature material which can get it a 18 rating and does not depict acts of violence against children, but Bethesda is insisting that the title needs to be consistent with the way the previous ones handled mature issues.

Fallout 3 is set to be launched during autumn for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC.

TAGS:

Betheda | Fallout 3 | Australia | ratings system | banned

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User opinions:

Comment #1 by: Harley on 21 Jul 2008, 05:23 GMT	reply to this comment
A leaked classification document read that the game was refused classification because of drug use. As an Australian, I say big deal. Like taking a game off the shelves is going to stop fans of the series of acquiring the game. In the vast world of online shopping and piracy refusing any form of multimedia in any country can only hurt the economy.

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