The game was refused classification by the ratings board

Jan 15, 2015 14:43 GMT  ·  By

Uh oh! The anti-fun committee strikes again, this time banning Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number from being sold in Australia due to a scene of implied sexual violence.

The game takes place after the events of the first installment in the series and continues the streak of violence and rampage, adding a few new toys to play with.

Granted it also includes a scene that is rather graphic, one that developer Dennaton Games has been considering altering since discussions about it first started, back in September 2013.

The scene involves the murder of four individuals and then the sexual assault of a female character, and although it's part of an in-game movie shooting, simulating the behavior is apparently bad enough to warrant a ban.

The information comes from Kotaku Australia, that claims to be in possession of the Hotline Miami classification report, which contains a rather graphic account of what's going on.

A tough nut for Dennaton to crack

The game has been denied a rating by the Australian classification board, being hit with the "RC" label (standing for Refused Classification), and now it's unclear what developer Dennaton Games and publisher Devolver Digital will do about it.

In case you don't know what that means, it entails that the game has been found to "depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified."

This isn't the first time that Australian authorities give game makers a hard time. Grand Theft Auto was recently removed from some retailers' shelves, and Saints Row 4 and South Park: The Stick of Truth had to be censored before being granted a rating.

Devolver Digital and Dennaton Games have issued a statement on the matter, which you can find below.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is expected to land sometime early this year, headed to the Windows PC, Mac OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita platforms.

Official Statement

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number screenshots (4 Images)

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
A bit of live actionNeon colors and pixels everywhere
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