02-26-2011, 02:11 AM
Australia’s content regulators decide Mortal Kombat is too violent and gruesome to be sold.
The extremely anticipated remake of the cult classic fighting game, Mortal Kombat, has been officially banned from Australia on the basis that the game is outside the boundaries of the country's highest MA15+ rating for games.
The content classification board decided that the game contained violence that went beyond what's acceptable in the industry and is definitely unsuitable for anyone under the age of 18 to play. They took special note of the game's infamously gruesome 'fatality' moves.
Mortal Kombat's unfortunate ban in Australia is primarily due to the fact that the country still doesn't have an 18+ rating for its games, despite frequent pushes for its introduction.
Unsurprisingly, Mortal Kombat is not the first game that has been censored due to the classification system in Australia. Other violent games such as Left 4 Dead 2 have been censored for the Australian market or were refused a rating classification altogether so that they could not be sold. Because of the strict regulation on games in Australia, many publishers have been forced to modify their games prior to release in Australia.
A spokesperson for Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment said that the company was extremely disappointed in the ban and disheartened that "one of the world's oldest and most successful video game franchises" won't be available for gamers in Australia.
For now, Australians will have to resort to piracy or importation in order to get their hands on the game. Unfortunately for the classification board, this could turn out to be more problematic than giving the game a classification rating.
The extremely anticipated remake of the cult classic fighting game, Mortal Kombat, has been officially banned from Australia on the basis that the game is outside the boundaries of the country's highest MA15+ rating for games.
The content classification board decided that the game contained violence that went beyond what's acceptable in the industry and is definitely unsuitable for anyone under the age of 18 to play. They took special note of the game's infamously gruesome 'fatality' moves.
Mortal Kombat's unfortunate ban in Australia is primarily due to the fact that the country still doesn't have an 18+ rating for its games, despite frequent pushes for its introduction.
Unsurprisingly, Mortal Kombat is not the first game that has been censored due to the classification system in Australia. Other violent games such as Left 4 Dead 2 have been censored for the Australian market or were refused a rating classification altogether so that they could not be sold. Because of the strict regulation on games in Australia, many publishers have been forced to modify their games prior to release in Australia.
A spokesperson for Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment said that the company was extremely disappointed in the ban and disheartened that "one of the world's oldest and most successful video game franchises" won't be available for gamers in Australia.
For now, Australians will have to resort to piracy or importation in order to get their hands on the game. Unfortunately for the classification board, this could turn out to be more problematic than giving the game a classification rating.