Saints Row IV

So following the whole debacle about censorship in Saints Row IV for Australia (for those who don't know, it was first refused classification because of an alien probe weapon , and was also refused classification because of alien narcotics that give you superpowers (much like the reasons State of Decay was originally refused classification)).

On Saturday, a statement posted on the Saints Row IV account page said

Due to the changes we were forced to make, this version is different than the version rated by rating boards like the ESRB, USK, and PEGI, which is why it will be incompatible with those versions in co-op.

So, Australia will have a MA15+ rated version of the game, no alien probe, no drugs, removed content, and ontop of that, can only play co-op with other Australians.

Meanwhile the rest of the world (yes, even including New Zealand) gets to probe the globe with anyone, except Australians.

But what does this mean for Saints Row IV in Australia. It's most likely, that gamers will import copies from the UK, or from New Zealand to play the uncut version of the game.

Does limiting the final games content impact negatively on the Australian games industry?

Also, it should be noted that State of Decay was given a R18+ rating once it changed the name of the drugs used. SR4 was RC a second time because of drug use was related to incentives and rewards.

Man... I'm not a big Saint's Row fan or anything, but that classification system out there in Ausie-land would have me seething at times I suspect.

SamM wrote:So following the whole debacle about censorship in Saints Row IV for Australia (for those who don't know, it was first refused classification because of an alien probe weapon , and was also refused classification because of alien narcotics that give you superpowers (much like the reasons State of Decay was originally refused classification)).

On Saturday, a statement posted on the Saints Row IV account page said

Due to the changes we were forced to make, this version is different than the version rated by rating boards like the ESRB, USK, and PEGI, which is why it will be incompatible with those versions in co-op.

So, Australia will have a MA15+ rated version of the game, no alien probe, no drugs, removed content, and ontop of that, can only play co-op with other Australians.

Meanwhile the rest of the world (yes, even including New Zealand) gets to probe the globe with anyone, except Australians.

But what does this mean for Saints Row IV in Australia. It's most likely, that gamers will import copies from the UK, or from New Zealand to play the uncut version of the game.

Does limiting the final games content impact negatively on the Australian games industry?

Lol. I am so buying this game in Australia so I have a collector's piece in the future - the first and only copy of the game actually sold on Australian shelves.

That's a little extreme. Hopefully importing it won't cause either of you trouble (with da law).

I just really want to play this chaos in a game case ASAP. (With all of you fine people.)

I'm fairly sure they said the alien probe was being added via DLC (no idea how they got that to work)

I remember their PR saying that only a single side mission was cut. And that somehow brought it to a MA15 rating. So a single druggy mission and a probe made the difference between MA15 and outright banning. Whatevs, then! XD

Magikarp wrote:I'm fairly sure they said the alien probe was being added via DLC (no idea how they got that to work)

I remember their PR saying that only a single side mission was cut. And that somehow brought it to a MA15 rating. So a single druggy mission and a probe made the difference between MA15 and outright banning. Whatevs, then! XD

I see the reason that Classification Board's decision confuses you;

You assumed that our Board has a system of assessing games based on logic.

If it makes you feel any better, a game that was PG got bumped up to R because bikinis. Funnily enough, Sony then decided to ignore that rating and ever since the game has been MA on the PSN, haha.