Saints Row IV Refused Classification in Australia

When Australia introduced an R18+ rating for video games, I think it’s safe to say we all assumed every game would be released here from now on. After all, how much worse can games get than the extreme violence and gore depicted in Mortal Kombat? That is of course not including rape simulation games…

Apparently the Classification Board has decided that Saint’s Row IV has broken whatever new limit they had set for “inappropriate content”. The official statement is as follows:

“In the Board’s opinion, Saints Row IV, includes interactive, visual depictions of implied sexual violence which are not justified by context. In addition, the game includes elements of illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards. Such depictions are prohibited by the computer games guidelines.”

Saints Row IV is considered 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.” Keep in mind that being refused classification simply means it cannot be sold or displayed in public in Australia, as opposed to outright banning which makes owning the game illegal. This makes Saints Row IV the first video game refused classification since Australia introduced the R18+ rating last year. While this is unfortunate news for fans of the series (Saints Row the Third is one of my personal favourite games) it begs the question: What is in Saints Row IV to get it refused classification in Australia?

Source: PlayerAttack

After resubmission, Mortal Kombat made it through under the new Australian classification rules. In other Australian news, if you didn’t already know the Penny Arcade Expo is coming down under.