Deadly Premonition Denied Australian Release
Rising Star Games has decided not to release their upcoming survival horror game, Deadly Premonition, in Australia. The game casts the player as a detective investigating murders that plague a small town. The players get to examine crime scenes, question people, and fight zombies using guns, knives, and metal pipes.
Their reasons for not giving a game an Australian release are detailed in their press release.
As part of our normal procedures in submitting any game for classification, it was determined internally at Rising Star Games that the game would not satisfy the criteria for an MA15+ rating in Australia and further that any changes to the game would not be possible. It was therefore decided, with regret, the game will not be released in Australia.
The ESRB lists the game as containing Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, and Suggestive Themes. Although the first paragraph of their rating summary tells everyone what can be seen in games released in Australia, the second paragraph of their rating summary paints a more disturbing picture.
Graphic depictions are presented during investigations of crime scenes, where players sometimes discover the victims: a woman is found tied to a tree with her abdomen sliced open—blood surrounds the open wound (hair partially obscures her breasts); another woman is strung up by wires in a shower, covered with blood, and strangled by an elaborate trap; and a “profile”-montage depicts still-frame images of a struggle between killer and victim amid sounds of crying and desperate pleas (e.g., “stop, please . . . I swear . . . I won’t tell anyone . . .”). A couple of cutscenes are intense as well, depicting suicides via gunshots to the head. The dialogue contains mild sexual innuendo (e.g., a woman at a gas station says, “Let me know if you want me to pump it”) and more direct commentary about sex: “She’ll scr*w anyone” and “Oh, I sleep with anyone I wish. Anyone I prefer to sleep with . . . I could sleep with you, if you’d like.”
If an R18+ rating already existed in Australia, then Deadly Premonition would have gotten a release here.
Although the Classification Board was not involved, it is the first time a game developer chose to boycott Australia due to the failure of our game classification system.
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Richie says:
Yeah because I’m 23 years old and need to be viewed as a child who cant control his actions after shooting a zombie. jesus christ Australian gamers miss out on all the good titles and the economy is screwed because of the lost sales. I took back Soldier of Fortune Payback because on the back cover it states “The most Graphic damage system” yeah right, politics rape gamers…
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Nydia Womac says:
been following your blog for 3 days now and i should say i am starting to like your post. and now how do i subscribe to your blog?
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The Shepherd says:
Complete BULLSHIT on Rising Star Games end, this is just an excuse they made to get extra publicity and because they know there is no market for the game in Australia. If released it would of easily gotten an MA15+ rating. Considering Dead Rising 2, Alien vs predator, Red Dead Redemption & God of War 3 all got an MA15+ I don’t see why this couldn’t.
Look the game up on youtube, alot of the violent content the ESRB mentioned are mitigated by the graphics of the game and are not as detailed as the ESRB make it out to be.
Its also funny that Deadly premonition got a 15 rating from the UK’s BBFC and the games i mention above got a 18 from them. Makes me wonder what Rising Star actually thought was in the game that would get it banned.
I truly believe in an R18+ for games but its a shame that publishers will use this as an excuse to not release a game.
If Rising Star actually sent the game in and it actually got refused classification, then that would be a whole other story.
So officially no games have yet to be banned/refused classification in 2010. I just hope that it stays that way.
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flight pro sim says:
R18 for this game? As an adult and mature person, we’ll know what is real and fake. I just have to say, Australian have missed out this nice game. I watch the trailer and I find that It’s not that violent. Just curious how they say these video games is not satisfying the criteria for the rating standard in Australia.
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RCC says:
Wouldn’t have bought the game anyway if it was released in Australia. Looks like utter crap and a cheap knockoff of Silent Hill to boot.
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Steve C says:
@Shepherd – you can’t blame Rising Star here. It costs money for a game to be submitted for classification, and if they believe the game will likey get knocked back anyway, the only way it’ll be accepted is if they create a censored version and resubmit it for classification, increasing production costs for a game that will likely get poor sales – also due to the censorship.
Dark Sector was knocked back (for pathetic reasons if you ask me, compared to other MA-approved titles), being a small distribution company they chose not to make a censored version and resubmit. Considering the size of the gaming market in Australia compared to the rest of the world – can you really blame them?
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The Shepherd says:
@Steve C
I see your point, I just think that them saying it may be banned (without even submitting it) makes Australia look even worse considering that no games have been banned this year. It would of been better if they just said there was no market for it.
I also agree with you about Dark Sector (having played the UK version) but that was also rated 18 by the BBFC, PEGI and OFLCNZ. Deadly premonition has gotten a 15 from the BBFC. Just makes me wonder the specific content that Rising Star deemed high impact to not get a MA15+.
Also, Deadly premonition is being released in Germany (with a 16+) who has banned/censored many more games than Australia has ever done.
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Korey says:
This game sounds boring, and I would not even consider playing it. But ffs, this whole r18 crap, and all these games getting refused is a violation on our freedoms and rights. And most titles that are currently MA15+ would be rated R18+ and you would need photo ID to buy it. Having an R18+ rating would give more freedom to adults to play what game they wish, and at the same time, help keep the violent content away from kids. Politicians are just too stubborn and out-dated to realise this.