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Australian Milestone: First Game Released For Adults...In 2013

from the space-flight-to-be-achieved-in-3013 dept

Mon, Jan 14th 2013 3:49pm — Timothy Geigner

As Tim Cushing recently wrote, Australia's Classification Board (whatever the hell that is) decided that this was the year. The year for what, you ask? Well, the year to acknowledge that people over the age of 15 exist within their borders. It seems a little silly that, prior to 2013, Australia's governing bodies chose not to acknowledge that the age of the average gamer is something around thirty years old. Emboldening the morality police "for the children" is one thing, but to do so for law-abiding adults is quite another. I think it showed an immense amount of disrespect towards the Aussie public that it took so long to entrust with them their own entertainment choices.

In any case, Australia has followed through and reached a milestone hitherto unimaginable: the very first R18+ game has been classified, and the honor goes to Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. According to the Classification Board:

“Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge contains violence that is high in impact because of its frequency, high definition graphics, and emphasis on blood effects.”

So congratulations to Australian adults, who can now play the game as it was meant to be played: bloody, violent, high in impact and in high in definition. I have to imagine that the only thing sweeter for Australian adults than the ability to finally play these kinds of games is the delicious irony in how Australian Rules Football, which is televised, fits the Classification Board's description almost exactly. Foster's all around for everyone!

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Filed Under: adults, australia, ratings, video games

19 Comments

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Divide by Zero (profile), 14 Jan 2013 @ 4:05pm

And as a NZer I say thank fuck, and about time Aussie. Our games were always getting screwed over since the distributors are for Aus and NZ, and so we keep getting your overly censored crap. If we got it at all.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2013 @ 4:14pm

Regarding fosters
Fosters is the biggest joke a nation ever played on the world. No one drinks that swill here. For export only!
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Pixelation, 14 Jan 2013 @ 4:35pm

I wonder how many people in Australia have been playing pirated versions to avoid the censoring.
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Big Al, 14 Jan 2013 @ 4:49pm

Re:
If the people I know are anything to go by - lots
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2013 @ 5:25pm

Re:
Shhhhh! You'll make darryl's above-average-Australian dick sad!
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2013 @ 5:48pm

Re: Regarding fosters
Not exported to USA any longer by can, by recipe only now. Canada brews and bottles all the Fosters now for North America.
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G Thompson (profile), 14 Jan 2013 @ 6:24pm

Re: Re: Regarding fosters
Wow.. I'm wondering how they figured the recipe out for Kangaroo Piss or is there somewhere now in Canada a huge underground secret farm with a mighty load of Boomers peeing everywhere
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G Thompson (profile), 14 Jan 2013 @ 6:31pm

Re:
Bugger all if any since it was only released in the EU last week and its exclusively for the Wii U.

Piracy is not the problem so much on Games for consoles in Australia, the major problem (for retailers and distributors) is that Aussies buy games nowadays overseas since it is cheaper by a huge margin. ie: AAA Titles come out average $89-109RRP whereas same game delivered from UK/Asia will set most people back in the range of $45-70. This has nothing to do with the Aussie Dollar either since currently it is on par with the US dollar (if not better), it's all to do with price gouging.

As for the R18+ classification, its highly welcome even though it has been a long time coming
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G Thompson (profile), 14 Jan 2013 @ 6:34pm

is the delicious irony in how Australian Rules Football, which is televised, fits the Classification Board's description almost exactly.

Compared to American Gridiron which is mostly classified as PG.
Though Aussie Rules to me is Aerial PingPong, Rugby League is the real sport of men!!!

*runs before Americans and Victorians catch me*
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2013 @ 9:02pm

Re:
thugby or areial ping pong, looking back was very as a kid when parents moved south
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John, 14 Jan 2013 @ 9:23pm

As an Aussie gamer, I say bloody marvelous... finally. It's about time!

I've got friends who have opposed the R rating, because of the children, several who play Call of Duty and the ilk. Even though I've suggested that someone could arbitrarily pull the pin on any of those games "because of the children" they still don't get it.

Anyway, yippee!

Oh BTW, Fosters isn't Australian for beer, it's Australian for cat's piss. There are many, many finer beers here than Fosters.
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Fosters employee, 14 Jan 2013 @ 10:34pm

Re: Regarding fosters
Untrue.

Source: Fosters employee.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jan 2013 @ 12:35am

Re: Regarding fosters
Last, I checked, Oz referred to it as "poofter beer".
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btrussell (profile), 15 Jan 2013 @ 2:32am

Re: Re: Re: Regarding fosters
City water.
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Ninja (profile), 15 Jan 2013 @ 4:15am

And suddenly millions of Aussie gamers reached the legal age to see blood and violence.

Honestly I thought 18+ games were like porn stuff, Ninja Gaiden seems quite bland...
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 15 Jan 2013 @ 7:53am

Re: Re: Regarding fosters
Poor employee, forced to drink that stuff, in order to make the statement of "for export only" untrue.
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Gregg, 15 Jan 2013 @ 8:28am

where are the real adult games
A ninja game? come off it, bring out the real adult games!
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vbevan (profile), 16 Jan 2013 @ 10:41pm

Re: Re:
Was going to say something like this. I buy most of my games from eBay or sites like Zavvi, due to the massive difference in price (often >50% cheaper). The fact I get the uncensored versions is a bonus, though apperently I may have been breaking the law if customs had of checked.
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Mikael (profile), 18 Jan 2013 @ 11:16am

Re: where are the real adult games
Have you ever actually watched Ninja Gaiden gameplay?
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