Dead or Alive: Dimensions, which was pulled from sale in Australia just over a week ago, has now been reclassified.
The game has now been classified with an M rating.
Dead or Alive: Dimensions was initially sent in for classification by THQ, before distribution duties were taken over by Nintendo themselves. After the media uproar concerning the game’s initial classification, the game was pulled from sale and sent back in for reclassification.
Initial reports from vendors stated that Nintendo was seeking an MA15+ rating, a claim which Nintendo later denied, but representatives from Nintendo were apparently happy to send the game back in for reclassification, and quick to distance themselves from the mistakes made by the initial distributor THQ.
The new classification is M, with added consumer advice stating that the game features “violence and sexualised gameplay”.
As of now, retailers are yet to have been notified, with EB still under strict orders not to sell the game. Hopefully that situation will change over the coming days.
Stevorooni
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:09 AMWell at least the world is now safe again now that they’ll be applying a little blue sticker to the cover…
Ruen
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:12 AMummmm. . . so all that happened was the game was bumped up one rating, and all that was added to the consumer advice was ‘content may change online’ which isn’t even relevant to the reason the classification was revoked in the first place. . .
redundant outcome is redundant
Tops
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:28 AMYep achieved nothing other than wasting some time and money. Pretty clever tatic though by an organised group (I wonder who?) to alert the media to a game where the ‘themes’ can be made to sound a lot more sinister than the content actually demonstrates. Thankfully this time common sense won over pointless moral panic.
weresmurf
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:35 AMEven funnier? You can’t stop a 7 year old buying an M rated game even without parental consent. It’s only recommended, not restricted. lol!
oggob
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:13 AMI shall be trawling the EB and GAME stores in the future on the lookout for the rare yellow stickered version, no doubt a few will slip through the trade-in schemes from each store.
Fenixius
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:18 AMActually, most stores should have a fair few copies. All the ones pulled from the shelf will be put back out with a blue ‘M’ sticker on them in the next day or two, I’m sure.
The Cracks
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:23 AMThey’ll probably just put a sticker over the top of the rating on current boxes.
Choc
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:14 AMSexualised gameplay? wat
Thats ridiculous.
Ruen
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:24 AMNot really, the PG version had the same disclaimer.
Chuloopa
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:14 AMM for Masturbate
M for Minor
M for Misogynistic
M for…. umm…
MOAR UNDERAGE UPSKIRTS?!?!
….i kid, obviously
WiseHacker
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:47 PMMore like M for Moronic – if you allow the fact the rating is for something other than the game, :-P.
The Cracks
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:16 AMMEDIA: ZOMG A PG game may contain child-porn!
CLASSIFICATION BOARD: Meh, just put it as M.
The classification board’s decision just goes to show how ridiculous and sensationalist most media sources can be.
Trjn
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:24 AMMost people don’t even differentiate between a PG and M rating. They both cover a pretty broad range (PG goes from The Incredible to The Dark Knight) which has a fair bit of overlap.
What a complete waste of time.
Zorran
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:26 AMKids can still buy the game rated M, there’s really no restrictions other than know having an added blue sticker.
Lord Crumplebottom
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:26 AMWould have helped if the promo “nipple pokey” image that was being spread with the stories was actually a part of the game.
Do we get nipples in game now? Cos that’s what every fighting game needs!
/sarcasm (just so any “journalists” reading this understand clearly)
Ruen
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:26 AMoh, I forgot to add, can you all imagine the next round of sensationalist media sh*tstorm that occurs when the moral panic brigade realise the same game has been passed through with only a slight increase of rating.
Foggy
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:27 AMThats hilarious, so it was ok… then it was child porn…. then its ok provided you’re “mature”.
Talk about sitting on the fence.
You should ask them what changed between when they classified it the first time and when it was ‘M’. I was honestly cool with the banning when they suddenly “became aware” of the stated ages of the characters, but this is ridiculous.
Fistbeard McTavish
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:44 AMReally? Because on my cover of the limited edition PG version of Dead or Alive dimensions, it says the exact same thing, “Sexualized gameplay”, but right next to the PG.
What za fark?
Dimsey
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:45 AMShould’ve just been given an M to begin with, pretty sure that’s what the other DOA games got.
I haven’t been following the controversy over this too closely so I could well have just missed it, but I don’t get why they’re only just now freaking out over the sexualization of the characters. It’s not like this is the first DOA to come out.
Fistbeard McTavish
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:07 PMAlso, “Game experience may change online”, what with all the 13 year old kids screaming out “OMG FAGGOT” after I Brad-Wong their asses with drunken unpredictable feints and throws.
Oh wait- No voice chat or any kind of interactions with other people. DHUUUUR.
Ruen
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:18 PMI think its probably got to do with the rage people will feel having to play against either Kasumi or Ryu Hayabusa for the 1000th time online
Fistbeard McTavish
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:28 PMI swear, the amount of assholes that choose Ryu and just spam his projectile makes me rage. But careful guarding and getting right in their faces leaves them undoubtedly screaming like little girls as I put on unrelenting pressure as BRAD WONG, the MASTER.
Even had one bastard choose Genra just to spam his lightning attack, in which I just… lied down. Went right over me, then I roll forward and into a kick. I did that all through the match, and he kept on lightning spamming like a fool.
Mind games!
Ruen
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:58 PMI’ve found Tag Battles to be more irritating.
ineffective attacks + overpowered opponent + quasi-retarded AI Partner = RAGE! especially against the higher up opponents.
still didn’t stop me from completely annihilating the mode though, just more of a minor irritation.
TurboPhoenix
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:09 PMHonestly I’m surprised it got a PG in the first place. I know DOA isn’t that violent, but it’s still a fighting game.
WiseHacker
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:46 PMAs I kid I had the best rating system of all – my mother.
She actively kept an eye on the games I played and made it clear that any game like Wolfenstein was not allowed until I was at least 15 years old.
That aside, I agree with you Phoenix – this game should have been M to begin with. Given the past DOA games, I personally think it should have been MA 15+.
Last I checked, DOA exists for something other than fighting – why else would there be a volleyball edition?
Jason Oliver
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 1:15 PMYeah but Street Fighter IV gets a PG so really its not much worse.
Fenixius
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:19 PMSince when does allowing (though never advertising or explicitly enticing) a player to pose models wearing skirts however you want count as pornographic?
Oh no, best ban all models, dolls, and action figures who don’t wear pants!
JTJ
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:27 PMDonald Duck has since been arrested for public indecency…
WiseHacker
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:39 PMAnd Elmer Fudd has been arrested for carrying a gun in public.
Steve0410
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 6:30 PMSeveral of the characters were implied to be underage, or at least the game was rather ambiguous.
This, coupled with the “photography mode” was fantastically creepy.
Simmo
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 1:15 PM“Child Porn Game Deemed Suitable for Teenagers”
I give it 24 hours before the above becomes real.
uninformed christian parent
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 1:29 PMthis game is evil…!!!!!!!
it should be banned off the shelves becuase it is child porn because abc said so
video games are evil
JTJ
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 2:00 PMABC also originally posted a pick of the game with a photoshopped dinosaur head on one of the characters that they borrowed from GamesRadar thinking it was legit…haha
MrTaco
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 2:42 PM“photoshopped dinosaur head”
….Ugh :P
I can’t remember where I heard it, but apparently the thing that got this game declassified was that the board somehow found out that at one point later in the game, there was actually BLOOD. And I guess when THQ submitted it, they didn’t bring this to their attention.
Zomfg, right?
JTJ
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 3:23 PMhttp://www.gamesradar.com/3ds/dead-or-alive-dimensions/news/abc-news-uses-our-ridiculous-big-boobed-pterodactyl-joke-as-serious-doa-screenshot/a-20110601101711200093/g-2010061611855333027
Article in question…for the lulz.
MrTaco
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 5:03 PMYeah, I know about the picture. I was ughing because I am a Metroid fanboy so hearing someone just call Ridley a dinosaur made me nerdrage :P
Ensaine
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 2:59 PMCan I has for cheaps now? EB games? Jb Hi Fi? Anybody?
scree
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 5:17 PMHm, the stupid thing about the “child porn” is because I think Ayane and Kasummi are considered “16″ rather then 20 (to me the models are over 20+). However you have to actually interupt gameplay and actually try to look up the skirts. I’ll spoil it for everyone. They wear white undies. Have in every other game.
The fighting game has violence but the tornament is not to kill, but to knock out, unlike stuff like mortal combat. The media blew it all out of proportion.
I’m glad I got my PG copy X3
Andrew B
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:08 PMFor all the stupidity abounding in this affair, I have to admit I find it quite amusing that the content advisory has hardly changed at all despite the elevated rating. I can almost hear the ACB, in a rare moment of lucidity in judgement, effectively saying “hahahaha/no/” about the child porn allegation, and I can also almost hear the inevitable butthurt that the EVIL NINTENDO CHILD PORN FOR CHILDRENS wasn’t banned…