The Saints Row IV classification drama has been long and overdrawn but late last week it was announced that a modified version of the game would be made available in Australia. In a post on the game’s official Facebook page the precise changes have been outlined, and it has been confirmed that the Saints Row IV’s co-op mode will be incompatible with copies of the game bought overseas.
“For this version, we had to cut one optional Loyalty Mission from the game,” reads the statement. “Loyalty Missions are optional side missions that you can do with your homies. This mission in particular involves alien narcotics in the simulation, which eventually have a positive effect in terms of gameplay. As you cannnot depict any positive effect for using narcotics in video games in Australia, this was the reason the game was refused a classification.
“While we are very proud of all our different missions, we do feel that Saints Row IV on the whole remains largely the same without this single optional mission, and we also feel that you deserve to know what you are getting in Australia. 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.”
Not a massive issue, given that most tend to play co-op with people on their friends list, but worth noting nonetheless.
Thanks Thyco!
Comments
72 responses to “Australia’s Edited Saints Row IV Is Incompatible With Other Versions Of The Game”
Thank you Australia for cutting us off from the world 🙂 Yes I am looking at you McDonald
FIRST GRIMMACE, NOW THIS?!!?!
RONALD, YOU MANIAC!!!
Donald*
He’s never been able to get out of the shadow cast by his elder brother.
Ronald, as in Ronald McDonald.
I believe Trjn gets the joke. He’s referring to Donald McDonald, Acting Director of the Classification Board.
Or maybe hes talking about what Ronald’s called in Japan?
I doubt it.
Wait shit, I absolutely missed the joke. Good eye.
Hey, back off man. Wtf did I do?
out of all the shit that gets banned this does? oh well time to get my copy from the UK. not to mention all the shit that gets banned in australia (like hentai and female ejaculation in porn)
Well, this does affect me, I used to play online with a friend, but we’re more interested in GTA V as a multiplayer game right now to be honest.
Or: “Stop importing our shit you filthy little weasels, or we won’t let you play with your less-savvy, uninformed friends.”
Or you could just, you know, TELL your friends they should get it overseas too! 🙂
As unbelievable as it sounds, I have friends who think the whole importing thing is too much mucking around for video games. They don’t mind paying the extra all that much, and they’re probably secretly worried that they’ll either get into trouble or their key won’t work.
I know, I know… but I also have friends with Windows/android phones, mac-users, and people who play on handhelds, and even one who thinks humans have never landed on the moon. What can you do? (Without trying some kind of reverse-phrenology. Doesn’t seem to work.)
Madness.
Keep trying, is all I can say.
They do have a point to a degree (about the importing games thing, not about the moon landing). Personally I don’t mind buying a copy here in Australia if the price is reasonable (and if you shop at JB HiFi it usually is). Yes, I have imported games in the past, most often from ozgameshop who are based in the UK, but that’s usually only when I actually CAN’T buy them here, such as when Mortal Kombat was initially refused classification or when EA just decided to not release Rock Band 2 here for no logical reason.
If you can buy it locally, it’s no doubt quicker to just go down to the shop and buy it, instead of ordering online and waiting a week or more for it to arrive. Would it be cheaper if I imported it? Well, probably, but usually only by about 5 bucks or so, and to me that’s not worth the hassle of ordering online and waiting for it. If the price difference was 10-15 bucks or more I might consider it but it rarely is when compared to JB HiFi’s prices (EB Games is another matter).
I’m not interested in Saints Row anyway, but if I was, I’m not really sure I’d bother importing an international version just to get one optional mission about alien drugs.
That the biggest load of bullshit, cheaper by 5$ where the hell are you shopping?
JB at BEST will have a new title for what $78, more likely $90, especially if its abig release like AC, Cod or GTA. Online you can save a huge amount by comparison, I myself pre ordered a UK copy of GTA 5 for $62 from video ezy and Tales of Xillia for $48.
That is an enormous saving compared to ANY price anywhere in Australia for an aussie copy, i’d be lucky to get those prices a year later in Australia.
EVEN then, you can go to Dungeon crawl, who on all but handheld titles still beat JB by almost $10 minimum, and they ship from melbourne so its a couple days postage and only $5 for express.
People who blindly pay more for no benefit what so ever is the reason the smart shopper imports. (giving money to BIG W, JB or EB is not really good for anyone)
All of this will only improve even further with the next gen when both consoles are region free assuming our dollar doesn’t weaken much further.
A lot of new titles go up for $69
x2, you see a lot of new releases for a competitive price, before they jack them back up within a few weeks.
Of course it will always be cheaper online. AU brick and mortars are in serious need of a shake-up if they are ever to get competitive..
That being said 5 dollars cheaper is *still* cheaper. And you get the benefit of having the game now as opposed to waiting for your order. Slightly cheaper + game in your hand ASAP is enough of a motivator for some people
It’s good for the people employed by those companies, cause you know, jobs pay bills and shit.
brilliant, now I cant play with my mates because i had the common sense to preorder from greenman.
They should have had the common sense to source their copies from overseas as well.
I think greenman will be giving Australian customers censored Aussie steam keys.
I changed my address to an American address once I found out about the censored edition. Lets hope they don’t suspect anything XD
If they’re using anything similar to Steam/Amazon they’ll be basing their pricing/version based on the payment method rather than the delivery/account/IP address. Use an Australian PayPal account or credit card, and they’ve got you zeroed in.
The ACB can take the edited version of the game and shove it up the place where the sun dont shine… Pity that the makers of the game had to edit it just so it could be released in Australia…but kudos for actually going ahead with it. Kinda sucks that I would have liked to play with my friends in those conutries but what can you do?
Ha, the joke is on them, I don’t have any friends to play with anyway.
Import away.
Will the Ozgameshop copies be AUS or unedited UK copies?
They’ll likely be the UK ones, I haven’t gotten anything from there in quite a while but it was always the UK or EU version of the game.
As far as I can tell my copy from Ozgameshop will be the UK version.
OzGameShop sell UK or EU copies, so it will be the original unedited version.
More than likely UK. But since they don’t have a PC edition Play Asia is getting my money for a UK copy!
Any word which version is New Zealand getting?
Uncensored and here’s the link to say so 🙂
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/8996574/Edited-Saints-Row-IV-rated-MA15-in-Australia
go to the bit when they stop pulling the piss out of the aussie classification board (at the bottom)
The board must know that we’ll just get it from over seas. So they’re basically saying “Let our economy burn in hell”
The obvious issue here is you’ll have to make sure all your friends are doing the same if you’ll want to play with them!
That’s okay, the ACCC and recent inquiry into pricing differences basically recommended you buy overseas anyway.
All while the Australian Retailers Association cries, “Why is it all going to ruin? Why couldn’t people suck it up and pay just a little more to support local jobs?”
Which I have a little sympathy for, but not a lot. Yeah, being unemployed sucks. But all the same… if that job can’t exist without gouging us, maybe it doesn’t need to exist.
Our dollar goes up, prices go up. Our dollar goes down, prices go up. I’m over spending money in this country.
+1
Could not have said it better myself. When au plunged pre GFC a lot of stuff i bought locally went up the excuse was the low value of the dollar + inflation. Au dollar sky rocketed and not one local store’s stock ever went down….
Yes I’m sure our economy will burn in hell because a bunch of gamers decided to import one game from overseas.
No. A bunch of gamers imported a bunch of the same game. Not a single copy.
Now, how my different series have gamers had to buy overseas because of crap like this? That number keeps rising and it does all add up.
I did mean one game as in the same game. I obviously didn’t mean a bunch of gamers would import a single copy to share around with each other, but each a copy for themselves.
But if you honestly think a couple of hundred people at best (in reality it’s probably less than that) importing a game will make a $1.6 trillion+ economy “burn in hell”, well, I’m not sure what else to say to you.
For some reason I think “a couple of hundred” is… Wrong.
But hey, maybe you’re right. The millions of dollars Aussie gamers have spent over seas is much better there than in our economy.
Lets export more raw materials and buy back expensive manufactured goods at a higher price to.
I strongly expect that number to go up if the government acts on the IT pricing enquiry’s recommendations.
Part of the package of telling people how to bypass geo-blocking involves telling people WHY they should be doing that. “You are getting fucked on $90-100 game pricing, you could be getting $50-60 game pricing,” is going to lead people to look at retail as well, not just digital.
Now imagine if CoD was banned here. The video games industry is one of the highest contributing factors to the economy here. If 5000 people bought the game for $79 that’s $395 000 gone. If 500 000 got the game for $79, that’s $39.5 million. Saints Row may not be as large, but there will be more than a couple of hundred people who buy it.
Just a another reason as to why you should never NEVER buy games in Australia just import them its uncut and costs less
Support the Australian industry when and where you can, but in situations like this where we’re actively being screwed; I would encourage people to buy from overseas.
Yup, already called up a US mate and he’s gonna pre-order a copy for me and redirect it once he gets it. I won’t have it on release date, but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna get cut off from playing with my overseas mates just because the ACB has a giant stick up their arse
It’s an issue when you’re the only person with an over-priced local copy, while all your friends get the ‘original’ version from overseas, at 1/3 of the price.
Well time to cancel my pre order on steam since everyone else i know is importing a copy.
Just get it from another country, Australia doesn’t deserve the money any more.
Meh. SR lost its way after the second game. Bring back gangster gameplay, you can keep your dildo bats and aliens.
I’m angry and upset by this and I don’t plan on ever buying this game. Oh the joys of being a gamer. ;p
Oh the joys of being human.
That is me exactly! I’m just not bothering to comment.
Just so everyone knows: Ozgameshop are selling the international version (asked on their Facebook page a while ago, there’s some good customer service right there (Looks at Steam, EA and Ubisoft))
Geoff?
If a mate in the US gifts me a copy through Steam, that’ll be the uncut version yeah? or will it go “No! You cannot do this!” and give me the ‘safe’ version?
I haven’t played any of the saints row games nor do I care to but can someone please tell me why the fuck its edited?? Doesn’t this backwards country now have an R rated classification? Scratches head…
Yeah but the guidelines haven’t changed in that games aren’t allowed to have players use drugs that have a positive effect. Hang on a sec… What’s that one game where the guy grows big and strong after consuming a mushroom??
Because video games weren’t meant to be shared with friends.
the only problem i have with importing is that i want to get it on xbox since i have the first 3 there, but im not sure if the dlc codes will work if i get an ozgameshop copy, when mortal kombat was banned i got it from ozgameshop and the dlc and other xbox live codes didnt work
Well I’m off to enjoy the positive effects of the pill in GTA3 etc. Sure, it’s called an adrenaline pill in GTA, but in that case why not just rename the ‘narcotics’ to ‘adrenaline’ or something in SRIV.
Not that I would get this game, but I still stand for your rights.
At the end of the day, the Australian nappy changer board got it wrong again.
the game was interesting but what the sense now for pay it? It’s been censured two times because one wasn’t enough and it’s incompatible with the rest of the world… in the end the single player is compromised and the multiplayer too
I’m Italian and honestly, i don’t understand the Australian’s law… it’s bad for the economy and, in the end, the australian’s gamers play this games anyway
After personally giving up on Halo 4 after there was no guarantee of getting a local game, isn’t the side effect of ensuring that you’ll only be able to play with other Australians a good thing?
Everyone seems to be quick to kick the ACB over this, but what about Volition – several games I have release compatibility patches so you can play against people who have bought DLC (Borderlands 2, BF3) doesn’t give you access to the DLC but it lets you join other people’s games without breaking them. Surely implementing something like that would have been an elegant solution.
thats because those patches also include the DLC, you just pay for the unlock code. If they left the content in game, then some modders “cracked” it ala hot coffee, voltion, deep silver and AIE would all be fined a massive sum
I know most of you will be importing or just not buying it, but I’m just glad I have options. Still bittersweet though.
Easy solution – I’ll just tell my friends to get the version from overseas too.
Tonight, on the Sixth of July, in twenty fourteen, my American friend and I, from Australia, tried to play this said mentioned game, without knowing that it would never work.
I tried to look for an answer, as it kept mentioning different types of games, so I looked up co op problems, looked for PC co op problems, due to both of us using Steam to play this. I eventually found this. I was extremely pissed.
Its ironic that, even after we finally get R18+ games, that we have to get a dumbed down baby-fied game for the masses of Australia. All because they were upset with three or so things in it. Its The Stick of Truth all over again… Its just all so much fucking bullshit that we honestly don’t need. What if it had scenes that would otherwise be horrible? Fuck, we have movies, books, and multiple other modern media that have stuff like the shit they took out from the game, that would not have been taken out of if it were anything else. And do you all know why? Because everyone that runs everything in Australia, still thinks that every person playing a game is not old enough to deal with R18+ shit.
Seriously, guys. Get your fucking head out of your arses and stop complaining and give us, the masses that pay you guys to roll in money, what we want.
Because, if it wasn’t for the people who made this game, and for everyone that supported it, it wouldn’t exist. So if it exists, and it exists with everything intact everywhere but Australia, then what do you have against all this huh? Seriously? I am not one to flip my shit over one small thing. But time and time again, they’ve fucked us over, and its the final straw. We have to do something about it, or we won’t have anything else to have.
So either way, all in all, Australia’s rich deciders are fuckwits, and I don’t care what their exact jobs are. They decided to change it, fucking great. Well then, I think I’ve tried to make my point at One AM in the morning.