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At the moment the Classification Board are currently re-evaluating their decision to refuse classification to Mortal Kombat and, according to the classification board we’ll have a decision on whether Mortal Kombat will be made available for purchase in this country by Tuesday at the earliest.
At this stage it’s impossible to predict which way the decision will go. But stay tuned for news of the decision early next week.
I’ve got a feeling it’ll be banned unless it gets some gore cut, which is crap. Our classifcation is up-in-arms, its pathetic. Have we even heard anymore about this R18+ rating?
Yeah man. They are having the meeting in June (July?) now. The new AG seems pretty confident that it will be changed to R18+ as that is what he is going to push for.
It makes no logical sense not to have it. In fact it causes more harm. I think we will get our R18+ classification, but you wil have to wait until middle of this year at least.
From there last meeting on the 10th of march, it sounded more like they had decided to do a total overhaul of the system on all levels.
I think it’ll pass.
In part, I think the appeal documents will be able to point to other games with similar levels of violence that have passed before…
and in part, I think it will be a politically-motivated decision. As much as the classification process is meant to be free from political influence, there will be massive backlashes in the media, in the public, etc.
(Also possibly extra backlash from the politicians who are in charge of Board funding, should the massive negative criticism jeopardise votes.)
Well I heard some talk of Warner Bros hiring the same ex-Classification Board member that previously got FEAR 2 successfully through its appeal
For the time being guys, for our Australian friend who want to order Mortal Kombat, check out http://www.mightyape.co.nz.
The are offering to ship the game over to Australia for like, $3 or something silly. The are also stocking the TE version (with the cool arcade stick).
Just work around this by giving your money to other countries. Its not like we are given much of a choice.
If its refused classification then the only way to get it into the country is via digital download. If we try to import it then customs will confiscate and destroy each copy as soon they it land in the country.
Its the exact same situation we faced 15 odd years ago with the movie Ken Park.
From someone who has been shipping all sorts of weird stuff from all over the world for ten years, senders from online stores always just put ‘game’ or ‘gift’ on the package and never the title’s name. Customs don’t have the time or manpower to look for unedited versions or rc games and 15 years ago the level of imports were nothing compared to today. Customs are looking for drugs or weapons, anything organic.
Importing games is no problem in this matter.
Just saw the ratings guy polishing his DENY stamp. He asked if I had a blue ink-pad as he thought his red one made too high an impact impression on the document…
He scuttled away when he saw I only had Cerise, Crimson, Scarlet and Maroon.
On one hand, I think there’re plenty of games around with similar content to justify a pass. But while you can argue the impact is reduced because it’s so unrealistic I think that just makes it more gratuitous, so I’m not really convinced.
That being said, can you imagine if they do approve the game, with no alterations made whatsoever?
It’ll be farcical… and really, that’s what they deserve – our classification system [for games] is a joke.
“Warner Bros believe that the violence in MK is on par with several games already available for purchase.”
Splatterhouse….
Nuff’ said…
Dude, Dead Rising 2!!! I dont care if they try to say theyre zombies, theyre ‘infected people’ like the L4D2 ones are! That games FAR gorier than MK is!
Story in the SMH about Classification/MK with input from former board members – http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/censors-speak-classification-system-broken-20110311-1bqgg.html
I think they will release it here. The censors themselves are saying that the system is broken! So to me the best thing to do is to let it pass and show how EVEN MORE broken it is and lead the way to make a change! 🙂
I’m amazed it’s not being argued that the impact is lessened because the fatalities aren’t interactive.
Unlike the rest of the game, where controls are responsive – the combinations and gap between input and violence make it more akin to pressing a code in order to see a noninteractive mini cutscene.
Had anyone else noticed that its being listed as “this item is not available in your territory” on Play-Asia now?
Having watched videos of this game i can see why this game got banned.
Im 50/50, i dont know if the appeal will be successful, it wasnt for successful for Left 4 Dead 2 which Mortal Kombat is 10 times more violent then this game.
Perhaps the board is aware of just how heavily criticized it’s been and will reverse the decision. Or they’ll completely ignore us and go about their merry way.
last i heard, there was talks of a whole reformat for the entire rating system….
dont know whether to believe this or not….
no matter what happens, there will still be games that people want to play that will be refused classification, the r18+ rating will only make us want a rating on top of that (x21+)…
I’ve already pre-ordered from Amazon just incase. It ends up cheaper anyway.
I really hope the game does get released here but realistically it probably wont.
I have seen a preview for this game and yes its violent but i’ve seen other games with just as much violence and they’ve gotten through without a fuss. I really hope it gets through cause it looks awesome.
I’ve spoken to a friend who’s been following the story closely(and who still hasn’t given me links to his info). He claims that the appeal will fail, because neither side is willing to compromise, and since the power lies with the ACB……
So, it’s okay to walk into a airport with realistic graphics and kill civilians that run away and beg for mercy on mw2
but when a sci-fi fighting game is released it’s classified “banned” ….something shifty is going on here
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