We recently had a long conversation with Killing Floor 2 developer Tripwire regarding its quest for gory perfection. Seeing a game like this and living in Australia, you can’t help but think “well, the Classification Board isn’t going to like that”. Turns out the studio has similar concerns.
In a post to the game’s community forum on Steam, developer Jared Creasy outlines the realities of bringing a title as, uh, detailed as Killing Floor 2 to countries such as Germany, Japan and of course, Australia:
It is quite likely that there are some regions where we may be required to make cuts in the future, particularly in the gore system, to comply with local ratings boards, once we get the game into its full release status. Regions most likely at risk of this are Germany (via USK) and Australia (via OFLC). Japan is another possibility (via CERO), but is an unknown quantity to us. To be quite clear: this means that, if you are buying from a region which regularly forces cuts on to games for gore, you may get reduced gore when we go to the full release version of the game.
Creasy goes on to mention that a change to the game on Steam for a particular region should retroactively apply to all associated keys, so even if already have Killing Floor 2, you’ll still get a modified version if Tripwire is required to make alterations.
The game comes out on 21 April, just a few days away, so it’s likely we’ll see something from the Classification Board soon. The original Killing Floor mustered an MA 15+ rating, but a lot has changed with the Australian classification system between 2009 and today, so the new one could easily end up with an R rating.
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21 responses to “Killing Floor 2 Dev Highlights Australia As Problem Region For Classification”
I sort of understand us, but Germany with its relarively perverse culture (I was allowed into a peep show with my uncle when I was 7 once) is a bit of an oddball when it comes to violence in games.
unlike the USA which loves gore and hates sex, germany is the opposite. also theres the whole ww2 and the Nazis thing too. how ever with us it killing floor should get through fine because the R18 classification allows for increased high impact violence. Its sexual violence and drugs that get a game censored and or banned here
Yeah, with Hotline Miami 2 it was an alleged raped scene.
Your wrong… well… kind of…. Games do not actually get band for ALL of Australia. Its only the Territorys that actually get games and moives banned. The rest of Aus comes under Refused Classification (RC). This means that you can still buy the UN-censored edition, BUT you can not publicly display it. So, you could by it, but if you make a video or take screenshots, and show people said video or screenshots, only then would you be braking the law.
At least, thats the way I understand it.
It doesn’t have any of the buzz words that normally trigger classification refusal, so hopefully they didn’t assume the blood and violence needs to be toned down and pre-emptively gut the game.
It’ll get through R18+ with no issue.
Mortal Kombat just got released, this’ll be fine.
Is DLC still not rated in Australia?
KILLING FLOOR 2: BABY AUSTRALIAN EDITION
with new exclusive FULL GORE DLC
(the only probably with this is that it would cost them extra)
It won’t get censored in Australia. There’s no sexual violence or illicit drug use that benefits the player (that i’m aware of), which are the only things that can’t be accommodated within the R18+ rating. It’ll be fine.
Bah it’s just gratuitous violence! Should fine w/ the OFLC!
Now if it had (in context) pixelated simulated sex scenes. Or anime style characters in swimsuits now THEN we would have issues! Coz that stuff is just pure filth I say! PURE FILTH!
Funny you should mention that because two Atelier games had their rating pushed up to R18+ (from MA/PG) for their Vita re-releases. You might think it was because there was now the option to have them wear a swimsuit costume but you would be wrong. The reason is “References to sexual violence” which in each case refers to a single, pre-existing event in which there is a dialogue only reference to implied risqué activity that is considerably more tame than anything you would see in something like the Genre Movies which only net an MA15+ rating.
I remember that – Totori Plus was initially Refused Classification due to a fairly tame swimsuit contest. As I recall it came out at about the same time as GTA 4, which earned an MA15+. (May not have been GTA4, but it was something of a similar level of violence.)
To be fair, if you try to cut out your anime filters, the average Atelier character looks like she spends most of the game in a nightie. It’s far tamer than the High School of the Deads of this world, but it’s hard to find an anime these days with no risque elements at all.
And I do agree that a lot of Jp stuff does contain what westerners would class as “risque” content.
My only issue is why is for some reason risque is held to the same “er mah gawd it’s bad for you!” hysteria that violence used to get back in the early hay days of Mortal Kombat. For some reason society has moved on w/ judging violence in games… but anything involving risque material? ER MAH GAWD! WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
Given that many anime (and anime-based games) feature school-age children, anything remotely sexual risks edging into child porn territory.
However, I think it’s just the Western attitude to sex in general that’s the issue here. Both Steam and the iTunes App Store block any “adult” content. There are certain interest groups that go completely ballistic over sexual content, presumably based on the old “video games are for kids” misconception.
Eh, reading the transcipt of the scene in question, it sounded like a rape scene.
It’s no coinicidence =P
That was pretty much the point I was making a casual stab at. I found it so amusing how the same game can jump from Pg13 to a damned r18+ because of “swimsuits”.
Well not really swimsuits but of course that “implied scene” which IIRC was basically from a very small conversation between the characters…but the swimsuit thing stuck =P
I found both copies at a game store and took a photo of both for posterity of the stupidity of OFLC
I don’t think this game will be an issue, have the devs been on forums and reading the rantings of ill-informed Australian gamers who don’t understand how the R18+ rating actually works, or did they look into it themselves and not understand it?
Even if they pre-edit or the CB bans it, that’s what mods are for. Within a day of it being released you can guarantee the cut content will be hacked back in. Censorship is a non issue in 2015. But I doubt the CB would ban this, it’s just violence. No drugs or rape references = OK.
Adults will be traumatised by smoking virtual pot for virtual rewards, but all those blood N guts? Nah, lets worry about virtual substances making a virtual character as high as a kite. Makes sense lol.
In the end, no one cares about the CB anymore. Pirate or DL via PSN/XBL. I can honestly say that the CB has zero influence or say in my entertainment choices. I used to get pissed off, until I realised just how little say they have in reality. What the hell does RC mean to me when I can DL said content for half the price and uncut, by turning on my PC or console? Hell, even if you can’t DL you can import or buy the imported version from an aussie ebayer who’s already imported. Also VPNs and buying RC version from Gametraders FTW.
Australian govt, when will you learn how useless you truly are?
Would Sodier of Fortune or Manhunt pass the R18+ rating today?
If it was looked at fairly I don’t think there’s anything actually in Manhunt that would get it banned… But realistically I’d fully expect them to spin a bullshit reason out of thin air simply because so many see the game as immoral, disgusting, etc.
After all, the people you have to keep happy first and foremost are the ones who’d never even play the games in the first place.
Soldier of Fortune I just remember as being gory though, and there’s plenty of those games still getting through today. Which is also why I doubt Killing Floor 2 will get denied.
Here in Australia we just haft to wait until the OLD FARTS on the classification board die! Could be another 30 year wait… .
Get your dosh here!