Hatred, the game kicking up controversy for being all about killing civilians running away from you, has been blocked from purchase in Germany and Australia. The region lock is self-imposed..
In the top-down, twin-stick shooter, a hateful protagonist goes on a “genocide crusade”, trying to kill many civilians as possible. The game features graphic execution animations, and environmental destruction.
While initially stating its opposition to censorship, developer Destructive Creations has enforced the region lock both on Steam and its own website.
The studio has typically been honest with its following in the past, even about its own mistakes. But with no mention of the region lock apart from a one-line notice on its purchasing page, this particular stuff-up has been swept under the rug.
As of this morning, trying to navigate to Steam’s Hatred page will return this notice for Australians:
The notice on Destructive Creations’ purchasing page is as follows:
While the Classification Board has no record of a submission, it would be far from the first time an online game has been sold in Australia without being classified.
Destructive Creations has stated that the game is a response to the current wave of political correctness in gaming, and has revelled in controversy since the release of its first tralier — but we may have finally found a controversy it wants to shy away from.
Update
Destructive Creations has self-imposed the region lock, both on Steam and on their website. It appears the proper channels weren’t attempted, or indeed, doing what most games do and simply releasing without worrying about it.
Shortly after the above post, a developer on the Destructive Creations forum suggested that those affected use a VPN.
Kotaku commenter woody28 asked Destructive Creations on its Facebook page if it would be attempting a release in Australia, and received this response:
Thanks, @maelkann!
Comments
111 responses to “Update: Hatred Is Now Region Locked In Australia”
Oh, for God’s sake. I was one of the very few people looking forward to this, and Australia has to block it. Suppose I’ll buy a Steam key from another country, like I did with Hotline Miami 2.
Read the article again, there’s no record of it even being submitted here, so no one’s blocking it.
Oh. I just read the title and came down to rage about it. My bad.
Rage against the dev/Steam. They’ve chosen to not attempt release here or Germany.
Lol it was funny, cause I was wondering how it didn’t get banned…and now we know.
Read the article again with the reason at the bottom; Dev couldn’t be bother making a classification aplication.
Did you reply to the wrong comment?
Exactly the type of personality I expect is excited to play Hatred.
Stereotypes are the best, aren’t they?
Exactly the sort of sanctimonious personality I’d expect blahblah – how about we break the cycle by just not starting it in the first place?
I know a way to buy banned games on Steam without too much dicking around.
I felt pretty clever about figuring it out, but I’m afraid if I get it out there, Valve will fix it.
There’s a website I use that can give me keys from the UK, which is handy in situations like this.
Banning it just adds fuel to the fire. I wasn’t terribly interested either way, but I don’t agree with banning it. Welcome to the 90’s, where video games are corrupting your children and causing evil in the world.
From the sounds of the article it hasn’t been banned at all, the devs just couldn’t be bothered taking the risk of it being banned
Ah, I misread that part. Still a bit sad they won’t take the chance because it’d likely be rc’d anyway. Australia’s track record with video game classification would be a fairly good indicator.
The game doesn’t look any more violent than GTA V or Mortal Kombat X, I doubt it’d get refused classification.
True, classification has surprised me in the past with what they’ve let through, but if anything they’ve proven they’re gloriously inconsistent.
Postal and Postal 2 were both refused classification. From what I read Hatred has a similar level of violence in it. I think Hatred being refused classification is a very safe bet. I don’t blame the developer at all. However, I’d strongly encourage people who want to play it to do so via a VPN, since that is not illegal.
Postal and Postal 2 came long before we actually had an R18+ Category.
Yeah, I know, but from what the censorship board has been doing, it seems that they’ve just bumped up everything that would otherwise have been given a MA15+ into the R18+ category. I still think that Postal and Postal 2 would be RC’ed today.
The act of importing the game via the VPN most likely breaches customs regulations related to obscenity: the regulations essentially state that anything classified RC, or that would be RC if classified counts as obscene.
It’s highly unlikely you’d actually get caught though: it’d be even more difficult to detect than RC games in the post.
That’s just it. I don’t think that downloading a game counts as ‘importing’. Under the current legislation, they are looking at ‘publications and other goods’. Goods is defined as ‘movable personal property’. Quite apart from the fact that customs wouldn’t get involved in a downloading case, I haven’t found any law against possessing violent material (such as there is for child porn, for example). The only thing I can find is a criminal law applying to publication (or sale/distribution/exhibiting etc) of indecent articles, which includes electronic media. I still think if you download Hatred via VPN onto a private computer which is password protected, the police would be able to do nothing unless they could prove an intention to disseminate the game to third parties by some means. This is NSW by the way.
I could buy postal 2 on the german steam store right now though.
It would be refused based on the context. Shooting unarmed civilians as the, and I use this very loosely, point of the game.
It has nothing to do with the violence. It would be banned because of the game’s underlying theme.
It would probably land up in the RC pile anyway so the developers decided to save money.
I had no interest in buying this game, but now that they are saying that I am not allowed to buy it, I really want it
Indeed.
That’s the developer’s plan; make people think the game was banned (when they didn’t actually submit it for classification in the first place) then wait for the free headlines to translate into sales. They’re milking the controversy cow, and people are lining up for it.
I think it will translate into more piracy instead of sales. I haven’t taken up the devs offer to help myself to HL2, but I’ve been tempted.
I know this dev hasn’t given us the same (poor) advice, but I know some will use this as an excuse anyway.
So we decided to block access to the game in two countries that the statement actually meant something.
I agree with the idea of what you’re saying. Based on their responses, however, it would do more harm than good.
With the R18+ rating still being new the pollies are going to take any chance they can to enforce tighter restrictions. If this was submitted and released it would draw maximum exposure to the negative side of the R18+. If this was going to be handled by a dev team that cared then I would be on board for them to submit it.
Their current attitude suggests they wouldn’t be willing to work with the Classification Board and would instead just ramp up the violence, leading to pollies and the general public being repulsed and clamoring for tighter restrictions
Stupid Devs.
Many a title has been sold on steam to AU customers to either never be classified or classified down the track. (you do not have to get a rating for a game on steam to sell to us)
Far as i can tell it would pass as R18+ due to high-impact violence. (no sex violence or drug use?)
You can get someone from Europe to gift a copy to you, Or buy a cd-key and activate via VPN tho 🙂 (it is not ip run-locked so it runs fine)
This is what pirating is for. Who cares about Australian laws and it’s poxy obsession with censorship anymore? It has no practical effect if you have a brain.
Note: It’s not illegal to posses unrated games OR banned one’s. This is simply the devs being ignorant and paranoid. O well, no money for them! I’ll just DL elsewhere.
Oh and since the game contains no sexual violence or drugs, it wouldn’t have been bsnned anyway. Stupid developers lolz.
Reread the article maybes? it was never submitted for classification – the dev didnt even try
Even better reason to pirate then, it’s the Dev’s own fault, not our govt’s.
They want you to use a VPN and buy it to stick it to the Political Overcorrectness Police state. You’re supposed to buy this out of protest as a way of sticking it to the establishment.
They don’t want you to pirate it, because stealing is wrong and not a political protest.
Well that’s the game they’re playing.
It is in Western Australia.
Ugh yeah I remember reading something about that. Conservatives really are the pits. Hows melbourne looking these days? 🙁
Completely over run with the Apex gang running amok with home invasions and car jackings :p
Bless your heart….
Haven’t really felt this “wave of political correctness” they’re talking about.
Also, saw some gameplay of Hatred on GameSpot the other day. Looks reeeeeally boring.
It’s a marketing hook.
The more people complain about the game, the more certain players will thrive on the response.
Tell kids they can’t have something or tell them it’s too extreme and they will fall over themselves trying to get it.
(Hell, tell anyone really)
Got to give credit to the makers of Hatred, they’ve played their audience and critics like a fiddle.
First they make an anti-political correctness game to get a reaction from the moral guardians and cause a moral panic. This gets their audience worked up in, what I like to call, a moral panic panic. It gets them attention that they otherwise wouldn’t have got.
Now, they’ve blocked their own game from sale in two countries notorious for censorship. It’s clever because people who only read the headlines will automatically assume that it’s more censorship at work.
Best of all, by doing it this way, they’ve saved themselves the cost of submitting the game for classification while still getting the same effect.
Clever.
The fact that the game looks thoroughly mediocre doesn’t matter at all. This is pure marketing.
Considering the connections some devs seem to have to white supremacist, anti-Muslim and neo-Nazi groups, manipulating publicity seems like it’d be a fairly common tool in their arsenal.
Really? any article on this sounds like something Fox news would love.
IIRC one developer “liked” a page on facebook about some party with unpopular opinions. That’s the extent of it.
People like the guilt by association thing because Hatred’s a rather unfriendly game and “who cares, it’s just Hatred”?
It’s not guilt by association. People can associate with whoever they like, it’s what they believe that matters. Normal people don’t tend to like and support racist hate groups unless they have some common ground.
The whole thing was covered when the story first broke. Various members of the dev team support or were associated with groups like Obóz Narodowo Radykalny, a radical right group with anti-Jewish sentiments who have used the Nazi salute at rallies before; Żołnierze wyklęci, an anti-communist militia during WW2; and the Polish Defence League, a nationalist anti-Muslim group. A lot of the evidence that surfaced at the time came from the Facebook profiles of several developers, which were subsequently made private after it blew up.
Interesting cheers guys.
You’re right; people do automatically assume censorship, including the first two posters on this comment feed (not counting replies). Game Theory did a video on this kind of marketing, and it’s pretty much on the money methinks. http://youtu.be/GWlrJq8yi2w
No Dollars to advertise? Manufacture internet controversy. Now everyone is desperate to get it.
Basic Reverse Psychology. Like telling a 4yo they can’t have any Broccoli, and than tell them they won’t like it and sure enough they keep asking for it.
Yeah it feels like another clever marketing stunt to me.
The media will advertise the ‘controversy’ for free and even if they dig through to the fact that the devs censored their own game, they’ll still cover the story for the shock value / clicks.
Clever indeed.
Actually I asked the devs on their fb page and the answer I got was along the lines of:
“It won’t be submitted to Australia because everything there gets banned, so who cares.”
So it’s nice to know how much they actually give a crap about the Aussies looking forward to this.
Don’t feel bad though, check out the youtube gameplay for yourself. You’ll see it’s bland and will get boring after about 5 mins anyway. Or, torrent it and see for yourself if you wish.
Wasn’t able to find that comment from the devs on their page. Was it PM? Would love to grab a screenie.
sorry i asked them on the 28/02 that’s probably why you can’t find it.
here you go.
http://postimg.org/image/h3yrxtqrz/
I’ve updated the story with that included. Thanks for capping that 🙂
no probs.
Wait…so they refused to submit it in February? Why is this a story now?
It’s not really surprising, especially since it’s also not available in Germany. Until the Government started realising we were adults that could make our own decisions (ie. We got an R18+ rating) Australia was usually given the German version (eg. L4D2) because of their strict content laws about blood and violence.
So the most likely reason for the dev’s decision is either they aren’t aware of the changes to our classification system or they are and have found that the classification guidelines would never allow the game anyway. Or it’s our prohibitive classification costs. Or it’s another facet of their statement about political correctness in gaming and how Australia seems to be pretty pedantic about it.
Must be a ‘top down twin stick’ thing, ala HM2. Oh well, the devs sound like dicks and their mantra of controversy > quality really shits me.
You’ll all be enraged, pirate/VPN the game play it for an hour or so and go “mehhh, same ole same ole”
Stop being so worked up about this game. The lesser the publicity it gets the better. Just let the game pass. The devs are just trying to make it big with all the PR it is getting for being the most violent manslaughter game.
The game will be out and the review will be mediocre but they will sell millions because of the controversy and the PR they are getting. Just let it slide away….
After reading the update, all i can say these guys really are dicks. if they actually stood for for their beliefs they wouldnt block sales to us and germany on their own webstore. Running with Scissors actually set up their own web store before steam was even a thing just so that they could sell their games to us and other countries that banned them.
These developers are just plain aresholes who shouldnt even be supported
It costs money to make a submission, as they are pretty sure it’ll get rejected, then understandably why waste the money?
its more the attitude of the developers themselves. Hotline miami 2 was banned, the dev response to customers affected was to pirate it if they couldnt get it legally. the developers of postal set up their own webstore long before steam came around just so that those customers in places where the game was banned were able to legaly purchase a copy of their games.
There are two ways to say things, one is tactfully.
Due to our tight budget we can’t really afford the risk of submitting the game to Australian Classification if there’s a good chance it will be rejected as we have no way of recouping those losses. We’ve read through the guidelines and we’re thinking it would probably land in RC category.
And without any Tact
We won’t submit it to Australian Classification because they’ll ban it anyway, so who cares?
Edited from their actual reply to be more statement like rather than answering a question.Well.. with a crappy attitude like that, it’s one less developer I need to bother with.
To be honest, I’m in the minority here by thinking this is a GOOD thing. I LOATHE this game. It is vile. It has no reason and, if I had my say, no right to exist. It is a so-called “game” that exists for one reason only- to let you simulate the experience of being a soulless, evil, sadistic psychopathic butcher. It is a game SOLELY of interest to wannabe psychokillers, designed to pander exclusively to them, and DON’T say “I’m not a wannabe murderer and I’m interested in it because I will call you a liar to your face- if you weren’t a psychopath in the making, this piece of shit would have NOTHING to offer you. It is very literally what Jack Thompson and his ilk have attempted to misrepresent violent games as all along- it is literally a murder simulator, no different than how banned Japanese porn game Rapelay is a rape simulator. Fuck this game and any psycho who wants to play it. No apologies.
Don’t like it, don’t buy it, easy. Just keep your your shitty generalisations and opinions to yourself next time.
Why should I? My opinions are better than those of anyone who thinks this game has any value because that means I’m not a snarfing sociopath.
Go home, your bridge misses you.
A Personal dislike of something is no reason to ban it.
At the end of the day you can do similar things in GTA, and that’s probably going to be a more fun game.
To be fair, there’s a difference between being able to do something and it being the express objective of the game. I think there are only a scant handful of missions in GTA5 where killing innocents is required. The torture mission and the jury assassination mission are the only ones that come to mind off the top of my head.
I don’t mean objectives I mean you can just start killing people randomly because you want to.
There is absolutely no correlation between this game and GTA at all.
Seriously there’s none huh? In GTA 1 & 2 (the old top down versions), they used to have missions called Killing Sprees where you where given a weapon and a target number of people to mow down for no real reason other than you picked up a Killing Spree. So yeah GTA does have a correlation with this game.
Interesting enough back in those days GTA was a lot less immersive interactive crime Drama and a lot more arcade action, and puns. I used to love to do the “Special Mission” where you jacked a Bus and found it had a bomb that armed after you hit a certain speed, and to prevent the bomb exploding you had to speed around the city not dropping below a certain speed. I think it was a reference to a movie, I think it was called “The Bus that could not Slow down”.
It is interesting that you lambast Jack Thompson for his jump-to-conclusions about games, in your own jump-to-conclusions comments about gaming and psychology.
The game itself sounds incredibly droll, but it is a large and erroneous leap to conclude that anyone/everyone that plays it is a psychopath in waiting. If that were the case, the authorities (and the mental health community) would be highly alarmed at the popularity of the Hitman series, in which most of the of targets are defenceless civilians.
If your concern is about murder simulators, and by using your yardstick to measure the psychotic quotient, then I would suggest you avoid these other, quite popular titles:
Battlefield series – all you do is murder people. All of them.
Call of Duty series – where you murder anyone who isn’t white and/or American
Medal of Honour series – murdering all the people you missed in CoD
You should probably steer clear of TV too, especially Breaking Bad, Dexter and Sex in the City, because you’ll simply indulge in your sick fantasies of being a drug dealer, serial murderer or a gorgeously attractive sex queen.
You monster.
Also, fun fact: One can be a psychopath and still not want to hurt and kill people.
Well that was a stupid and oblivious comparison. In the 3 military game series you cited you are a SOLDIER. You’re not playing it for the fantasy of going on a killing spree, you’re playing it for the fantasy of being a soldier.
And TV isn’t about fulfilling a fantasy at all because it is -get this- a NON-INTERACTIVE MEDIUM. You are not encouraged to pretend you are Walter White or Dexter. So you’re comparing apples to watermelons. Try again.
Playing a Video game and watching Dexter don’t really change how I feel about Murder and Drug Manufacture. Both I consider bad.
Sorry, the tongue in cheek approach went flying over your head, so I’ll use simple words, just for you.
You made strong comment on the game being a murder simulator, seemingly oblivious to the fact most of the hugely popular FPS games could likewise be classified as such. My point, which was again re-enforced by you, thank you, was about jumping to conclusions.
Q: What difference between shooting someone as a soldier and shooting them as a civilian ?
A: Absolutely nothing. And in real life,if, as a soldier you have departed from the Rules of Engagement, then you have little legal protection, and can expect to be charged accordingly.
So, the act of violence has not actually changed, and in the games we play, it has simply been (weakly) justified due to the professional remit of your avatar.
For the vast majority of players, myself included, that is all we need to happily mow down hundreds upon hundred of people without concern or moral conflict, as we go about liberating the free world from whatever new threat has emerged.
We’ve still killed hordes of people, and we’re not psychopaths. Are you starting to understand this very simple concept ?
I’d further disagree that you’re playing the game to be a soldier, because those games bear as much likeness to soldiering as Robocop does to policing.
You’re not going into those games to be a soldier, you’re going in to beat the odds, albeit with the odds hugely stacked in your favour.
As mentioned before, being a soldier is simply the thin justification for what happens next.
If you’re actually wanting something close to a soldier simulator, go play Operation Flashpoint/VBS/Arma 3, where you’ll still get all the shooty bits, you’ll just be a lot less bulletproof.
And assertion that TV does not fufill fantasy is just wrong, irrespective of the interactiveness of the medium.
People may not want to be a drug dealer/serial murderer, but they do want to (safely) experience the dark side of humanity, because that is and always has been, human nature.
Fantasy (noun) the faculty or activity of imagining impossible or improbable things.
Notice it is not limited to being the protagonist.
Oh, and I think you mean obvious, not oblivious.
Lol good. Could not have happened to a shittier game.
not much of a region lock…went to their website…got a copy within 5 miutes. $25…is a bit steep for what will no doubt be a fairly forgettable shooter.
So why did you snarfing do it?
hmm I dont blame the devs. I believe their read is right on the situation.
If they’re an indie company- it means they have to take time out of development and support to make a submission to the government of a country that is a nanny state.
1 of 2 likely outcomes is going to happen- it will either be rejected outright, or will require significant re-work to be able to be sold here. For such a small population- the cost of doing that versus reward isnt worth it.
They sell a digital only product, they could easily follow the lead of all the other indie companies on Steam that sell games without having applied for a rating from the Australian Classification Board.
“In the top-down, twin-stick shooter, a hateful protagonist goes on a “genocide crusade”, trying to kill many civilians as possible. The game features graphic execution animations, and environmental destruction.”
That’s HORRIBLE! O_O What sick and twisted person would play that let alone make it…
Arrrr, mi mateys!
Meh, game looks boring and pointless.
Don’t really give a shit about the hype.
The game looks pretty bad, no plot, bog-standard gameplay, terrible dialogue; I just don’t see the appeal.
Ehhh, wasn’t gonna play it anyway, but a shame for ppl who wanted to….
Snarf ’em.
pshhh what a fucking joke.
Yeah, the last screenshot has done it for me. No chance of getting this game, or any other game from them going forward.
Normally I’m the type to rush out and get any game that is RC’d (don’t like being told I can’t have something :P), but this is just a matter of the dev not giving two shits about us down here. Screw them then lol
No you don’t seem to understand your supposed to want it more now because you can’t have it. They are using Reverse Psychology and Internet Rumourmills to advertise with no money down.
Exactly. This move is purely for publicity and drumming up manufactured hype, just like they’ve been doing the entire time since they started publicising it. It looks like a pretty subpar game to me personally, and I suspect they know that, so they’re hoping to get hype and controversy sales before people realise it’s actually just a crappy game.
I’ll admit, it did work on me. I’m the type that will buy a game just because I’m told I’m not allowed to play it. Back before we had the R rating, I’d buy anything I could that wasnt’ released here, and I was almost ready to do it for this, even knowing the gameplay isn’t that good. That comment from the devs though… screw them and there game lol
I thought Australia only hated Sex and Drugs so wouldn’t this get through if they did submit it?
with a response like that on Facebook… fuck the devs and fuck this game :\
As stated by other people, if you really want it that badly you should be able to use a VPN (not that I even know how any of that works) to purchase it.
Also, I believe if it was submitted to the ACB it would’ve been RC’d without a doubt. But, it’s pretty shitty that developers such as these have the attitude of “meh, it’s not gonna pass, so we won’t even bother”. Although I can sort of see where they’re coming from. Why go to all that effort and waste the money to submit it when it has zero chance of passing anyway. It’s easier just to block it from sale so they can avoid getting into trouble over it.
Then again, as at least one other has stated, it could be a sly marketing ploy. We all want what we can’t have, so by blocking it they’ve generated a lot more interest in it and they’ll probably get a lot more sales by people using VPN’s than if they had gone through the proper channels and it had passed classification.
I think it’s the attitude, you can say that you feel your not going to pass ratings and that you don’t want to spend money with a high possibility of no return. Or you can do what they did and say Australia can’t have it, who cares.
I pre-ordered this game with a shirt.
I WANT THIS GAME NOW!
#TheGovernment
What has the government got to do with it?
Yeah, lost all respect for these devs now, they obviously don’t respect Australian customers in the slightest…
Just finished playing it for 30 minutes. It’s got 10 minutes of gameplay in it at worst, 30 minutes in it at best. Seriously.
It’s also way overhyped in terms of violence. I’ve actually seen far, far more violent games (MKX). Sure you kill civilians but it just feels tame in the end somehow. I dunno, I guess some people will be offended, but in the end, this company played the general public like a fiddle, talk about an overrated, overhyped game.
While I was playing, a few things struck me. Nice graphics but nothing great. Decent animation, smooth controls. But the constant ‘gritty talk’, feels like an angsty 13 year olds power fantasy, seriously. It’s ridiculous beyond words lol. “Im angry with the world and I want to destroy it!” it essentially comes down to. It’s ridiculous and not even in the good way. Play it via nefarious means and you’ll see what I mean.
In the end?
4 out of 10.
Torrents it is then!
oh no how am i going to be able to play this game and hotline miami 2 now…
oh wait, look, theres a pirate ship.
Even if they submitted this game for classification the game would not only be Refused Classification on the spot Australia would blanket ban it meaning no censored version would be allowed. This is the reason Australia has the highest percentage of Piracy in the world. This BS Nanny State Censor and ban anything for adults as they treat adults like 8yo’s here. a ****ing pathetic act from a ****ing pathetic government if you ask me.
Do what you want cause a pirate is free…… wait devs blocked it here? screw them, not even worth a priate
Its a wise move from the devs. There is not a possibility it would receive a rating in Germany. 100% chance of being banned. Almost certain Australia would too, as the violence might be similar to other games, its the themes that are extremely high impact, and even with our r rating we have RC for a whole lot less. Submitting to the classification board isn’t free. So why waste the money. If this was for publicity they would have submitted it and let it be banned.
Unless you’re like me and live in the backwards state known as Western Australia. Yes, it is illegal to posses unrated/banned games, but only in Western Australia.
We (Australia) fight for years to have an R18+ rating, finally its approved and they just say cant be bothered they’ll just ban it anyway. thanks guys.
even with the new R18+ rating the OFLC still bans games all the time. I think it was only introduced to make more games that are MA15+ in other countries R18+ here and still ban many games that are R18+ in other countries, usually now because of “Sex and/or Drugs in relation to incentive or reward” or “References to Narcotics” or “Sexual Violence”. For whatever reason they state for banning a video game, it is just a covert way to tighten censorship rather than relaxing it.
Put simple Australia is still the backwards Nanny State it’s always been and always will be.
Although the Hatred devs self-imposed this ban, its because they knew that the OFLC would have given this game a big fat RC no matter how much they censored it, due to the themes.
On a side note if the devs recommend buying with a VPN, get it from the devs page and not Steam. Valve have invested lots of resources into identifying users using VPN’s and will terminate said users entire steam account if using the Steam Store on a VPN IP address. That’s quite a risk if you have a 10 year account with hundreds of games on it. They use similar means as Netflix for identifying VPN or Proxies, but rather than giving an error message for trying to connect to the store on a vpn, Valve take harsher action. Valve are also cracking down on cross-region gifting instantly placing both sender and recipient under investigation, closely monitoring their accounts and taking action if they so desire, so don’t buy a steam gift on Kinguin or G2A, get a Steam Key instead and activate it yourself, as if you get too many gifts you can get in more trouble than simply having the game just being removed from ones library.
Valve says this harsh action (terminating entire Steam accounts) is to deter users bypassing regional price restrictions (dodging the OzTax) but I believe thay also do this as they don’t want the federal government of a country taking legal action against them and blocking the use of Steam and marking it as an “Illegal site” as this can have a bigger detriment to their financial “bottom line” than a few aussies dodging the OzTax. This would also effect every aussie that has a steam account, like what happened in Crimea when the US put those sanctions over the russian led invasion. No one in Crimea could access their Steam Accounts or contact Steam Support, just a login error saying their country is blocked due to sanctions and a polite wording of “if you don’t like it, stiff ****”
“Yes, it is illegal to posses unrated/banned games, but only in Western Australia.”
You’re forgetting about the NT areas affected by the Intervention, as well.