Hogwarts Legacy And Dead Space Rated In Australia

Two of the biggest games of early 2023, Hogwarts Legacy and the Dead Space remake, have been rated by the Australian Classification board.

Hogwarts Legacy has copped an M rating, which isn’t all that surprising based on what we’ve seen of the game. The Classification board was fairly succinct in its assessment, assigning the game its M rating for “moderate impact themes” and providing no extra notes. Considering the ratings system is supposed to be a tool for helping consumers understand the kind of content in a given piece of media, “moderate impact themes” feels almost completely inscrutable. What they mean to say is “some of this content might be a bit full-on for the youngin’s.”

The board had no further notes to make, which is interesting given the scale that Hogwarts Legacy seems to be operating on and the sheer number of gameplay mechanics we’ve seen already.

It’s out on February 7, and JK Rowling is still a horrible terf.

EA’s Dead Space remake was also rated by the Classification Board this week, taking home an MA15+ rating. I’ll be honest: I’ve played Dead Space. I’m sure many of you reading this have played Dead Space. Knowing the kind of game that lies in store there, an MA rating surprised me. I thought for sure this one would cop a hard R18+. The primary reason given for the rating is “strong impact themes”, however Australian Classification does provide some notes to explain its rationale and why it considers the game’s violence to be part and parcel of its sci-fi horror themes.

Themes

The game contains thematic science fiction and horror content throughout, as well as depictions of suicide, the maiming of corpses and non-human demonic enemies.

Violence

The game contains firearm and other weapons-based combat, with frequent depictions of blood and injury detail, as well as gore. Combat is, at times, frenetic and its overall impact is heightened by thematic horror content.

Language

The game contains use of the word ‘f**k’, as well as other coarse language that can be accommodated at a lower classification level.

Online interactivity

The game contains no online interactivity.

So no online component confirmed, then.

Dead Space launches on January 27.