lost
01-06-2009, 01:37 PM
Australia, one of the more ban-happy countries in our wonderful world, has decided to reverse it's decision on the excellent Silent Hill: Homecoming. GameSpot (www.gamespot.com) is reporting that the game has now been classified but with possible edits being on the cards.
An update to the Classification Board's online rating database dated January 5, 2009 now clearly lists Silent Hill: Homecoming as conforming to the maximum MA15+ rating for video games, making it legal to be sold in Australia. The site lists the rating as "revised," with consumer advice identifying strong horror violence and themes.
At the time of the ban last year, an Atari spokesperson (Atari is the local distributor of the Konami game) confirmed to GameSpot AU that the board's grievances were with the game's high-impact violence, copious blood spray, decapitations, partial corpse dismemberment, and depictions of torture. The spokesperson also indicated that the distributor's intention was to resubmit the game "early next year," after discussing the feasibility of making edits to the game for the region. An Atari spokesperson was unavailable at time of print today to confirm what, if any, changes have been made to the Australian version of the game to pass Aussie censors.
More information and analysis over at the original source. (http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6202730.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6202730)
The game is really great and edits to the blood volumes wouldn't affect things much. Decapitations, torture and dismemberment being removed would.
An update to the Classification Board's online rating database dated January 5, 2009 now clearly lists Silent Hill: Homecoming as conforming to the maximum MA15+ rating for video games, making it legal to be sold in Australia. The site lists the rating as "revised," with consumer advice identifying strong horror violence and themes.
At the time of the ban last year, an Atari spokesperson (Atari is the local distributor of the Konami game) confirmed to GameSpot AU that the board's grievances were with the game's high-impact violence, copious blood spray, decapitations, partial corpse dismemberment, and depictions of torture. The spokesperson also indicated that the distributor's intention was to resubmit the game "early next year," after discussing the feasibility of making edits to the game for the region. An Atari spokesperson was unavailable at time of print today to confirm what, if any, changes have been made to the Australian version of the game to pass Aussie censors.
More information and analysis over at the original source. (http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6202730.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6202730)
The game is really great and edits to the blood volumes wouldn't affect things much. Decapitations, torture and dismemberment being removed would.