Australia to introduce R18+ for games

http://au.gamespot.com/video/6324916/r18-classification-interview-with-john-rau?tag=updates%3Beditor%3Ball%3Bcomment%3B1 From that link ..it seems to suggest R18+ will get its own guidelines..not MA15+ being lifted to R18+ for every states EXCEPT South Australia. Great news for me & everyone else not living in SA :P You are always gonna have RC, lol ..dunno why people think somehow R18+ means no RC

If they still are going to make Refused Classification games still stay in that category.Then this is just pretty much telling us we are giving you a bit of lean way but not much lean way. But we can only hope that isn't the case. If it still isn't up to standard then we can ask for a review. I mean porn is allowed here in Aus but why not Violent games. Take for Example Shadows Of The Damned that is a messed up game. Yet it got let into Australia with an MA15+ Rating. Don't get me wrong it is a great game. Just it is messed up in the things that go on in the game. So before we jump the gun & assume that RC games won't be allowed in AUS we have to see how this R18+ Rating will work first. Because lets face it us Australian Gamers aren't Idiots. We know what we want & how we want to be treated. So we will speak up if this doesn't turn out to be exactly what we wanted.

Great. Next thing they need to fix about games in Australia is the overpricing

The problem is as MicK765 said, they appear to simply be moving MA15 games up into the R18+ rating. This means games that are currently Refused Classification will still be. However we can hope that maybe it will allow for even a little more room to move within the category and maybe allow in some that werent previously. Its about time adults stopped getting dictated to on what they can and cant play!!

OH? well then neato, hope you get to enjoy a sweet dose of murderous glee with whatever games haven't been released there due to peoples overly sensitive and often WILDLY ignorant fears of videogame violence and gore.

@Skargamer games here are atleast 6000R. @Hatemachine25 dante's inferno is already out here.

i hope they keep the ma15 rating and just move some games up to r18 when needed, allow future games in that might have been banned with the current system and hurry up about it. i don't think they'll change the ratings of older games.

Is this just replacing MA15+ with R18+?? Because O'Connor said the Refused Classification will stay the same. To me it just seems like they are putting a sticker on some games that they deem to be R18+, but the games still RC will stay as RC

MK coming to Australia(hopefully) :D its been 10 years now gaming have a r18 :)

Good on you guys out there with your Great barrier reef, and lobsters the size of canoes, (regards to bill hicks lol) you can now join the rest of the world in sophomoric violence, gore, and the splattering of human meat products like hotdog chunks in a water balloon filled with red food dye. I suggest Dante's inferno for your first tastes of horrid gore, and murderous gameplay glory, it's a god of war rip off yes, and about as close to the actual works it's based off of as tang is a naturally formed product, but it's FUN brutality at it's best, that or the GoW series, with all the grunts and gestures befitting bears wearing stoves armed with chainsaws.

far out! about bloody time! :D im sick of not having an R18+ category! more gore in games now? hell yeahhhhh! ;)

Why not just make it G - Everyone T - 10-13+ M15+ - 15-17 R18+ - 18 and above I thought M was rated as 15+ in the past...unsure why they had to lower M to a lower age category. Either way Im not affected.

Grats to our aussie brothers and sisters in gaming. this is great news for the whole industry.

@virmire1980 HAHA you're spot on mate.

About bloody time...NSW pull ya head out of ya a*s and sign it off already.

Stop celebrating people, it's a fricken scam. They just rename MA15+ to R18+, while games that are currently banned stay banned.

wat a best news :D, Australians will happy playing

What happens to all the game that are already classified MA?

@mglas72 Yes I do the same BF3 for half its Australian price FTW, seriously why $120 for a game.

I'm not sure about abolishing MA15+ but anything to get it in the other states I'm soon 18 and it would be nice to get uncensored L4D2.

A victory for civil liberty, common sense, consumer rights, anti-censorship! :)

We've waited sooo long for this. Hopefully they come to their senses and allow the R18+ rating here in Australia :)

...and the fight continues. But we will prevail.

Can we ban adds, i hate martin and bam sucks bad usless product.

buy sexy beach from eb games

Look im hopeing it dont stuff up coz we have waited too long for this now plzzzzzzzzzz go all the way with it N.S.W

Finally, but I will only be convinced once I see it. I also wouldn't be too surprised if NSW come back and throw a spanner in the works.

I'll believe it when I see it.

@chump91 and whomever else thumbed him/her up, If you actually read the R18 draft guidelines for computer games and the current R18 guidelines for films, you'd see that that there is a rather large deviation from the current MA15 classifcation threshold to what's outlined in the draft. To provide a hint of the draft guideline, rapelay would fall under the extreme and what L4d2 was initially refused classification for will drop into the high impact R18 category. And in a more black and white case--where a game can either have or cant have--a game like Risen would not have been banned for drug use under what's hopefully intact within the draft guideline. I dont really understand why people are jumping the gun in cynicism and disappointment, because 1. We dont know how this will work in practice and 2. The final R18 guidelines havent been published yet. But from what I gather--Newscorp+ACL comments aside, it has given videogames alot more headroom within the classification system.

Good news for those in Australia. It's about time as well. Hopefully they'll get Mortal Kombat released there now, and games won't get banned as much.

This is NOT a long and complicated issue. It has only been complicated because of all the POLITICAL BULL that has been going on all the time from the Family groups and the Australian Christian Lobby wanting to establish their own Nanny State over everyone else. I am not even confident that we would have an R18+ by the end of the year because you know who would want to come back into the political debate just to stop it.

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!

good news guys this is true it was just on the tv so inbeteen 3-5 months we get R18

About time. Means we can buy Mortal Kombat off the shelves at grossly over inflated prices. Or we can use the internet to buy it now at about half the cost at which EB would sell it at.

@Skargamer 2500 Rs!? That's kinda cheap in comparison to a brand new game in the UK or US

I've got only one question: when are the next elections? Are they before or after any meaningful laws come in effect? If before, I say abstain from rewarding them with your vote, otherwise they'll keep the political theater up forever and you'll never see the legislation you wanted, only empty promises each year (because they never cease to work, and thus why cut a weapon you can use time and time again?).

@Frame_Dragger So we meet again.... Let's take this for example: GTA IV was initally released as a censored product in AU. Soon, the uncut version was sold but was rated as an MA15+ Are you telling me that GTA IV (which was extreme in explicit content) can be surpassed in terms of inappropriate content, thus making the R18+ rating viable. It just seems like an unneccesary rating - especially when games such as Dead Space and Gears of War (both high in violence) were released unedited to the market with MA15+ ratings. This R18+ rating is just as absurd as the AO rating in America (M is for 17 year olds, and AO is for 18 year olds - they're telling me that 1 year age gap is gonna make a difference). My point is that most titles have made it in AU without being banned. The select few games which were banned or censored are probably censored in other countries too so the need for such a rating doesn't seem so appropriate despite it seeming like it's giving freedom to gamers.

As badass as the Aussie's are, they've got a real Nanny State going on over there...

@emperiox It's 2500 Rs for every new game in India. Consider yourself lucky. T.T

Think it took 'em long enough?

australia is crazy.

Good news for Australians!

Damn, it's about time.

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Great news for Australia.Censorship sucks!

Congrats, Australia! Welcome to 1994. :roll:

about bloody time. Now we just have to wait the two plus years it will take for them to actually get it set up. BTW you were great on the news tonight Laura.

I'm glad for Australia.

Welcome to the 21st century Australia.

Good work Australia :)