Australia To Receive Edited Version of GTA IV
Some of you might remember the story last week regarding the possible reform of Australia's OFLC (Office Of Film And Literature Classification) to introduce the R18+ Rating in video games. But it seems that the meeting fell flat on it's feet, judging by the latest round in the what seems to be ever ongoing GTA/OFLC saga.
It has been revealed that Rockstar has decided to go the safe route and is publishing a "edited" version of it's upcoming blockbuster GTA IV for Australian Audiences. While Rockstar are being very tight lipped regarding the issue, I bet more than anything the focus has been on toning down violence which has never gone down well with the OFLC (The fact that even a custey game like Eternal Sonata can earn an 'M' rating for "mild violence" is proof enough). The game will see a MA15+ Rating when it hits Aussieland (the highest possible for multimedia products), interesting when compared to the NA's and UK's M17+ and R18+ ratings respectively.
Rockstar and the Classification board have never really seen eye to eye when it comes to the GTA series; GTA III and San Andreas were pulled from retail for sexual material (both were released again later on, but with the objectionable content edited, in particular the infamous "hot-coffee" mod) and Vice City saw several alterations before release here.
It's sad that's it's gotten to the point where developers and publishers are starting to become intimidated by the OFLC. I'm a strong believer that we should not have our free choice taken away in order to protect a minority whose responsibility for making the right choices game wise should be in the hands of the retailer and parent/s. Though I doubt the changes will be huge (Surely Rockstar would've expected such a thing to occur during development), it's a major disappointment. We'll keep you posted on what changes there are as we find them out.
A word to the wise,the PS3 is region free... Just saying...
GTA IV Edited For Australia [Screenplay]
Mr.Mog!
Posted to Video Games on 4 April 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: Australia, Censorship, GTA IV
All I have to say is that I'm glad that I don't live there, cause honestly, thats a huge disappointment.
Do you how I can tell whether or not a copy is edited? I live in New Zealand, and I'm not sure if we'd get the Australian version or the British one.