Australia has finally lifted the ban on DayZ.
Despite the fact that the game has been available for a few years, it had to run through the classification process again due to an official retail release. This is where the problems started.
By now, most gamers know the story behind the ban down under. Basically, the game was banned earlier this month after references to marijuana were found within the game’s code. The drug use wasn’t actually in the gameplay itself, just sitting happily in the code.
However, this didn’t sit well with the country’s Classification Board and they told developer Bohemia Interactive that it was game over.
Luckily for all you Australians, Bohemia made the necessary changes which has been rewarded with a new MA15+ rating. The game should be reinstated on digital platforms and be available to buy again imminently.
We can only assume that the references to marijuana being a health product have been removed, as the new ratings page does not feature any reference to Drug Use in its checkbox.
It turns out that this isn’t an isolated issue. The country has banned at least four video games in the last three months, reports Kotaku.
Other games include: We Happy Few, Hotline Miami, and the codenamed “Bonaire”, which is thought to be downloadable content for Red Dead Redemption 2.
We Happy Few and Hotline Miami had already been classified in Australia, just like DayZ, but due to re-releases or upcoming DLC, they had to be re-classified, and as a result were effectively banned.
You may remember that WHF was banned in 2018, then overturned. Well now it’s been banned again.
On the Classification Board’s website back in. 2018, the reason behind it was pretty straight-forward: “The computer game is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code, Computer Games Table, 1. (a) as computer games that ‘depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.'”
Will be interesting to see how this all pans out.
Featured image credit: Bohemia Interactive