It's been a lengthy battle for adult gamers in Australia, but they may finally be approaching the home stretch, Gamespot AU reports. In case you don't know, they currently have no video game rating equivalent to our Mature or other countries' R18+, and any game that would receive a rating higher than R15 is effectively banned.
Former South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson had blocked any changes to the misguided policy for decades, but when he stepped down in 2010, it became only a matter of time. Now the new Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Jason Clare, plans to introduce a bill to create an R18+ rating at Parliament's next session in February.
It seems ridiculous that adults can't play the games they want, but Australia's not the only country that pulls this crap—China and Germany have similar issues with violent titles. Hopefully we'll look back on these struggles as ancient history in a few years. Thoughts? Drop 'em in the comments or on Twitter.
Gloveson January 24th, 2012 at 07:46 PM
Holy shit, I'm moving to Australia from Ireland in March and I had no fucking clue that you couldn't play Mature rated games there........praise jebus this bill will be passed by the time i'm there!
Kevin January 29th, 2012 at 07:29 AM
There's no hint of sarcasm in the comment above^