The Australian government’s Classification Board has refused to classify Outlast 2, effectively banning the game.
If you’re an Australian gamer who’s hoping to dive into Outlast 2 when it releases later this month, we’ve got some bad news for you. The upcoming survival horror game from Red Barrels is the latest title to be banned down under.
In a ruling issued yesterday, the Board said that Outlast 2 does the following: “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.”
In September of last year, the Outlast 2 demo was handed a R18+ rating by the same board for “high impact violence, blood and gore, strong themes, moderate language, and mild nudity.” But the full game adds a scene that contains what the board calls “implied sexual violence.” The Board goes on to say that such scenes, “cannot be accommodated within the R18+ category,” which led to the refusal of classification.
That’s not necessarily the end of the road for Outlast 2, though. In its report, the Board noted that it “is of the opinion that without the depiction of implied sexual violence listed above, the game can be accommodated within the R18+ classification.” That means that if Red Barrels is willing to change that scene, it could resubmit the game for classification and possibly get it to market.
There’s an excerpt from the Board’s report over on Kotaku Australia, but if you’re wary of spoilers, you may want to give it a pass.
Outlast 2 is heading to PC, PS4, and Xbox One on April 25 – just not in Australia.
