This is getting a little repetitive: Silent Hill: Homecoming is the latest game to fall victim to Australia’s ban-happy censors.
GameSpot has the news that the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has refused to issue a classification for the upcoming game, thereby banning its sale in the country. The OFLC website doesn’t provide information about reasons for the ban, but an Atari spokesman said the censors took issue with “the high impact of Silent Hill’s violence,” citing examples such as “copious blood spray in the game, decapitations, partially dismembered corpses, numerous scenes of attacks, fights, torture and death.” Previous Silent Hill titles released in Australia have been rated MA15+, the country’s highest available rating for videogames.
Silent Hill: Homecoming was originally set for release in Australia in November, but the spokesman said those plans are now on hold “until early next year” while the publisher has discussions with Konami about possible changes that could be made to the game in order to satisfy Australian law. The game is coming out on September 30 in North America and October 30 in Europe for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
2008 hasn’t been the best year ever for gamers Down Under; Silent Hill: Origins is just the latest in a long and silly line of games to fall afoul of government censors. Other banned titles include Fallout 3, Shellshock 2 and Dark Sector, although Fallout was eventually edited to accommodate the delicate, ladylike sensibilities of Australian gamers, as was Grand Theft Auto IV.
