NEWS
by Mark Barley
No Mortal Kombat In Australia
The Australian Classifications Board has announced that the upcoming Warner Bros. fighter, Mortal Kombat, has been banned in the country.
Apparently the game has content that falls just outside of the Board's top classification rating, making it ban worthy.
The ban has been officially announced, and Gamepron apparently has a statement from Warner Bros. Entertainment Interactive Australia, saying,
“We are extremely disappointed that Mortal Kombat, one of the world’s oldest and most successful video games franchises, will not be available to mature Australian gamers.
“WBIE would not market mature content where it is not appropriate for the audience. We understand that not all content is for every audience, but there is an audience for mature gaming content and it would make more sense to have the R18+ classification in Australia.”
One way around being banned in a certain country is to re-tool the game to take away content that was deemed ban-able, but Warner Bros. have announced they may not do anything to the game. “WBIE would not market mature content where it is not appropriate for the audience. We understand that not all content is for every audience, but there is an audience for mature gaming content and it would make more sense to have the R18+ classification in Australia.”
“As a member of the iGEA, WBIE is reviewing all options available at this time,” the statement added, referring to Australia and New Zealand’s games industry association.
A "refused classification" rating means that the content of said game falls right outside of Australia's MA 15+ rating. Australia is currently discussing upping their highest classification to R18+ but has yet to do so.
Reasoning behind Mortal Kombat being banned include,
“The game contains violence that exceeds strong in impact and is therefore unsuitable for persons aged under 18 years to play,” the ruling notes.
“The Board notes that fatalities cannot be performed in Story mode and are unlikely to be performed frequently during gameplay; however, it is also noted that there are more than 60 fatalities available and they are an important component of the game.
“… [the fatalities] contain explicit depictions of dismemberment, decapitation, disembowelment and other brutal forms of slaughter. Despite the exaggerated conceptual nature of the fatalities and their context within a fighting game set in a fantasy realm, impact is heightened by the use of graphics which are realistically rendered and very detailed.”
Bumstown, population Australia.
“The Board notes that fatalities cannot be performed in Story mode and are unlikely to be performed frequently during gameplay; however, it is also noted that there are more than 60 fatalities available and they are an important component of the game.
“… [the fatalities] contain explicit depictions of dismemberment, decapitation, disembowelment and other brutal forms of slaughter. Despite the exaggerated conceptual nature of the fatalities and their context within a fighting game set in a fantasy realm, impact is heightened by the use of graphics which are realistically rendered and very detailed.”