Australia Bans Dead or Alive Dimensions

Following the illustrious example set by Sweden, Australia’s game censorship board has revoked the rating of Dead or Alive Dimensions, effectively banning it, accusing the game of containing “content not drawn to the board’s attention.”

The game was “voluntarily” withdrawn from sale in a number of European countries due to fears that it would fall foul of Sweden’s increasingly extreme child porn laws – as it is possible to peer up the skirt of fictional minors in the game’s figure mode.

Australian media brought this to the attention of the authorities, who had already rated the game PG for “mild violence and sexualised gameplay,” causing them to re-examine the title.

The game’s Australian version had already tactfully redacted the age of the “underage” characters to “N/A,” but it seems this was not enough, and the censors revoked its classification (apparently having not bothered to check the content of the game themselves), banning it from sale:

“Information provided to the board last week suggested that the game contained content not drawn to the board’s attention in the original classification application.

Dead Or Alive Dimensions is now unclassified and cannot be sold in Australia unless it is resubmitted for classification.”

Nintendo is apparently resubmitting in the hopes of getting a 15+ rating, the highest rating Australian authorities allow at present.

Australia has some of the most restrictive game censorship in the developed world, with the state absolutely determined to keep adult games out of the hands of adults and ensure they must turn to movies, novels, comics, the Internet and brothels for their fix of debauchery – as long as it does not happen to involve anyone who looks too young, of course.