Seriously, this could be the pooest news i have heard in a long time... For Australia Anyway.

www.thegeekz.com.au <---- Sauce #1

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/07/god-of-war-iii-developer-wary-of-being-banned-in-australia/ <- Sauce #2

Wasn't Dead Space released in Australia?

"dude Austrailia is getting gayer by the year. They are becoming worse than Germany  "

I had a feeling this would happen. Something about disemboweling centaurs and ripping heads off just doesn't sit right with the OFLC.

Wow that is pretty ridiculous. It makes me appreciate America, anything can pretty much get released here.

Ew. I agree, they're getting pretty ridiculous.

Wow, that fucking blows.  I'm glad I don't live in Australia.

so my guessing is if it is banned they are either going to go the manhunt 2 route of censoring?

or the doom green blood scenario?

All the bannings would bother me less if they weren't so apparently random about it. It'd still bother me. But less.
Ninja Gaiden down here we lack decapitations and at least some blood splatter if I recall right.
Ninja Gaiden 2 comes out with limbs flying everywhere and an amount of blood that would make an early Mortal Kombat game green with envy and nobody says shit.

Sometimes it feels like that whole group was set up to give some people a cushy job playing video games and they occasionally feel the need to pick one and ban it or strip it of content to justify their existence and keep getting paid.

I could ramble on more being all blahblahblah shitsux, blahblahblah parents should be the ones overseeing what their kids are playing, blahblahblah but it's all been said before.
Sucks though.

It'll still come out just probably toned down.
It's strange that this happened, I don't remember GOW or GOW2 having this problem.

They can just import a copy. Still, their classifications board continues to suck balls.

Those damn video games corrupting our youth!!! 

Umm this is just the devs thinking out loud. The OFLC never banned dead space and only initially banned fallout due to the drug use (originally the names of the drugs were crack or meth, rather than psycho or jet). There is no reason for Australia to ban God of war 3, ninja gaiden 2 was released without incident, as was gears 2. The OFLC only restricts games which show realistic excess violence (the reservoir dogs game was banned because you could shove a cigar into a restrained man's eye) or the use of drugs without impairment, (drugs are allowed to be in the game or narrative, like GTA or the getaway, but not allowed when the player is rewarded for their use, thus why narc was banned and fallout is fine because the drugs have negative effects like addiction.)

I live in Australia, yes right now it sucks that one mp is vetoing the OFLC's request to create an R18+ rating, but the idea that god of war 3 is getting banned is either based on people's misconceptions or (a cynic's view) a way to build hype (remember the fake stories about dead space being banned). Simple because Kratos is an ancient greek/god killings gods, monsters or humans that clearly live in a fantasy world means the OFLC would let them get away with nearly anything they want. 

I doubt they'll do much to the game but it is annoying that they keep doing this.
The OFLC has no problem with all the R rated movies we get, but god forbid we see some blood in video games.

Man...Michael Atkinson is really fucking things up for Australian gamers. 

Maybe Kratos takes a panadol in the game so they banned it for drug use
But seriously, it won't be banned...no way

Do you know what sucks? I live in New Zealand. In New Zealand we just get Australian versions of games. So whatever there stupid government does we have put up with. For example, we got the censored GTA IV because of Australia. So when God of War 3 inevitably gets censored in Australia looks like we will be getting it too. I hate Australia fucking game ratings.

Dude, who cares, the EU and us copies will be region free anyway. Stick it to the man!

To be honest, God of War 3's demo made me pretty uncomfortable. Though other people deserve the right to disembowel a centaur, so this sucks. Wasn't there a move to get a new age rating for more mature games in Australia before?

Unfortunately, Australia seems like an awful place to be a gamer aside from God of War's cancelation. 

This is all  a bit over the top.  Yes, Australian censorship in games sucks a little, but it isn't very often.  It happens infrequently enough not for me to care, and it hardly makes Australia a sucky country.  There are many things banned or censored overseas that are not in Australia.  When America allows full frontal nudity, extreme language (including c**t) and virtual sex (R rated movie stuff - X in the USA?) on free to air television, I will believe that they are truly free (as opposed to getting upset about a Jackson nipple).

God Of War III seems to very much toe the line as it is. I'm absolutely certain there is going to be a backlash on the game. But I think Sony kinda want that anyway.

Remember when they supposedly slaughtered a goat at the God Of War II press event and then allowed journalists to feel the entrails or something?

PlayStation 3 is region free!

I think the OFLC is more strict on games here but I had some American mates over not long ago and they couldn't believe the stuff we got on telly (we were watching Underbelly).
So...yeah...

We do tend to get the short end of the stick with a lot of this stuff. The actual problem isn't that the OFLC goes crazy with banning things, its that they have to rate the games under the same conditions as they rate movies, however we don't have an R rating for games, the highest rating a game can achieve is MA 15+, meaning any game that has the content that would normally constitute an R must be refused clasification. This is because a number of rather backwads thinking polititions are under the impression that allowing R rated games will sudenly destroy our childrens minds. Their logic however is flawed as if a game is R rated it is restricted to ADULTS ONLY. Having an R rating will only help classify games and keep games 6 year olds shouldn't play out of the hands of 6 year olds - unless of course their parents are cool with it, in which case its none of the governments damn buisness.

" @Mars_Cleric said:

" I think the OFLC is more strict on games here but I had some American mates over not long ago and they couldn't believe the stuff we got on telly (we were watching Underbelly).So...yeah... "

I remember my first time in the States, in 1993 (yes I am sure they have loosened up since then) and I was watching Weird Science.  In a scene where Kelly LeBrock says "Don't mess with me, I can be a real bitch", they dubbed "bitch" with "wench".  First, that made no sense and second, bitch was censored?  We had full frontal nudity on our free to air televisions in 1974 for christ's sake.  Much more censorship goes on in America than generally admitted. "

Thats really stupid that they would banned a video game completley from being purchased.Just don't let the kids buy em.

For a country founded by ex-cons you sure have a lot of people with fragile sensibilities running the place.

" Seriously, this could be the pooest news i have heard in a long time... For Australia Anyway.

www.thegeekz.com.au <---- Sauce #1

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/07/god-of-war-iii-developer-wary-of-being-banned-in-australia/ <- Sauce #2 "

I hear they're planning to ban fun later this year as well.

I can still order it to Aus if it gets banned though right? RIGHT!?!?

" dude Austrailia is getting gayer by the year. They are becoming worse than Germany  "

As soon as I saw the title, I knew this would be about Australia.

I would've been pretty surprised if it didn't get banned.

" dude Austrailia is getting gayer by the year."

It's not banned it has been rated MA already. Remember, only the games the OFLC think are unpopular get banned. They didn't realize AVP was so big until there was an uproar and, hey, what do you know? Unbanned without a single change.

" It'll still come out just probably toned down.It's strange that this happened, I don't remember GOW or GOW2 having this problem. "

sucks to be australian i guess.   

I assume that since the new 18+ rating in Australia that the game will be released unaltered, under that banner. Since this thread was posted six months ago or so, we should not assume that all this still holds true.

" I assume that since the new 18+ rating in Australia that the game will be released unaltered, under that banner. Since this thread was posted six months ago or so, we should not assume that all this still holds true. "

Poor Australians, you guys need to get a 18 classification rating soon.

Wtf is up with this thread being resurrected? the game was confirmed to not be banned here ages ago, its releasing under our MA15+ label with no edits whatsoever.
EB have had ads up in their stores for like two months.  Not to mention the pre-order for the regular and super-duper editons have been available for weeks too.
 
And no we don't have the R18 rating yet, that requires an election that hasn't happened yet since we'll only get it once Michael Atkinson is out of office.  When the elections happen we've no idea.
 
So yes one of the goriest bloodiest games to ever exist is going to be sold to minors here, I've been keeping track of all the games that got the same treatment.

" @Snail said:

" I assume that since the new 18+ rating in Australia that the game will be released unaltered, under that banner. Since this thread was posted six months ago or so, we should not assume that all this still holds true. "

They fnally got 18+? "