gta-chinaI’m sure many people here are familiar with the saga of the Office of Film and Literature Classification in 2008. Due to the fact that Australia is still the only developed country without an R rating for videogames,  many games this year have been ‘refused classification’ on the grounds that they contain material deemed too explicit for a mere MA rating.

One of the most famous examples was Fallout 3, a game that was banned for containing real-life drugs such as Morphein, along with an animation of the main character injecting the drugs into his arm. The game was only released in Australia after the animation was cut and the names of the drugs were changed.

If that’s what it takes to get a game banned from Australia, it appears that an upcoming DS game has already had it’s fate sealed.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, scheduled for release this year, has caused early worry amongst Australian gamers due to the rumour of a ‘drug dealing mini-game’. Recent sceenshots have revealed that not only does the mini-game exist, but it contains the names of real-life drugs along with pictures of the drugs. Not only this, but dealing drugs is a likely way to get money to buy guns and body armour, meaning that the dealing of drugs is going to be frowned upon due to the fact that it is inherently tied to an in-game reward- something that the OFLC deems even worse then merely depicting something.

So far, the OFLC have made no comment regarding this game, and it hasn’t officially been classified yet. However, with the way the OFLC have acted in recent years, it’s impossible to see the uncut version of this game being released in Australia.

This would raise two very interesting situations: Firstly, it would be the first time a big-name DS title has been refused classification in Australia. Secondly, this scenario would be unlike many others due to the fact that the DS is completely region free. In the past, all home consoles were region locked, and they still are to this day (aside from the PS3), meaning that playing a banned game presented many new hurdles (such as the need to buy modchips, or entire consoles from other regions). In the case of the DS, everyone can simply go to a website such as Play-Asia and buy the uncut US version, which will be fully compatible on their Australian console. This is an example where, more than ever, banning a game will not add any extra obstacles for people who want to play it.

Rest assured, TNB will be watching this situation with a very close eye and keep you up to date with any official rulings made by the OFLC.