Australian Classification Board to review ratings on 12 games
The Classification Board will review the ratings given to 12 released video games after a request from the South Australian attorney-general.
The Australian Classification Board will review the ratings given to 12 video games already released in Australia after a request from the South Australian attorney-general.
The request for review was made by the attorney-general under advice from the Australia Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) after it was noted that all the games had received higher age ratings in some overseas territories.
All the games pending review are rated MA15+ in Australia, while the US Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) awarded them an MA17+, and the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system awarded them an 18+ rating.
The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) was critical of the review, calling it "unwarranted" and "costly".
"Not only have these games already been examined against stringent guidelines, we also haven't heard of any formal complaints made by parents or adults who think the video games are wrongly classified. The review is an unwarranted and costly exercise to satisfy a vocal yet unrepresentative minority," said IGEA CEO Ron Curry.
The Classification Board will meet on 18-19 November and 2, 4 and 5 December to "consider the applications".
The games pending review are:
Alien Rage
Borderlands 2 Expansion Packs
Company of Heroes 2
Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut
Deadpool
Fuse
Gears of War: Judgment
God Mode
Killer is Dead
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
The Walking Dead: 400 Days
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
The results of the review, along with detailed reasons for any decisions made by the Board, will be posted on the Australian Classification Board website.