South Park: The Fractured But Whole Won't Be Censored In Australia

Unlike 2013's South Park: The Stick of Truth, this year's The Fractured But Whole will not be cut or censored in any manner, Ubisoft announced today. The game received an R18+ rating, and in a statement, the publisher said players can expect a "completely uncut and uncensored" experience. The game has a farting mechanic that lets you control your sphincter with "total ass control," and now we know this, or any other over-the-top elements, apparently, won't be adjusted for the game's Australian release.

The Stick of Truth was censored in Australia and Germany due to scenes involving anal-probing, abortion, and swastikas. During certain censored scenes an image of a statute making a face-palming gesture appears, along with text describing what you would have seen in the uncut version. In Australia, the game used an image of a crying koala during the probing scene, leaving it up to the players' imagination.

South Park co-creator Matt Stone said The Stick of Truth's censorship felt like a double standard. "We weren't willing to change the content, but also it doesn't ruin the game--it's like 40 seconds' worth of the whole game. As long as we could make a joke out of the fact that they made us cut this, that was fine," he said in 2014.

Expanding on his position at the time, Stone said the way games are interactive means some people may become more uncomfortable with edgy content compared to a linear medium like TV. What was cut from The Stick of Truth would have aired with no problem on TV, Stone claimed.

"There is an interactiveness that makes it different," he said at the time. "In movies and television you can do stuff that's morally grey very easily, because you get to show consequences, you get to show reward, but in a video game there's a reason why everything is a Nazi, zombie, or alien--these are pretty clear moral choices," Stone said.

Ubisoft's announcement about The Fractured But Whole's rating in Australia comes not long after the ESRB assigned the game an M-for-Mature rating in the Americas. The game got the M rating for "Blood and Gore, Mature Humor, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs, Violence." There are also scenes of dismemberment and decapitation, moments involving cocaine and marijuana, and sexual references. This is all pretty standard stuff for South Park, so the rating is no big surprise, but it's a doozy to read the full text.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is being developed internally at Ubisoft San Francisco, unlike The Stick of Truth, which was made by Fallout: New Vegas studio Obsidian Entertainment. After multiple delays, The Fractured But Whole is finally coming out on October 17 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.