Australia bans Fallout 3

By Randolph Ramsay, GameSpot AUPosted Jul 9, 2008 4:38 am PT

UPDATE: Upcoming Bethesda game refused classification Down Under by ratings body; OFLC report confirms banning is due to showing positive effects of in-game drug use.

Rumours were swirling late last week that Australia's strict games classification regime had struck its highest-profile victim for 2008, with Fallout 3 apparently being refused a rating. It seems the rumours were true, with confirmation coming tonight that Bethesda's upcoming postapocalyptic action RPG has indeed been banned for sale in Australia.

The most recent update for the Web site of Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) shows that Fallout 3 has been refused classification. Unlike films or DVDs, the highest rating allowable for a game in Australia is MA 15+, which means any title that has content deemed unsuitable for a 15-year-old is illegal to sell or promote in this country.

While the OFLC website has no details on why Fallout 3 was banned, a user in GameSpot's PC forum last week suggested it could be due to the use of the drug morphine within the game. Australia's game classification rules state that titles that "depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults" will be refused classification.

Fallout 3 is the third game in 2008 to be banned in Australia. Dark Sector was originally refused classification, although an edited version has recently been resubmitted and passed with an MA 15+ rating. Last week, Shellshock 2 was banned due to graphic violent content.

UPDATE: Australia's OFLC has provided GameSpot AU with a copy of its Board's ruling on Fallout 3, which states that the game was indeed refused classification because it contains "material promoting or encouraging proscribed drug use".

In its ruling, the OFLC states that "the game contains the option to take a variety of drugs known as chems using a device which is connected to the character's arm."

"These chems have postive and some negative effects (lowering of intelligence, or the character may become addicted to the chem). The positive effects include increase in strength, stamina, resistance to damage, agility, and hit points. Corresponding with the list of various chems are small visual representations of the drugs; these include syringes, tablets, pill bottles, a crack-type pipe, and blister packs. In the Board's view, these realistic visual representation of drugs and their delivery method bring the 'science-fiction' drugs in line with 'real-world' drugs.

"The player can also select and use Morphine (a proscribed drug) which has the positive effect of enabling the character to ignore limb pain when the character's extremities are targeted by the enemy." In Fallout 1 and 2, players could take a wide range of drugs both to boost health and character attributes. Both games were freely available for sale in Australia and were rated M.

And despite the violence in the game, the OFLC's ruling is solely concerned with drug use in Fallout 3. In the ruling, the OFLC states that "the violence throughout the game could be accommodated at an MA 15+ level of classification".

A Bethesda spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by GameSpot AU. Fallout 3's Australian distributors Red Ant also refused to comment. The company suffered a similar setback with another game it was distributing in Australia last year, when Blitz: The League was refused classification due to similar in-game drug issues. For more information on Australia's game classification system, check out our special Censory Overload feature.

659 Comments

  • l33tmomiji

    Posted Oct 31, 2009 7:29 am PT

    grr, all cos of the stupid governor general.
    if someone else was in her position we'd be able to have r-rated games!

  • vaultboy_ninja

    Posted May 24, 2009 1:36 am PT

    Im happy they finally bought it out here. it would really suck if i never played it. you here about drugs on tv all the time. are they gonna ban that too? oh and giants 161, you dont use any of that crap. dont say anything at all if your gonna lie.

  • AssassinElf

    Posted May 15, 2009 11:52 am PT

    I am really starting to get pissed off isnt it enough u cant kill kids in the game ? did they have to bann it too ? and further more i dont want to kill kids but the kids in litllelam town or something like that really deserved to get shot for talking smack to the player

  • woods0419

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 11:49 am PT

    Wow, it's a shame that a lot of Australian gamers are going to miss out on such an (hopefully) amazing game.

  • sgtbulldog49

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 9:25 pm PT

    Ok wait giants, you're saying that you are fine with violence, but drug use tips you over the edge? Do you not get how seriously wrong that sounds?

  • giants161

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 3:31 pm PT

    In bioshock they are more sic fi "enhancers" This game is actually using pot, herione, and crack. That to me is disgusting and repulsive. This game now repulsises me more than bioschock. Nudity and violence are one thing. But drug use is a whole other thing.

  • Tharizden

    Posted Sep 14, 2008 2:40 am PT

    Oopps...forgot to ask...how did Bioshock get thru....surely it's easy to see that the drugs are necessary??!!

  • Tharizden

    Posted Sep 14, 2008 2:38 am PT

    WTF?? How the hell did Vice City, San Andreas & a raft of other drug taking, kill innocent bystanders & cops, gratuitous violence, sex & "psuedo-drug taking" games make it through the Australian system???? And I thought the NZ system sucked & was behind the time!

    Man...the Aussies OFLC really need to get a grip on reality & get a life.

    But then...this isn't the only one that has a few problems getting past the OFLC, or so I have heard. (Just can't quite recall what the other BIG sellers are/were)

    There...that's off my chest now & I feel a lot better now : )

  • HotOC

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 1:18 am PT

    Ok I have to write on this thread......

    So the OFLC pooches it again. It's only one of the most highly anticapated games in recent times, set to make millions of dollars in this country and entertain thousands, yet postponed by a figure head and 'his board' supported by an outdated set of codes and regulations that were made before computer games even existed. Hmm whats wrong with this picture?

    If one bright spark in the OFLC board ( The government clasifacation regulator ) realised how much money they are going to lose from madatory taxation from distribution of the game, they would realise that it's decisons like this, based on political swaggering , that drives gaming piracy.

    These are the same repressed people subscirbing to the worst smut you can find on the internet ( which fits nicely into their clasifaction system by the way ) then basing their decisions at work as 'moral' Heres a thought, why not just put another letter into the cleary modern and up to date code of regulations that perfectly fit every bit of content thats ever been considered. You could even call it, hmm I don't ' R'

    'You can't have it' -why not?
    'Because I said so'

  • ddt88

    Posted Aug 4, 2008 4:17 am PT

    "OFLC report confirms banning is due to showing positive effects of in-game drug use."

    So if I take drugs & get myself shot, this is supposed to be a positive thing?

  • The_Weekend

    Posted Aug 3, 2008 9:15 am PT

    I'll know what to bring over and sell when i go there for vacation! :^D

  • Acid_rain82

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 9:35 pm PT

    Australia needs to move into the 21st century. 18+ games should be allowed. It is ridicules that they don't allow theses games yet they allow movies like saw and hostel. Then in bio shock you inject drugs in into your arm. People will just get them off ebay anyway.

  • EXODYS

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 4:43 am PT

    The Australian censor-rules suck, they are actually saying: "Our entire nation is full of stupid brainless people, that will imitate everything they see in horror/thriller movies and 18+ games, thus we cannot allow such media in our country".

    What is wrong with these censor-guys!? They must obviously be living in the 19th century where they just learned about Darwin and some monkeys, and something about people being smart depending on the size of their skull... Hello? Wake up and smell the 21st century thank you ^^

    Someone should censor the Australian censor-guys

  • WardCleaver02

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 12:29 pm PT

    "depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults"

    As a "reasonable adult", I find this whole statement offensive. A reasonable adult would conclude that even if this game is released in AU, they do not have to buy it, nor do they have to allow their children to play it.

  • Razzi65

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 9:24 am PT

    dats not fair..

  • rockatanski

    Posted Jul 21, 2008 5:37 pm PT

    Jaidingo, if the game is banned then we wont be able to get it coz it will be stopped at customs. The only way we'll get it is to download it through a pay online system or the .. (hiccup) .. other way..

  • TalonPhoenix

    Posted Jul 21, 2008 9:49 am PT

    This is a load of s***! These OFLC guys need to grow up and give Australia an R18 games rating already. It's completely unfair that we can get movies more than ten times worse than computer games, yet this is banned because of drug use.

  • ddt88

    Posted Jul 20, 2008 4:01 am PT

    The people @ the OFLC are a lot brighter than they look... This makes it official that Australia is a nanny state when it comes to adult video game entertainment.

  • JaiDingo

    Posted Jul 17, 2008 4:14 pm PT

    Will a copy of Fallout 3 from the States work in a AUS xob 360 system?? Or will we need to get the pc version???
    I have been hanging out sooooo bad for this to come out

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