A couple of days ago, news outlets reported DayZ’s physical release had been refused classification in Australia – despite the game having been out in digital form for five years. The reason for this, according to the Australian Classification Board’s listing, was that it was deemed to “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 to the extent that they should not be classified”.
Obviously, that’s a pretty broad spectrum.
Thanks to a report seen by Kotaku Australia earlier today, we now know exactly why the game has been blocked from release, and the situation is weirder than first thought. Namely, it’s about cannabis – something that currently isn’t active in DayZ – and the ACB is apparently working towards getting the game’s digital version banned too.
