The Australian Classification Board has garnered a reputation for being pretty tight about the games it approves: its refusal to give DayZ the green light over weed resulted in the game being changed worldwide, and Disco Elysium similarly found itself in the firing line earlier this year. Back in March, the board announced that Disco Elysium: The Final Cut was too offensive to go on sale, citing its depiction of drug use, crime and violence as just some of the reasons for the ban.
Well, the board has now reversed its position on Disco Elysium, and the game can finally be released on consoles in Australia. With an 18+ rating slapped on, at least.
Disco Elysium was originally refused classification for a whole host of reasons, including depicting “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,” but it seems the Classification Board took particular issue with drug use in the game. The Review Board’s new report decided that while Disco Elysium does depict drug use, there are “sufficient disincentives to drug use to enable it to be accommodated within the R 18+ classification.