Silent Hill: Homecoming banned in Australia

By Randolph Ramsay on 01 October 2008

This year has been a depressing one for Aussie gamers when it comes to bans, with three games failing to meet Australia's strict classification requirements. Dark Sector, Shellshock 2: Blood Trails, and Fallout 3 were all banned in 2008, though both Dark Sector and Fallout 3 were eventually allowed back into the country after some modifications were made. It seems that's not the end of the banning story for this year, however. This afternoon Konami confirmed that its upcoming Silent Hill: Homecoming has also been refused classification, so selling it is illegal in Australia.

An Atari spokesperson (Atari is the local distributor for Konami games) confirmed the game banning to GameSpot AU, saying that Australia's Classification Board found issue with the high impact of Silent Hill's violence. Examples used by the board in its report include copious blood spray in the game, decapitations, partially dismembered corpses, and numerous scenes of attacks, fights, torture, and death.

The spokesperson said plans for Homecoming's Australian release are now "on the back burner until early next year," pending discussions with Konami to see if any changes can be made to accommodate Australia's classification regime.

Silent Hill is one of the leading franchises in the survival horror genre. Homecoming follows the story of a war veteran going back to his hometown to search for his missing brother. The multiplatform game was originally slated to be released in Australia in November this year.

In Australia, the highest rating available for a game is MA15+, as opposed to other forms of media, such as film or DVDs, which have an R18+ classification (the R rating prohibits sales to anyone under the age of 18). Games that feature content deemed unsuitable for an MA15+ rating are refused classification and are effectively banned from sale. This year, both Dark Sector and Shellshock 2 were banned because of violent content, while Fallout 3 was initially banned because the game supposedly showed positive effects from in-game drug use.

For more about Australia's game classification system, check out GameSpot AU's in-depth Censory Overload feature.

Topics: oflc, Silent Hill, origins, ban, classification, australia, hill, silent, game, year

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Comments (8)

  • Balguren commented on 23/10/2008 01:27

    Ok this is a bit confusing to me I know silent hill HC is banned here in australia I cant see why 2 parts a drill to the eye and a spade headed monster cutting the main guy in half big whoop..I am playing dead space which made it to australia and it is GORY AS HECK...Killing decapitating delimbing and you can chop or shoot up dead HUMAN bodies lots of blood makes silent hill HC look like a G rated cartoon in comparason yet australia rated it ok to be played here. I have dark sector from england it is not even really gory at all but was banned what is up with the rating people do they just see a name and go OOO ban it must be bad..They need to actually play the bloody games so they can make informed choices even better grow up a bit and make the 18+ rating..One other thing I find funny they are letting in gears of war 2 in its full gore glory it is rated 18+ in many other countries but somehow is getting to be sold in australia...I seriously dont understand this lol.

  • john commented on 22/10/2008 22:03

    i swear, if they decide to ban gears of war 2 or dead space then god knows what i'm gonna do.

  • pissed off commented on 22/10/2008 22:01

    this is rediculous. what do they think they're protecting us from? most kids nowadays are already exposed to lots of violence and stuff like that. they need to wise up on the fact that aussie gamers are more mature then they would like to think.

    and to think, i was waiting on this game for nearly a year...

  • Mystrangy commented on 20/10/2008 04:07

    Ouch, tough luck your you Australia.

    Who the hell bans a game for being too violent? Isn't it enough that the stores can't sell it to people of younger age?

    I mean seriously, me and some of my friends have been playing Silent Hill and Resident Evil since 6-14 and we're fine.

  • oxymoron commented on 13/10/2008 23:40

    okay wow wtf.. now i have to order it why do they make trouble for us aussie gamers this is ridiculous..
    why cant they just grow up, the average aussie 14-16 year old kid is exposed to all sorts of crime, drug-abuse or sex whats a little animated violence gona do.
    i understand dark sector with the drugs but wow, how can they decide what the australian public wants like that, where we have no say and have to be treated to these censored games that freakin loser kids are still getting their mums to buy for them... they release ridiculously gory games like predator concrete jungle and resident evil 4, and they stop these games cause of the carnage and horror content. god... why are we not allowed or survival horror fix. thank god dead space is still coming. unless it gets banned too for scientific influence or some absurd crap.

  • sexy_shazam commented on 01/10/2008 21:20

    k omfg

    now i may be 15 but please i hve more sence then half the people on the classifications board.

    come on as if a kid can be effected by seing animated corpses , blood splatter and death. umm hello its called a u re search the game before buying it. its not like there gona pick up the game and be like ooo this looks like another rip of version of grand tourismo? get real people that buy these games want it for the thrills and spills. besides at age 18 and even younger kids have acces to so many worse things such as gory movies like saw, the strangers and the shinnging yet the board says hey sure u can show those movies in australia since theres and R18+ rating for it, as if how can they be so hypercritical.

    u turn on ur daily 6:00 news and u see and hear of people dying from a bomb blast in Iraq and wat not. yet people dont reali object to that being showd on tv, yet they object to some animated violance ? does anyone else see the stupidity in the way they think?

    this is another great game being F*#$@% up which means that people are gonna have to import the games from other places.

  • andy commented on 01/10/2008 16:28

    Ruddy Ruddy Ruddy!
    We hired you to stop this sh*t!
    Get on with it!

  • OMFG commented on 01/10/2008 15:12

    Way to go keeping the Aussie dollar in Australia. Everyone is just gunna import it. They do realise the average gamer is 28.

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