News
Australia Not Getting Its Own Version of Fallout 3
The Bad News: We're All Getting Austraila's Version of Fallout 3
by Sean
The saga of Fallout 3 and the Australian government is a long, contentious story. Two months ago came word that the nation's ratings board refused to classify the game, essentially banning it from the continent/nation. So then Bethesda made some changes; namely replacing all occurences of "morphine" in the game with a fictional drug. Then, about a month ago, we learned that the Aussies were okay with the changes that had been made, and gave the game a MA 15+ rating. So we all assumed that Australia would get an edited version while the rest of the world would get the original. But you know what they say about assuming...
A story over on GamePolitics today cites a quote from Bethesda's PR man Pete Hines:
We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform.
An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names. To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories.
I didn't want people continuing to assume the version in Australia was some altered version when it's not. There are no references to real world drugs in any version of Fallout 3.
So there you have it world, the Australians didn't like morphine, so none of us are going to get it. At the risk of making something out of nothing, I am a little bit upset by this. I hate the idea of every gamer having to feel the backlash of one government's decision about a game. Could you imagine if Dead Space was banned worldwide just because the Japanese didn't like it? We'd be outraged. I understand that changing the word "morphine" to "spleekblark" (or whatever) isn't the same as a full ban. But this is slippery slope governance. Sooner or later a developer is going to have to stand up to these tactics.
Related Articles:
- PAX Fallout 3 Footage
- Fallout 3 Cleared for Release in Australia
- Fallout 3 Not Rated By Australian Classification Board
Comments
oh sweet, sweet spleekbark. one taste and i was hopelessly, helplessly addicted. spleekbark anonymous here i come!
How ridiculous! I agree with you, Sean. This isn't a big deal, but who knows what this could lead to. Also, Australia, get over it, would you?
This is a game, not reality get over it.
Rubbish, slime, filth, much, boo, boo boo!!!!!
yes, my country is stupid.
i dont like our government.
If it's the only thing which is banned I don't mind... But I keep my fingers crossed...