Earlier this month, Australia refused to classify the video game DayZ due to “illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards.” Because the continent refused to classify the game, it banned all physical AND digital copies of the game. Developer Bohemia Interactive removed all mentions of drugs and drug use on a global scale (they didn’t want to split the player base), and Australia has kindly classified the game in turn.
DayZ is a multiplayer zombie survival game. It originally had cannabis stores that would restore player health through the use of medicinal marijuana. The Australian Classification Board deemed this as too inappropriate for their consumers, hence the ban.
With the removal of these restoration points, the Board has rated the game as MA15+. DayZ should be restored in Australia’s PlayStation Store, Xbox Live, and Steam. It also means that Bohemia can release a physical version in the Oceanic nation.
DayZ is hardly the first game Australia has refused to classify. A video game generation ago, they banned both Fallout 3 and Mortal Kombat 9 until the developers removed the offensive content. They took We Happy Few to a review panel due to the drug use. Thanks to its release on the Nintendo Switch, Australia has allowed Hotline Miami 2 into the country for the first time. In order for Call of Duty: World War II to sell, the developers had to alter the alluded to sexual assault scene.
DayZ left its beta/early access phase in December 2018 for the PC. The zombie plague later infested the Xbox One on March 27, 2019, followed by the PlayStation 4 on May 29, 2019.
[Source: Gamespot]
