Australia Finally Recieves R18+ Age Rating for Games

Did you know that in Australia, you can buy an uncut DVD copy of the movie Cannibal Holocaust, which not only features realistic gore effects and the slaughtering of actual animals, but which also features real stock footage of people actually being executed?

Did you also know that in Australia, you aren’t allowed to buy a copy of Manhunt, Mortal Kombat, or the American football game Blitz: The League?

That’s about to change. For yesterday, the Federal Parliament passed a measure introducing an R18+ rating for videogames, finally paving the way for uncut videogames to be released in Australia.

The new rating – due to be put in full effect at the beginning of 2013 – puts videogames at the same level in Australia as all other forms of media in terms of a ratings scale. Previously, the videogames rating scale stopped at MA15+ – which, it should be noted, was the rating granted to Fallout 3 after all references to the drug morphine were changed to references to a fake drug called “Med-x”.