There’s more bad news for Australian players this week. The Australian Classification Board (ACB), the government body responsible for classifying and approving games for release in the country has refused to grant classification to State of Decay. The news comes right on the heels of the ACB’s recent denial of classification for Saint’s Row IV. According to Strain, the classification board denied State of Decay classification due to the use of certain drug depictions in the game. An expanded explanation was given to IGN from the ACB about the use of certain medications. You know, because someone classified as an adult under the ACB rating system that will be playing the game will immediately think it’s a good idea to run out and stock up on prescription meds for the coming zombie apocalypse.

Anyone else find it strange that in many classification issues such as this that it’s perfectly fine for you to smash or cleave the brains out of a zombie's head with a selection of melee weapons, blow them in half with a shotgun, run them down with a car, roast a horde with a Molotov, wipe out a whole room with a grenade, or be yourself torn in half and devoured by a ravenous zombie horde that makes finger food out of your intestines, but doing so while just having taken some painkillers is a deal breaker? I’m just saying.

My snarky sarcasm at draconian and ill-informed beliefs of gaming and its players aside, Strain wanted to let players in the region know that Undead Labs is working with Microsoft to address the issues by changing the names of certain medications to comply with ratings requirements. So our good neighbors in Australia should be able to enjoy this nice little gem of a game at some point, but it’s going to take time to make the needed changes.

You can read Strain’s message to the Australian community below.

Source: State of Decay Australian Release Update


Hola Australian State of Decay fans,



I have bad news to share: State of Decay has been refused classification by the Australian Classification Board (ACB). We've run afoul of certain prohibitions regarding the depiction of drug use. We're working with Microsoft to come up with options, including changing names of certain medications in the game to comply with ratings requirements. Whatever our path forward, it's going to take a bit.



I know this is frustrating — believe me, we're frustrated too — but each country has the right to set its own rules about content, and it's our responsibility to comply with them. Rest assured we'll do everything we can to find a way to get the game into your hands. Stay tuned.



Jeff


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our State of Decay Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 14, 2016

About The Author

Stacy "Martuk" Jones was a long-time news editor and community manager for many of our previous game sites, such as Age of Conan. Stacy has since moved on to become a masked super hero, battling demons in another dimension.

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