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Australia Likely To Get 18+ Game Rating

Posted by timothy on from the thank-you-uncle-government dept.

hypnosec writes "Australia is set to update the age rating system for video games, adding a new 18+ category which should allow for the more violent games to be sold in the country. The current maximum age rating for a console or PC game is 15+. If a title didn't meet the specifications for this age it was denied a rating and was therefore not allowed to go on sale. This didn't necessarily mean the game never hit the shelves, but it could only do if tweaks were made to remove some of the most violent or questionable content. The first parliamentary session in the new year is set for the 7th February — giving the poor fellas a nice long break — where the bill to introduce the new age rating will be voted on by the lower house. If it passes there, it will go on to the senate, which has the ability to pass it into law."

3 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sanity to prevail? by jimmetry · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't have any supporting evidence, but I assume our rating systems are pretty similar to those in the US and UK, simply to make the process of importing a whole lot easier since we have pretty similar "moral standards" (based on the judgement of a few geriatric goons). It means developers don't have to consider Australia "special" and decide whether they'll make a special version just for us or consider us insignificant marketshare.

  2. By the way, game prices in Australia by bravni · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why is it so expensive? Taxes?
    Or just good old price fixing?

    I am a European, now living in Japan, and have ordered a lot of stuff from the US over the years. While I can figure out most factors for explaining game prices in these 3 regions (the 1 USD = 1 GBP = 1 EUR "special exchange rate", VAT differences, margins lower in the US vs rest of the world aka price fixing), I still cannot make sense of the outrageous prices in Australia...

    1. Re:By the way, game prices in Australia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's a result of when the AUD was back at USD0.60, the games market was establishing itself. The current price points were established, so people became used to playing around AUD$99 for a new release game. Now that the AUD is around USD1.05, the distributors still want to keep the same price point, but pocket the windfall from the exchange rates.

      The distributors worst nightmare is setting the price point at AUD50 only for the exchange rate to go back to USD0.60.

      The typical cycle is when the exchange rate is declining, they say they need to raise prices due to the exchange rate, when the exchange rate goes up, they keep the same price and pocket the bonus. In short, greed. I don't think it is the retailers, they have virtually the same margins, I think it's the distributors.

      The worst part is that steam serves up Australian specific prices, however unlike the US prices, the Aus prices always stay at the release price, whereas US prices tend to go down with the age of the game. We see the same thing in store here, but not on steam.

      Over Christmas, modern warfare 2 was ~AUD90 on steam, and AUD37 in local bricks and mortar EB stores, for example.