Tecmo Koei’s 3DS title Dead Or Alive Dimensions has been effectively banned from sale in Australia after having its age rating revoked.
The game was released with a PG rating for “mild violence and sexualised gameplay,” but after a media campaign led by ABC News, Australia’s classification board has revoked the rating, telling VG247: “Information provided to the board last week suggested that the game contained content not drawn to the board’s attention in the original classification application.
“Dead Or Alive Dimensions is now unclassified and cannot be sold in Australia unless it is resubmitted for classification.”
ABC News pointed to news that broke last month of Dimensions being cancelled at the eleventh hour by its Swedish distributor over fears that it violated child pornography legislation. The chief culprit is the game’s Figure mode, which lets players take 3D photographs of the game’s characters from any angle.
With the Dead Or Alive series famous for the prominent display of its female fighters’ assets – and Kasumi, Kokoro and Ayane all under the age of 18 – distributor Bergsala decided against releasing the game in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
It is presumably with that in mind that the Australian version of the game lists the three characters’ age as “N/A”, with Nintendo’s Australia and New Zealand spokesperson, Heather Murphy, telling ABC News: “They’re not listed as underage, they’re listed as no age.”
That has not been enough to satisfy the board, which duly revoked the rating and effectively banned the game from sale in Australia, whose comparitively draconian ratings system has led to several violent games being banned.
According to Kotaku, retailers were told to remove the game from shelves a few hours ago. Nintendo is believed to have already resubmitted the game for classification, and hopes to receive an MA15+ rating, Australia’s highest classification.
Source: Nathan Brown
