AUSTRALIA: Silent Hill succumbs to censors

The strict Australian classification system has struck again, and this time it’s Atari that has been forced to make changes to a title to get its game onto the nation’s retail shelves.

Edge reports that the publisher had to make some last minute cuts to its upcoming Silent Hill: Homecoming in order to get the title a Mature 15+ rating, which for the time being remains the highest classification offered to games by the Australian Board of Classification.

The move follows the Board’s concerns regarding the title’s “high-impact violence, copious blood spray, decapitations, partial corpse dismemberment, and depictions of torture”.

A spokesperson for the ratings body stated: “Atari – on its own initiative – resubmitted the game for classification, so essentially it’s not the same game.

“They’ve made modifications to the game, but the Australian Classification Board is not a censorship board, we don’t say ‘change this and the game will go in’. It’s down to the distributor to make changes and resubmit.”

Silent Hill: Homecoming is the latest in a long line of titles to cross swords with the Aussie regulator, joining the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV, F.E.A.R. 2, Fallout 3 and Dark Sector. There was talk early last year of the body introducing a new ‘R’ rating for mature games, but this has so far not materialised.