Saints Row 4's "refused classification" status upheld in Australia

Will Australians be allowed to play a silly game about a hyper-violent US President in a hyper-violent perversion of reality, trapped in a hyper-violent riff on the Matrix? Previously, the answer was a flat no. Saints Row 4's inclusion of alien anal probes and beneficial drug pick-ups caused the game to be 'awarded' the country's first "Refused Classification" status. Deep Silver had since re-submitted the title, hoping to slip it through with all the unfiltered absurdity intact. The final ruling has now been made, and the answer, unfortunately, is still no.

Explaining the decision, the review board state that: "Saints Row IV could not be accommodated within the R 18+ classification as drug use related to incentives and rewards is not permitted." As a result, Saints Row 4 will be prohibited from sale throughout Australia.

The decision specifically pertains to the standard version of the game. Publisher Deep Silver had previously announced an altered version was also planned for a submission, saying, "Volition, the developer, are reworking some of the code to create a version of the game for this territory by removing the content which could cause offence without reducing the outlandish gameplay that Saints Row fans know and love."

Thanks, Kotaku .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.