The Australian Office of Film and literature classification has revoked the classification for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a result of the Hot Coffee modification:

The Classification Board made this decision on the basis that it contains contentious material (activated through a code or otherwise) that was not brought to the Board's attention when it was classified.
"Contentious material" is defined in the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 to mean "... material that would be likely to cause it to be classified ... for a computer game - M or a higher classification".

Their press release (PDF) has more information. The release also states that retailers should be removing the game off the shelves immediately and that parents should "exercise caution in allowing children continued access to the game".

I bet the OFLC boys came in their pants when they found a reason to ban it...

Yay! There goes another one of my rights!

As per the rules reminders, please check to make sure no-one has posted what you're about to post before. Use the Search facility or just check back a few pages.

Many regards,

Smart Arse

As if the OFLC boys aren't twisted enough anyway from all the snuff films they have to go through. We know who the really perverted ones are!

Yay! There goes another one of my rights!

I don't think playing computer games equates to fundamental rights. I get the sentiment, but geez ...

About time this happened. Too much garbage out there already.

Why teacup, that's a mighty storm you have brewing in there.

Why doesnt australia just make a f***ing R18+ rating already, so sick of everything in australia getting banned because of a couple of whining f***** parents that buy there little 12yr old sons a MA15+ game then sue and make a fuss when its got sex and drugs and violence.

Dead beat parents are the reason for all these law suits and banned material, i say ban parents from buying games for their kids, that would fix everything =)

Censorship = wrong.

Whatever happened to the old 8-bit games... you'd never see grandma's sueing over that, except for the severe cannibalism of pacman, and countless hours of unkown exposure to television rays that will cause epilepsy.

All in all they should just ban people over the age of 50 from purchasing games from retail stores, because you know they wouldn't be playing them anyway. I can see it now...asking people with severe depression and wrinkles bigger than my hand for their ID.

Banning San Andreas is a pretty ridiculous step imo, and the whole idea that game developers can be held responsible for what users do to their games with mods is a rather scary precedent to set.

That maddox article I saw posted in one of the other threads made a good point about the re-classification in the US as well. Its gone from being rated 17+ to 18+, I mean really, wtf is the point? Why even bother having two separate ratings, what changes so dramatically with a person in one year that they can suddenly handle this more mature Adults Only content? Ratings systems for video games seem to universally be a bit of a joke at the moment. More of a formality than anything.

And even assuming they (and we) had a ratings system that worked, they still need to do a lot more about raising public awareness of what the ratings actually mean. We get ads spammed on TV about what the ratings for television/movies mean, and you used to get ads in front of nearly every video you rented from a video store explaining the ratings for them, but theres absolutely nothing like that out there raising public awareness of video game ratings, what they represent, where to look on the game to find them, where to go for more info, etc, etc. Even retailers could probably do a bit more; if someone who looks like a parent is buying a game like GTA they could inform the person that this game is adult in nature and not suitable for children. Of course, thats just wishful thinking, they wouldn't want to do that and run the risk of losing a sale.

and the whole idea that game developers can be held responsible for what users do to their games with mods is a rather scary precedent to set.

The content was already there, the mod basically changed "censorship 0" to "censorship 1", and it is rockstars own lazy arse fault that this happened. It is not like someone did the porn voiceovers, made the animations, programmed in the sub game, then released that mod - rockstar made all that content.
Its kind of like selling a star wars dvd with some porn on it that was set to unreadable (like in .rm format or something).

Pfffft since i already got this game almost 7 months ago now for the ps2 i dont give a rats ass that its getting banned, and im sure i will get most other games in the future before some idiot decides to ban them.
*Edit* Hell even if i dont i wont lose any sleep over it.

last edited by Xy at 07:08:44 31/Jul/05

The content was already there, the mod basically changed "censorship 0" to "censorship 1"

In GTA3 if you changed your region settings from Australian to American it turned into the version where you could have sex with hookers, which was banned in Australia.

They got away with that one it seems :/

They've always craved attention, even promoting the 'public outrage' in subsequent releases' advertising. I actually wish it had got it's (US) R rating before release and was banned in Australia straight up. We need an R rating for games in Australia and having this years (probably) #1 title never available may have helped that happen. Now with it being re-classified because of this crap in-game dry-humping it gives them an excuse to not allow it in, instead of facing the real issue, that if aussie adults want to go and murder everyone in a crack house, do drive buys and run a crime gang as part of a computer game for entertainment, they should be permitted to, because they are adults, it is entertainment and they want to.

I've never heard of any adult being forced to buy and play GTA. They all chose to.

does anyonw know if u can get the mod for both pc and console versions? i only know of the pc version and was wondering why they were banning ALL versions. I have sent an email to the OFLC asking them if they will compensate me, im a second hand dealer and i cant return all the copies oi have to a distributor

On previous Ausgamers news http://ausgamers.com/?commentsid=2333188

deep said "It is possible to unlock the Hot Coffee mod on the ps2 version of the game. You need an Action Replay or Gameshark plus the cheat codes to unlock the mod."

Krumm said "Also can be done on the xbox but youd need a modified one to do it."

helooooo free publicity!!!!

Publicity is no good if you have nothing to sell :P

Fortunately for Rockstar they've probably sold at least 90% of the copies of the game they were ever going to sell!

Ran down to EB yesterday too see if I could buy a copy, hoping they where only banned for ordering more and could still sell stock. But no go, they had to pull down all copies off the shelves.
The dude at EB said that JB Hi-Fi, where still selling copies illegally. So I took off down there, but it was only Xbox and PS2 versions. Sigh, no GTA for me.

ty

I went and bought my copy of San Andreas today, luckily I found a place in Melbourne still selling it (and for $75 on dvd), I asked the guy about why they hadn't taken it off shelves yet and he just said that they hadn't been told to so they were going to keep selling it until such time. btw this was at Metro PC, it looks like they can ship copies upto QLD, so if you want it, i'd be calling them tomorrow about it because I can't imagine they'll be selling it for much longer.

Checked their site. I'm blind or they have taken it down.

It really outrages me that there isn't an R18+ rating for computer games. I just cannot see any logical reason for it other than the ultra conservative nitwits who seem to have the louder voices and power to make/change the Classification Act seem to think they're protecting children and the community.

Even research conducted on behalf of the OFLC on the issue of computer games and their rating/content is contrary to what the Act is supposed to represent on behalf of the community: http://www.oflc.gov.au/resource.html?resource=302&filename=302.pdf

And by the way, has anyone actually SEEN the hot coffee mod? I have seen screenshots of it and have to say that it's notoriety is worse in the way the media has portrayed it rather than what is to be seen. It looks like a Barbie and Ken doll on a bed. I would say the dildo & gimp suit mission that can be obtained in the game are much more offensive and questionable content for minors.

And as far as the argument about the rating system. It is a fact that children are more aware of the ratings system than parents are. I work in a video store and have seen parents hire R rated movies for their children many times, even after I have advised them of it's rating and suitability.

The average gamer is supposedly 25 years of age. I think it's about time the laws were made to suit the majority on this issue. I'm getting tired of having to import games from overseas so I can play them unedited as they were intended, or play them at all in some cases [ala Thrill Kill]!

I don't think this is merely about consumer choice either. There is no question that most people, if not all, can tell the difference between a game and real life and what is not acceptable in real life compared to a game. And I really am not comfortable at all with a handful of people, whose decision cannot be questioned by anyone other than the Prime Minister [correct me if I'm wrong], making the big decision about what can and cannot be viewed by the rest of the community based purely on how they want to interpret the Classification Act.

I am an adult and I can read the warnings on packages. It's laughable the way games can be banned for having adult content, yet if a kid wants to watch television past 9:30, they can see all kinds of graphic content ... Advance Australia Fair!

You'd be doing us all a favour if you E-mail that quite well written opinion to the OFLC.

They need more pressure if they are to crack. Just keep pestering them, they'll give in eventually. They can't stop the R+18 category forever, especially in this increasingly desensitized era.

Checked their site. I'm blind or they have taken it down.

It's not listed on their site but trust me, it is in their store (at least it was yesterday afternoon), you'd probably need to call them about it.

Lynx , the problem is not with the OFLC, while they are conservative, they are simply working within the guidlines that are set by our politicians. The extreme conservatives that dominate the current government are the problem, although i suspect that the fedral opposition is nearly as conservative. We need a new government before we may see any changes. we need a revolution! :)

Viva La revolution!

whatever happens, Rockstar are stupid.

Oh well this is what happens when we have the government that we do, you gotta love it. They are taking away choice more and more and we keep voting them back in.

They are taking away choice more and more and we keep voting them back in.

Nahh, It is just changing around and around.

Sc00bs

for somebody who juarez everything they watch/play you appear to be a little overzealous regarding what PAYING consumers should do.

If you aren't a paying consumer, dont expect people to give a s*** about your opinions of games or reviews of unreleased movies okay?

If Phillip Ruddock is as clean as GTA San Andreas is. Then I am a hospital during an ebola outbreak in the congo.

No one is 'that' clean. Not even our attorney general. The only reason they are doing all this is to jump on the media bandwagon.

Unfortunately it is Phillip Ruddock and OFLC: 1. Australian Gamers who just want to have fun: 0.

And here we are again arguing about games being banned in Australia. Remember Postal 2 and Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Lude?

last edited by Kimbo at 06:44:34 03/Aug/05

last edited by Kimbo at 06:45:18 03/Aug/05