I recall the example from SP: Stick of Truth where the alien probing sequence was removed and replaced with a crying koala. I can list more titles that are not available from that region: Hotline Miami, Manhunt, Sludge Life & etc. but there are games that faced censorship: Saints Row IV, Fallout 3, Postal 2, Outlast 2. I notice that it tends to happen with games depicting content involving violence, drugs or even sex (but let that fly in movies and TV).
Simple solution: DO NOT use an AU account on Steam, instead consider a region change or an alt account set overseas where you can access “banned” games that aren’t not sold in Australia (as their ratings board has no jurisdiction over foreign copies). Even if you have a foreign physical release: those are classified in their country of origin, isn’t that enough? A Japanese (CERO) D 17+ rating is similar to a MA15+ - R18+ classification.
Because we were a British colony that kept a lot of conservative approaches to everything. We didn’t have a R18+ rating for the longest time because one state leader was an old dick and would always reject the proposal to align video games with film classifications because he believed that video games caused “indecent” behaviour when many, many, many studies showed him wrong.
Only once the dick retired did we get the 18 rating but very few games have gone back on the classification board to get their games reclassified.
When we want to play games that have been censored or downgraded we just pirated them.
Michael Atkinson was and still is a complete dick.
I’ve heard that games are expensive in AU (both physical and digital) on top of censored versions. There are price discrepancies for the same product, like a game is 110 AUD on Steam but in my country it’s 25000 KZT (72 AUD).
Regional pricing will always be complex and never fair for one group or another. Consumers in one region with high purchasing power will be charged more so that consumers in other regions with less purchasing power can be charged less.
Otherwise vendors would completely price themselves out of certain markets, denying a potential revenue stream and potentially opening avenues for local competitors to crop up.
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Australia was historically a smaller market that is physically far away from America and ( and had fewer trade links with Japan). Australian TVs were PAL while America and Japan used NTSC, which added a whole other layer of complexity. This meant that PAL production lines were geared towards the European market, with Australia getting the excess. Those copies then had to be shipped across the Pacific Ocean, which is expensive. Combine a smaller, lower-priority market with longer, more complex shipping, and manufacturers charged more to make a profit. This set a standard price for Australia which persists even today.
It is hard to do direct conversions because cost of living is complex and some store fronts don’t include all taxes where in Australia you must show the final buy price. Valve has always had gripe with Australia because we kept fining Valve for not following our consumer laws and forcing us to buy everything in US$ but that has now changed.