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The decision will be made on April 20.
The Australian Classification Board will review its ban on RimWorld (opens in new tab) later this month, the board has announced. In late February the ACB served RimWorld a ‘Refused Classification’ rating, meaning it can no longer be sold in Australia. After nine years of availability on Steam, the colony sim was region blocked (opens in new tab) in Australia in early March.
But that may change come April 20, when the board will meet to consider the review application. Application reviews have led to reversals without changes in the past: that happened to Disco Elysium. In other cases, games have had to be changed to accommodate Australia’s law, as was famously the case with South Park: The Stick of Truth.
RimWorld creator Tynan Sylvester acknowledged the review application on Twitter. «The Australian Classification Board is going to review their ruling which banned RimWorld from sale in Australia,» Sylvester tweeted last week. «We’ve got some legal professionals and expert witnesses helping out, so I’m optimistic. Thanks everyone for your support on this.»
The sudden, belated classification of RimWorld in Australia appears to have been prompted by a forthcoming console port, though that remains unconfirmed. As of April 8, the game has full Steam Deck support, only I can’t read about that because the page is blocked in Australia.
As for why RimWorld was refused classification, it’s because it deals with «matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.»
Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.
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