Australia Bans New Mortal Kombat 119
daria42 writes "Mortal Kombat is one of the oldest video game franchises around, but it looks as though Australia's classification board hasn't heard of it. Today the organization confirmed it had banned the newest version of the game from being sold in Australia, citing excessive violence, such as 'bloodspray' and 'limb dismemberment.' In a Mortal Kombat game? Who would have thought?! The ban comes because Australia does not have an R18+ classification for video games, despite extensive lobbying efforts by the video game industry and consumers."
Re:They've been busy (Score:5, Insightful)
Both of the Australia stories on the front page today are both reasons I turned down a job offer to work in Sydney. As an American, the idea that the government would get a say in which video games I play seemed ridiculous, as did the idea that Internet access would be handled by a closed monopoly.
I'm not saying that the USA is whole lot better, but I do have the option of playing the original Manhunt and downloading the latest Ubuntu image without any bandwidth cap.
I wish that countries would keep in mind that there are competitive advantages to keeping their systems more open and that it's not just about protecting the children. In my case, an Australian employer lost out on an employee they wanted because their government was busy playing censor.