Censored Gaming · @CensoredGaming_
20th Jul 2016 from TwitLonger
Popular indie game The Bug Butcher has been banned in Australia @_AwfullyNice_
Earlier today, the Australian Classification Board decided to slap Steam's The Bug Butcher with a Refused Classification, meaning the sale of the game is now banned in the Australian region.
http://www.classification.gov.au/Pages/View.aspx?sid=aYagn6xwi1LBRzhiq1MN2g%253d%253d&ncdctx=Gf3clnni9V4gkuJO9ojrXvWm3SdElelV2iI38Olm2R%2bxxRE7tuZ%2blJweCnU%2biOI3
From the surface, the celebrated side scrolling shoot em up game is seemingly quite tame and innocent. There appears to be nothing contained that can't be found in many other games. See for yourself in the launch trailer below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI5T8iBc3p8
As Steam does not require games to be rated, The Bug Butcher was actually released worldwide earlier in the year without running into any issues. The release date was 19th January 2016 and it is only now that this decision has been made. This indicates that Awfully Nice Studios submitted it for a rating following release, possibly due to interest in releasing the title for new platforms.At this time however, neither Europe's PEGI or the US's ESRB rating systems have yet to list the game on their websites.
Both Steam and Awfully Nice Studios have yet to comment on this, but it goes without saying that Steam will now be required to remove the sale of the game in the Australian region.
The only indication we currently have to go on for why the game has been banned is what is displayed on the Classification Board website. To quote:
"The computer game is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code, Computer Games Table, 1. (a) as computer games that "depict, express or otherwise deal 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."
Censored Gaming has contacted the publishers for details on this and we'll be sure to keep you updated.
- Censored Gaming