South Park: The Stick of Truth Will be Censored in Australia

[Steven Bogos]

South Park: The Stick of Truth Will be Censored in Australia

Despite earning the nation's new R 18+ rating, the game will still suffer from some censorship.

Ubisoft have confirmed to Player Attack [http://www.playerattack.com/news/2013/12/17/australia-censors-south-park-the-stick-of-truth/] that its upcoming South Park RPG: South Park: The Stick of Truth will be censored for its release in Australia next March, despite receiving an R 18+ rating. At this stage, we are not entirely sure what has been cut, but the Ubisoft spokesperson said that it will only be a "slightly modified version".

When Australian politicians finally, kicking and screaming, admitted that adults play videogames and Saints Row IV fiasco [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121292-Australias-R18-Classification-Starts-Today] earlier in the year.

Saints Row IV eventually made it through with some slight modifications, but it now looks like publishers aren't even bothering to take chances, submitting censored versions of controversial games right from the get-go.

The Australian Classification Board has actually rated South Park: The Stick of Truth twice. Three weeks ago, the Board rated another Ubisoft title, "Codename", which, as it had the same "High impact crude humour, sex scenes and references to sexual violence" as The Stick of Truth, we can only assume was the super subtle codename for the game.

We have reached out to Ubisoft to ask what, specifically, has been cut from the Australian version, and will update this post if more information becomes available.

Source: Player Attack [http://www.playerattack.com/news/2013/12/17/australia-censors-south-park-the-stick-of-truth/]

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[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Color me shocked. I'm keeping national pride/issues out of this as much as possible, but the Australian Classification Board is not exactly open-minded towards leaving video games uncensored. And if Saint's Row IV had issues, what are the chances a South Park game is going to get through fine and dandy?

 

[Drummodino]

...I don't understand. Why do we have a R18+ rating if we're still gonna keep censoring shit like this!?!

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

...I don't understand. Why do we have a R18+ rating if we're still gonna keep censoring shit like this!?!

Because our politicians are a bunch of children. And we elected the biggest child of all.

This is gonna get a digital sale too right? I wonder if they'll keep overcharging Australia, even for a partially censored product.

 

[RicoADF]

...I don't understand. Why do we have a R18+ rating if we're still gonna keep censoring shit like this!?!

R18+ does not open the doors to anything coming in, they are in line with movies which is what it was always about. I guess your unaware of how many movies and music get adjusted or just refused classification? And just like them you can always get a copy imported since its the sales of the origonal version not ownership that's been banned, it's not like their treating it like drugs. Just import a copy, heck changes are your buying one from overseas anyway. For that matter, we don't even know what has been changed.

 

[Metalrocks]

...I don't understand. Why do we have a R18+ rating if we're still gonna keep censoring shit like this!?!

Because our politicians are a bunch of children. And we elected the biggest child of all.

This is gonna get a digital sale too right? I wonder if they'll keep overcharging Australia, even for a partially censored product.

yes they do. just like germany for heavily cut version. even for movies. and they still rate it 18+ or in some cases 16. i know it because i used to live in switzerland and every shop was selling german versions.

good thing i moved away from australia. at least in hong kong i get uncensored versions and they dont scream around that its bad for people.

 

[shirkbot]

...I don't understand. Why do we have a R18+ rating if we're still gonna keep censoring shit like this!?!

For the same reason that the US has an Adults Only rating that is essentially a death sentence for games? I really don't understand what the point of even having these ratings, not the system, but these specific end-of-scale, forbidden/useless ratings.

 

[Silver Patriot]

This sounds like a great opprotunity for them to release a "Australian Edition" of the game to make fun of the whole situation. To bad that would most probably be far too much work for not that much payoff. Maybe as DLC.

 

[RedBackDragon]

This sounds like a great opprotunity for them to release a "Australian Edition" of the game to make fun of the whole situation. To bad that would most probably be far too much work for not that much payoff. Maybe as DLC.

yeah that would be epic! they could take everything out of all the levels so all you could do is walk around them as your "grey blob" character so that nobody gets concerned about race , and if they did do it as dlc to give it the "authentic" Australian feel they could make the dlc %300 more than its worth then add gst make it allways online so it drops out all the time and to top it off charge you a $6 bus fare to get home.

not that its all bad here at least i dont have to deal with AT&T....

 

[hickwarrior]

I just don't get the need to police content like this... I feel like we're in an era where old and modern opinions contrast. And it mostly seems the old is sitting at the top.

They keep treating us like children instead of adults.

 

[legendp]

I don't usually agree with censorship, and I don't know why this has been censored. but before everyone starts accussing all the politicains of being old fashioned (which many are), try to remember this is south park were talking about. so it wouldn't shock me if they where partially justified for some of the censorship. Perhaps it's just me but from what little I have seen there jokes can be a bit too crude.

 

[Grabehn]

I always find funny how after a while, every time I read "Australia" and "game" in the same sentence, the first thing that comes to mind is "what are they censoring now".

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Australia censors another game?...

It goes without saying, but if you're going to have an adult rating - at least stick with it for even the slightest sense of consistency.

 

[marurder]

This news isn't surprising. Australia has always had political issues relating to internet and content.

 

[Revolutionary]

Oh FFS, How much for a one way ticket to Canada?
I've had it up to here with this fucking nanny state bullshit.

I don't usually agree with censorship, and I don't know why this has been censored. but before everyone starts accussing all the politicains of being old fashioned (which many are), try to remember this is south park were talking about. so it wouldn't shock me if they where partially justified for some of the censorship. Perhaps it's just me but from what little I have seen there jokes can be a bit too crude.

Unless it was literally Child Porn no it's not justified. Distasteful maybe but not justified.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

I don't usually agree with censorship, and I don't know why this has been censored. but before everyone starts accussing all the politicains of being old fashioned (which many are), try to remember this is south park were talking about. so it wouldn't shock me if they where partially justified for some of the censorship. Perhaps it's just me but from what little I have seen there jokes can be a bit too crude.

That's not for the government to decide.

 

[Airon]

Whadaya know.

Australians and ze Germans now have something in comon. At least their lawmakers do.

They both shit their pants at funny, absurd and intense video games. And the industry preemptively censors itself because of it. Did you know they never even released Dead Rising 3 in Germany ?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

...I don't understand. Why do we have a R18+ rating if we're still gonna keep censoring shit like this!?!

For the same reason that the US has an Adults Only rating that is essentially a death sentence for games? I really don't understand what the point of even having these ratings, not the system, but these specific end-of-scale, forbidden/useless ratings.

There's a huge difference between the ESRB's AO rating and the Australian Classification Boards R18+ rating. From what I've heard, retailers will simply just not stock (or at the very least, not display) AO rated titles. That is not true in the slightest for R18+ releases in Australia.

 

[Abomination]

In a nation with some of the most deadly wildlife and forest fires, giving its residents the most justified reasons to swear, you're going to ban games from containing profanity?

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

$10 says that they only censor as much as it would be required to get a South Park episode rebroadcasted in the US, minus language (effectively an occasional censor pane to cover up the worst/most outright offensive stuff).