Earlier this month, Outlast ΙΙ was denied by the Australian government’s Classification Board, but now has been given the green light.
Outlast ΙΙ was resubmitted it was confirmed by the Australian Classification Board website on March 21st that the game will indeed be allowed to be released in Australia. it was given a R18+ rating, with warnings of, “high impact horror themes, violence, blood, gore, and sex.” This ruling came only a week after their initial refusal, which the Board stated Outlast ΙΙ fell into the category 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.”
It was reported by Kotaku that the main reason the Board refused classification for Outlast ΙΙ was the “implied sexual violence”, though that was not the only reason, it was the most specific one.
It’s a mystery as to why the Australian Government Classification Board decided to finally overturned its original decision, as the game was not altered in anyway. Red Barrel confirmed to Press-Start that, “Outlast 2 has been rated R18+ by the Classification Branch in Australia and will be released 26th April 2017. There will be only one version of Outlast ΙΙ available worldwide.”
