After being refused classification earlier this month, horror game Outlast 2 has been successfully re-classified and given the adult rating of R18+ in Australia. An entry for Outlast 2 listed on the Australian Government’s Classification Board website has confirmed that on March 21st 2017, Outlast was given the R18+ rating, with warnings of “high impact horror themes, violence, blood, gore, and sex.”
The ruling comes roughly a week after the game’s initial classification refusal, which stated that Outlast 2 was found to: “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."
In a report obtained by Kotaku, it appeared as if scenes of “implied sexual violence” were a significant factor in the board’s original decision to refuse classification.
It's unclear what caused the Classification Board to alter their original decision, but what we do know is that the contents of Outlast 2 were not altered in any way during resubmission, and that Australia will receive the same game as everyone else.
In a statement provided to Press-Start, developer Red Barrels confirmed: “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 2 available worldwide.”
Source: GameSpot
