Bohemia Interactive’s multiplayer zombie survival game, DayZ, a title that’s been legally available in Australia for over five years, has been refused an age rating by the Australian Classification Board, effectively banning it from sale – but it’s a restriction that, rather absurdly, only applies to the upcoming physical release.
While Bohemia Interactive is publisher of DayZ’s digital version, which has been available on Steam since 2013, the upcoming physical version is being handled by distributor Five Star Games. And it’s this latter version that has (as spotted by Ref Classification on Twitter) fallen foul of the Australian Classification Board’s notoriously draconian rules.
According to DayZ’s listing, actually dated June 4th but only surfacing now, the game has been refused classification as it was deemed 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.”
Although the listing doesn’t state which of those specific restrictions DayZ has fallen foul of, it’s possible that the game’s use of morphine as a means of healing bones and reducing the effects of pain may be the culprit, with the board having previously dropped the ban hammer on a variety of titles with mechanics that were considered to link drug use with reward.