Saints Row 4 Goes For The Hat Trick

Saints Row IV Australian Release Date Pushed Back - Kotaku Australia

Wow, just wow.  Just when you thought this debacle couldn't go even further down the tubes the release date for our sanitised for adults version of SR4 has been pushed back to a month later than the rest of the world.

So to summarise...  We are getting a censored version, the Aussie version will not be compatible to play online with any copy from other regions and now it will take an extra month for this game to officially see our shores.  It's just like the pre R18+ days.  Australia Tax on locally released copies will still apply of course.

SR4 is getting some good reviews out there with no mention of all the horrible narcotics and sexual assault that we Aussies must be protected from, also remembering the questionable weapon will most likely be re-instated in future downloadable content anyway!  Either the rest of the world has a thicker skin or, more likely, this terrible civilisation destroying content is such a minor feature of the game that it would barely register as a concern to most reasonable adults... as in "what a reasonable adult would consider acceptable" which is the crux of the R18+ rating!

Since the modified version has already been submitted and approved by the Australian Classification Board I honestly think that the delay is a deliberate ploy by the developers to try to kick up some extra stink on Australian shores.  Unfortunately with an election looming this will not even register on any politicians issue list.

At the end of the day the only way we can object to the our nannified "adult" rating is by ensuring any purchase of this game is made off-shore which means the local retailers will have take the brunt of any consumer action.  Buying locally means supporting an ineffective ratings system.  As an adult you should have choices.  If you find any aspect of any item too objectionable then it is your choice not to support a product, or express your concern to the distributors and publishers.  There are no floodgates to be opened by allowing a cartoonish game like SR4 through uncut as the real objectionable content is not made by any game developer intending to distribute their games via normal retail channels.

At the end of the day as an adult the choice is yours to make, and the government should not be taking making that choice for you.