Thankfully the committee in charge of that inquiry has now tabled its report in strong favour of proceeding with the bill. The report stated:

The Committee recommends that the House of Representatives pass the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (R 18+ Computer Games) Bill 2012.

Hooray! Progress! Exclamation mark!

Rather than a stall tactic, the inquiry was done to ensure enough public consultation had been sought before introducing the bill to parliament. The committee was satisfied with the 58,000 submissions from the public, along with 2,000 telephone surveys and 2,500 submissions to the Review of the National Classification Scheme.

That’s a whole bunch of gamers who don’t want to see the next Mortal Kombat game refused classification.

Head over to the House of Representatives Committees website to read the full report.

Years of campaigning have finally paid off today as Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Jason Clare, has introduced the R18+ bill to parliament and stated he expects it to come into effect early next year.

In his reading of the R18+ legislation to parliament, Clare said: “This will bring the classification categories for computer games into line with existing categories used to classify films, and make the Australian classification regime more consistent with international standards.”

“This reform has been a long time coming. Agreement to introduce an R18+ category has been reached after ten years of negotiations with the states and territories. Over these ten years the Australian computer game industry has grown–along with the number of Australian computer gamers.”

The process begins with the legislation being introduced at a federal level and assuming that passes, individual states will follow with their own legislation.

While this is a massive step in bringing the Australian classification of games in line with the rest of the world, we’ve still got a while to go yet. There are many hurdles along the way that could set this process back, so unfortunately we won’t see the recently refused classification of the Syndicate remake being overturned any time soon.

Source: Gamespot AU

Well, when it comes out in New Zealand since the game was refused classification in Australia because we still don’t have an R18+ classification. But hey, we get to check the demo out. So I guess that’s something.

Check out the new co-op trailer on Youtube below or download the full HD version from 3FL entirely quota-free for iiNet, Westnet and Netspace customers.

[Update] EA Australia have confirmed that the Syndicate co-op demo will not be available in Australia, only New Zealand. I wasn’t aware they bothered limiting specific Xbox Live/PSN titles to specific regions, other than whether it’s available for EU or NA (Australia and New Zealand both falls under EU). I guess we’ll find out later this month.

The decision report from the Classification Board states:

In the opinion of the Board, the game contains intense sequences of violence which include detailed depictions of decaptitation and dismemberment that are high in playing impact. The game also contains the ability to inflict repeated and realistic post mortem damage which exceeds strong in playing impact. It is therefore unsuitable for a minor to see or play and should be Refused Classification pursuant to item 1(d) of the computer games table of the Code.

EA has released the following statement regarding the decision:

It’s regrettable that government policy in Australia is denying adults the right to play Syndicate. The game will be not be available in Australia despite its enthusiastic response from fans. We were encouraged by the government’s recent agreement to adopt an 18+ age rating for games. We urge policy makers to take swift action to implement an updated policy that reflects today’s market and gives its millions of adult consumers the right to make their own content choices.

Some day we’ll all laugh about this whole refused classification thing. That’s the day when we finally have an R18+ classification and Australian adults can enjoy being able to purchase the same games that adults in every other country in the world can purchase. We’ll get there eventually.

Was anyone else as excited as me about todays vote by our Attorney Generals?  Well, it’s been delayed.  Apparently the WA AG – Christian Porter – has requested more time to consider the issue.  He’s also been a vocal opponent of R18+ game classifications, so this could be a good or bad thing – time will tell.

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Electronics Arts president Frank Gibeau has also weighed into the debate, having sent an open letter to the Australian Government supporting the introduction of an R18+ rating as well.  Below are some of the excerpts from his letter:

Government policies that don’t allow for the rating of mature content in video games effectively censor entertainment choices for adults. These policies show a poor understanding of today’s video gaming audience.  Existing legislation in Australia that limits age ratings of games to 16, demonstrates a distance between those policies and the reality of the video game industry and the people that play interactive games in Australia today.

…..

A change in the Australian age rating system is needed. We call on the Attorneys General in their next general session to vote unanimously in favor of the introduction of an 18+ rating for video games to allow adults to make their own choices about the entertainment they choose to enjoy. The implementation of a new 18+ age rating classification is the right step for consumers, and for the industry, in Australia.

I’m sure that I’m not alone in hoping that we get a positive outcome out of today’s meeting of the state Attorney Generals, and that it represents the significant public interest and opinion that has been raised by this issue coming to a head.

Via:  News.com.au

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As we previously posted last year, submissions are currently open for public comment on the issue of the introduction of an R18+ rating for games.  So hit up our previous news post and have your say if you haven’t already.

Via:  Gamespot

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Its as simple as filling in a Word document template provided at the above web site and emailing it in.  Submissions will be made publicly available unless you request on your submission that it be anonymised.  I’d strongly encourage as many gamers within the community to voice your opinion, whether you’re for or against the issue.  The more submissions that are made shows that the general community do care and have genuine concerns and thoughts about the issue.

Other news that has been made public today, is that the ACT Attorney General Simon Corbell has confirmed that he is in support of an amendment to the Classification Act to allow an R18+ rating for games.  So out of the Attorney Generals across Australia, that makes 2 including Victorian AG Rob Hulls who have made public their support for amendments to be made to the Classification Act.  Michael Atkinson from South Australia currently stands alone with his vocal opposition to the proposed amendments, with the other State and Territory representatives yet to make public their stance on the issue.

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Kotaku have an article up with excerpts from a letter from South Australia’s Attorney-General Michael Atkinson.  The letter is in response to a gamer concerned with our lack of an R18+ classification for computer games and provides Atkinson’s view in quite a lot of detail.  The full letter (scanned PDF) is available here.  Watch out for Evony ads.

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