Silent Hill Banned in OZ! (Updated)

Gamespot AU is reporting that Silent Hill: Homecoming has been banned by the Australian OFLC.

In what seems like ‘oh no, here we go again’. It comes a no great surprised that this may affect distribution and clasifaction right in NZ.

“Latest Silent Hill horror game refused classification down under; local distributor will wait until early 2009 for a possible resubmission.

This year has been a depressing one for Aussie gamers when it comes to bans, with three games failing to meet Australia's strict classification requirements. Dark Sector, Shellshock 2: Blood Trails, and Fallout 3 were all banned in 2008, though both Dark Sector and Fallout 3 were eventually allowed back into the country after some modifications were made. It seems that's not the end of the banning story for this year, however. This afternoon Konami confirmed that its upcoming Silent Hill: Homecoming has also been refused classification, so selling it is illegal in Australia.”

Source: Gamespot AU

This further highlights the need for Australian OFLC to get a rating beyond MA15+ to allow R18+ titles to be released without a ban with content removed from the game.

NZGamer.com will seek comment from Atari NZ first thing this week, keep it locked to NZGamer.com to see if this effects NZ’s release.

Update: At this stage Atari NZ has not received comment from Atari AU about the OFLC decision. Atari NZ assures us that when they do, a release will be issued.

Fingers crossed!