The Australian classifications board have taken the step of effectively banning 50 Cents new videogame down-under, having refused to certificate the new title. 50 Cent: Bulletproof features lashings of gang violence, gangster plotlines and other such 'mature' content. The three-member review board panel apparently spent a collective 42 hours playing the title before denying it classification. This effective ban means the game cannot be sold, rented, advertised or even seen across the country. Apparently, the game's story mode sees 'Fiddy' out to avenge the death of his former cellmate on the mean streets of New York's crime underworld. Violence, drugs and bad language are apparently justified in the context of the singleplayer mode's gritty plot, however the Australian censors were not so accommodating when it came to the arcade mode, which includes extreme violence and killing with no context whatsoever.
Maureen Shelley, convenor of the Classification Review Board commented, "The counter kills are enacted in detail, they are prolonged and take place in close up and slow motion. The most impactful of the counter kills involve knives and on-screen blood splatter. The Review Board determined that the impact of this mode was high and could not be accommodated at MA15+ classification. Therefore the game must be refused classification".
Publisher VU Games must now either accept that the game cannot be sold in Australia, or re-submit an edited version of the title for reassessment by the review panel. We'll keep you posted on this.
SOURCE
http://play.tm/story/6946
