DayZ Rated MA15+ In Australia After Removing Drug Usage Internationally

After a small snag, popular open-world survival game DayZ has been approved for release in Australia at an MA15+ rating.

Earlier this month, a physical release of the game was submitted for release in Australia by retail outlet Five Star Games. It was rejected by the Australian government for mature content. This came as a surprise since the International Age Rating Coalition rated the game as MA15+.

It would later be revealed that the reason for rejection was the use of marijuana as a healing item in the game. If they wanted the game published in the AUS, they'd need to remove it. Instead of removing the item from just the Australian version of the game, developers Bohemia Interactive will be updating all international versions to adhere to this new rating.
 

"We don't want to separate Australian players from the rest of the world, since many people play cross-region. We love that DayZ is the place to meet with friends and experience the game without dramatic regional lag. We don't want to change that."

So that's what they did. An update is coming to the international version of the game, implementing the necessary changes to appease the Australian government. It's not clear exactly what kind of change they made to make this happen, but you can safely assume that you can't smoke up to heal in the future.

Australia has a history of being strict about drug usage in video games. The same policy caused a bit of trouble when We Happy Few was rejected for classification. The game was given a second chance after asking for an appeal.