Hotline Miami 2 Effectively Banned in Australia

Another day, another censorship controversy strikes Down Under. And it’s not surprising this time either.

The victim in question is Hotline Miami 2, the sequel to the critically acclaimed Slasher-film simulator of the same name. The culprit is the Australian Classification Board, which cited “implying sexual assault” as the major cause for the games ‘unofficial’ bannage. You see, while Australia has an ‘adults only’ rating, which is parallel to our ‘mature’, the Classification Board can still refuse to rate something, which is effectively a ban on the game ever being sold in the country.

Specifically, the ACB cites the following scene:

"In the sequence of game play footage titled Midnight Animal, the protagonist character bursts into what appears to be a movie set and explicitly kills 4 people, who collapse to the floor in a pool of copious blood, often accompanied by blood splatter. After stomping on the head of a fifth male character, he strikes a female character wearing red underwear. She is knocked to the floor and is viewed lying face down in a pool of copious blood. The male character is viewed with his pants halfway down, partially exposing his buttocks. He is viewed pinning the female down by the arms and lying on top of her thrusting, implicitly raping her (either rear entry or anally) while her legs are viewed kicking as she struggles beneath him.”

If that sounds familiar, it’s because that was the scene shown off in a Hotline Miami 2 demo in June of 2013, which at the time spawned a similar controversy in the West. If you remember that demo, then, you’d remember that the creators responded to criticisms by saying they were being taken out of context, and immediately after the sexual assault, it’s shown that the entire thing is a movie set and everyone, from the victims to the killer, were actors. Additionally, the creators pointed out that they included an option to turn off the scenes depicting sexual violence, allowing people to enjoy the game without the controversial scene.

In response to the Australian ban, Devolver Digital and Dennaton Games have issued a statement clarifying the context of the scene explained in the Australian report, as well as assured gamers that they would not change the game, or look to challenge the ‘ban’.

“…we are concerned and disappointed that a board of professionals tasked with evaluating and judging games fairly and honestly would stretch the facts to such a degree and issue a report that describes specific thrusting actions that are not simply present in the sequence in question and incorrectly portrays what was presented to them for review."

So, that’s sad for Australian Gamers, except not really, because it just means they’ll have to go out of their way to pirate it a few weeks after it comes out. Not that we’re advocating piracy, just… I mean, we all know that’s what’s going to happen anyway, so.