December 1st, 2008

Australia to receive Uncut version of GTA IV for PC

Published at 9:33 AM PST

In a shock decision by the OFLC, Australia's very strict rating board, this week, the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV will in-fact be uncensored. It was announced by Rockstar before the original release of the game on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles that Australia was receiving a modified game, which meant the removement of the prostitution options from the game. The OFLC is well known for being extremely strict when it comes to the rating of games, this year alone a total of 5 games, and high-profile games at that, have been denied a release. With the PC version of GTA IV being uncensored, it means PC gamers will have the prostitution options that the console versions don't, however it's unclear at this time why the OFLC has changed their mind on the games content since April. Rockstar sent this statement to GameSpot earlier today:

“Grand Theft Auto IV PC has been rated MA15+ strong violence, sex scenes, coarse language, and drug references by the Australian Classification Office. The PC game is unedited in any way and identical in content to the international version,”

The rating laws for games in Australia also state that, if a game is re-rated for another platform and receive a different rating on this platform covering different content, that rating and content is then the classification the game comes under for all the consoles it is on. This means that Grand Theft Auto IV has now been cleared for an MA 15+ rating as an uncensored game, which means future copies of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 released in Australia are allowed to be uncensored also, that is, if Rockstar decides to take that line.

Source: GameSpot