You can take the anal probes out of Saints Row, but you can't...get Saints Row into Australia? Or something like that.
Despite removing the very reason the game was hit with a "Refused Classification" rating, it seems as though Australia's verdict on the game still stands. After removing the original offensive content as promised, Volition re-submitted the game to the Australian Classification Board for re-approval, whereupon the board hit the game with the same listing.
This time around, the board's logic behind the listing comes as a result of, as the board puts it, "drug use related to incentives and rewards is not permitted." The listing effectively bans the game from being sold in the country.
Volition's sandbox title first received the Aussie kiss of death back in June because of one of the many weapons offered in the game, in this case, an alien anal probe. Apparently, the Australian Classification Board didn't find the humor in it, as, "In the Board's opinion, a weapon designed to penetrate the anus of enemy characters and civilians constitutes a visual depiction of implied sexual violence that is interactive and not justified by context and as such the game should be Refused Classification."
Australia recently added in a new rating to their system so that more "adult oriented" titles could come in to the country. Prior to the recently introduced R18+ rating, any game that the Board felt exceeded a rating of MA15 was given a "refused classification" rating, and effectively banned. Games that have met with this fate in years past have included Manhunt, Mortal Kombat, Left 4 Dead, Silent Hill, and even Marc Ecko's Getting Up. Despite the new rating, the Board still maintains a policy to dole out the "refused classification" label on games that they feel fall outside of "acceptable content guidelines."
Since the country changed its rating system around this past January, Saints Row 4 was the first game to be banned in the country, and with the board's most recent ruling, remains the only title to be banned.
Deep Silver hasn't said if they'll be altering the game's content to re-submit it yet again. A "low-violence" version is planned on being released in Australia on August 23rd.
