Late last week, it was revealed that the Australian release of the hugely anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV's content had been 'trimmed' for the sake of getting the game through the classification process.

This is Rockstar Australia's official stance:

The Australian version of Grand Theft Auto IV was rated by the OFLC in December 2007 as MA15+. Unlike the US and Europe, Australia still lacks an R18+ rating for video games and as a result many games are edited for release in Australia, including most previous Grand Theft Auto releases.

While there are some minor differences between the Australian and US/EU versions, they are not significant and we do not believe they take away from the level of scope and detail that make GTA IV such an incredible experience. We would not release the game in Australia if we believed these differences compromised the quality of the game in any way.

We strongly support the OLFC and will continue to work within their guidelines; however we believe the government needs to bring games in line with other media by introducing an R18+ rating, or edits to games will continue to be necessary. We encourage consumers to let their politicians know that they support an R18+ rating for games.
Last week, IGN AU featured a look at the OFLC's lack of an R rating, and the debate surrounding it. This latest statement once again highlights the disparity beween the OFLC's classification system and those of other countries.

With Rockstar weighing into the debate with a public statement, perhaps the discussion will be accelerated.

We do find it disappointing that we were informed back in December that GTA IV had made it through the classification process without any cuts made to the content, when the reality was that Rockstar felt they needed to censor their own content prior for a gaming population in Australia with an average age of 28.

We again point you towards our R18+ debate feature and suggest you follow its guidelines for taking action against the OFLC's current stance.

Australia is so backwards when it comes to game ratings, i will show support for the R18+ rating to be legalised and the government should pay more attention to the average gamers age of 28 as well.

Nice find perthzed...

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May LIBRT! RIP....

So they still won't say what has been removed (if anything)?

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[COLOR="Gray"]550Nm off a 2L... Just wish it was in the dak dak...[/COLOR]

i read in an article not to long ago in the paper saying that australia was creating an R18+ genre for the video game industry? didnt sya when it was coming into effect though.

^ whats there to create,.

What the hell are they going to do when Manhunt 2 comes out?? That cannot be 'edited' down to a MA. Do a youtube for manhunt2 and check out the trailer. Makes SAW look like Bambi.

AN R18+ rating, like i just said, so we can get the uncensored games......

I’m not much of a gamer, but I have to say that I’m looking forward to getting my hands on GTA 4. This has got to be one of the most anticipated games of the past 10 years. When San Andreas came out I was blown away at the sheer size of the game. I guess the only thing that was missing was decent AI. You never really got the impression that you were cruising around in a living city. Now with GTA 4, from all reports, the AI is pretty good, along with the graphics I think this game is going to be mind blowing. Roll on April 29th

well rockstar have always gone beyond expectation.

remember what they did with ps2 and gta, and imagine what theyre doing with ps3