Word around the campfire is Red Barrels’ sequel, Outlast 2, has been refused classification in Australia. It’s not surprising considering the issues the first Outlast title had.
The Australian publisher 18point2 applied for the classification which was refused. According to the Australian Classification site it was refused due to breaching guidelines.
Classification Reasons
The computer game is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code, Computer Games Table, 1. (a) as computer games that “depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.
I played the first Outlast, but never finished. Probably because I am a huge wuss. Having played some, I can see how it would be scrutinised. A demo for Outlast 2 was released in November last year. We posted a Let’s Play of the demo in it’s entirety which you can view here.
I really feel the Australian Classification’s Board is too strict regarding videogames. It will be interesting to see what 18point2 will do moving forward.
Outlast 2 was scheduled for release on 25th of April 2017. This doesn’t leave the developer a lot of time to be able to make changes. We’ll just have to wait and see.
