UPDATED: Saints Row 4 Refused Classification in Australia

Saints Row 4 has been refused classification in Australia. If you're unsure of what that means - it cannot be sold or displayed in any retail stores across the country.

Deep Silver issued the following statement to Joystiq:

Deep Silver can confirm that Saints Row IV was denied an age classification in Australia. Volition, the developer, are reworking some of the code to create a version of the game for this territory by removing the content which could cause offence without reducing the outlandish gameplay that Saints Row fans know and love. Saints Row IV has been awarded PEGI 18 and ESRB M ratings where fans can enjoy their time in Steelport as originally intended.

The acting director of the Australian Classifcation Board, Donald McDonald, had the following to say:

In the Board’s opinion, Saints Row IV, includes interactive, visual depictions of implied sexual violence which are not justified by context. In addition, the game includes elements of illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards. Such depictions are prohibited by the computer games guidelines.

Under the body’s guidelines, Saint’s Row 4 is being refused classification as it, manages to, “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.

Well, you know how I feel about sexualized violence especially when it comes to Deep Silver, but I'm biting my tongue until the content is shown. Sexual violence is a topic that shouldn't be censored but I don't believe video games have proven they can handle the topic with poise or intellect. From what we've seen from the Saints Row series, I'm not exactly sure "poise" or "intellect" would be the first words to come to my mind in regards to depicting a mode of violence that has deeply problematic social readings.

UPDATE: Trigger Warning for Sexual Assault

It appears that more details have been given to Kotaku from the Australian Classifaction Board (emphasis mine):

The game includes a weapon referred to by the Applicant as an “Alien Anal Probe”. The Applicant states that this weapon can be “shoved into enemy’s backsides”. The lower half of the weapon resembles a sword hilt and the upper part contains prong-like appendages which circle around what appears to be a large dildo which runs down the centre of the weapon. When using this weapon the player approaches a (clothed) victim from behind and thrusts the weapon between the victim’s legs and then lifts them off the ground before pulling a trigger which launches the victim into the air. After the probe has been implicitly inserted into the victim’s anus the area around their buttocks becomes pixelated highlighting that the aim of the weapon is to penetrate the victim’s anus. The weapon can be used during gameplay on enemy characters or civilians. 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.

The game contains an optional mission which involves the player obtaining and smoking drugs referred to as “alien narcotics”. Smoking the “alien narcotics” equips the player with “superpowers” which increase their in-game abilities allowing them to progress through the mission more easily.

I'm going to go ahead and say something crazy here: raping a victim before murdering them is incredibly fucked up. I placed a trigger warning because even though this is supposed to be far from reality with "alien technology," the graphics implied are highly triggering and are in incredibly poor taste. I'm cringing at the thoughts of rape jokes to come out of it especially on YouTube Let's Plays and in multiplayer environments that are already incredibly hostile. I know many people are going to tell me to lighten up and I've already seen the "lulz" come out of this news, but I'm not cracking a smile here.