Games News

Major retailer Target Australia is now using plain packaging to display adult rated games on its store shelves.

The video game packaging just shows the big R18+ logo, the title, and nothing else.

Target Australia has bad reputation for censorship, unilaterally pulling Grand Theft Auto V after a little hoo-hah from morality campaigners.

Shoppers can still look at the normal covers for games in stores such as EB Games and JB Hi Fi.

Update: Only in South Australia

6th March 2016. See  article from web.facebook.com

Target of Australia has responded to the news report saying:

We can assure you this plain packaging display is not policy nation-wide. We are currently investigating the origins of this image. There are some legal guidelines in SA around how R rated video games can be displayed, so we believe the image may have originated from SA. Please don't hesitate to let us know if there's anything further we can assist you with.

A bloody video game set inside the Pakistani school where more than 130 children were massacred by Taliban gunmen has been withdrawn, weeks after it was released as part of an army-backed campaign to promote peace and tolerance in the country.

Players of Pakistan Army Retribution take the role of a soldier attempting to protect precious lives from terrorists who attacked the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar in December 2014.

There are various levels in the game, which features a rousing rendition of the national anthem, depicts events from the day of the attack and is branded with the logos of the Pakistani army and Punjab Information Technology Board.

The organisations jointly commissioned the game as part of a campaign to mark the one-year anniversary of the school killings.

Although it had been available to users of Android mobile devices for some time it only attracted public attention recently when Dawn, one of the country's leading newspapers, ran a review on its website that declared the game failed on every politically correct front.

There were claims of the game being disrespectful to the dead. Making a game out of the nation's most gruesome tragedy is adding salt to the injuries of not only the families of the martyred children but the entire nation.

Umar Saif, chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board, said the game was immediately pulled from the Google Play store after he became aware of it on Monday. Saif said Pakistan Army Retribution was just one of dozens of videos, jingles and social media items commissioned as part of a Peaceful Pakistan campaign intended to build on national revulsion over the APS attack.

Paranautical Activity is a 2014 first person shooter by Code Avarice developed further by Digerati in 2015 as the Deluxe Atonement Edition

The PC and consolde gamen Paranautical Activity made the news in 2014 when developer Mike Maulbeck got involved in a twitter storm over incorrect details and was pulled from Steam.

The game reappeared in February last year as a Deluxe Atonement Edition . But this has now been banned by Australian censors.

The Classification Board listing is dated 5th January 2016 and lists the film as banned or 'Refused Classification' The Australian censor does not give reasons for the ban beyond vague words about it not fitting within the censorship rules.

Current distributors Digerati told kotaku they would look at removing the 'offending item' to comply with the Classification Board's requirements:

The reason they gave was 'illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives and rewards' -- the prescribed drug in game is Adderall and picking up the item gives you a 15% speed increase.

I have asked if we can resub [Paranautical Activity] without the item, waiting for a reply.