Zombie survival game DayZ has had its application for classification in Australia rejected, due to its content being considered “against the standards of morality.” The title has been refused a classification on all platforms, meaning Australians won’t be able to play it anytime soon, despite it previously being classified as MA 15+.
A post on the Australian Classification Website shows that the game was submitted by Five Star Games Pty Ltd and has been marked as refused classification.
It gives a reason code of Game 1(a), which is described as video 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.”
It's unclear as to how the board have reached this decision, especially when other games dealing with the issues highlighted in the description above, such as Grand Theft Auto V, have been classified.
DayZ is a zombie survival game which began life as an ARMA mod. It’s now a stand-alone game, developed and published by Bohemia Interactive. It was originally released back in 2013 through Steam’s Early Access program. The Windows version finally came out of early access in December 2018 and was followed by a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release in early 2019.
The confusing part of the title’s refusal is that it has previously been accepted and rated at just 15+ prior to this latest application.
A search of the Australian Classification results shows that in October 2018 it was submitted by IARC and classified as MA 15+. There are also classification reports for March 2019, May 2019 and July 2019 which all give the title the same MA 15+ rating.
With the history above, it's unclear as to what has changed with the latest application.
The only noticeable differences are that the applicant was Five Star Games Pty Ltd, rather than IARC and the publisher is listed as Sold Out, rather than Bohemia Interactive (who are still listed as authors).
DayZ is not the first game to fall foul of the strict board, who previously refused We Happy Few, before later classifying it as MA 18+.