Australia made headlines in the games industry for the wrong reasons yet again last month when the Australian Classification Board slapped the RC rating for We Happy Few, effectively banning the game. RC stands for “Refused Classification,” which means that the game cannot be sold in the country. However, it looks like the tides are turning for developer Compulsion Games, as the Classification Board has decided to review the RC rating for its upcoming game.
As reported by Kotaku Australia, the Australian Classification Board published a press release, announcing that it will be reviewing the RC rating for We Happy Few in a meeting on July 3rd, 2018. With this announcement, it also welcomed public submissions for anyone who wishes to take part as “as an interested party to this review.” The deadline for public submissions will be on June 29th, 2018. Until then, anyone can write to the Convenor of the Review Board through email or a postal address.
We Happy Few Australia Ban: Review in July
To clarify, We Happy Few has actually been playable on Steam since 2016 but it will only be leaving Early Access later this year on August 10th, 2018. The original report by the Australian Classification Board stated that “a player that takes Joy can reduce gameplay difficulty, therefore receiving an incentive by progressing through the game quickly.” In the game, Joy is a hallucinogenic drug which leaves users in a constant state of happiness, albeit with loose morals. We reported last month that the game was refused classification when it violated classification guidelines due to the use of Joy.
In other related news, Microsoft announced during its Xbox E3 2018 press conference that it has acquired a whopping five new game studios. That includes The Initiative, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Playground Games and of course, We Happy Few developer Compulsion Games. This move will definitely benefit the developer, which will be able to take advantage of better resources provided by Microsoft in the future.
