**Update: Outlast 2 Ban gets overtunred; will now be available to release legally in Australia**
Outlast 2 has recently been denied classification by the Australian Classification Board, on the basis of a ‘ritualistic’ sex scene in which the main character, Blake Langermann, is sexually assaulted by a female creature. Many gamers are town between the Australian ban towards the game, including Australian Senator David Leyonhielm.
Leyonhielm, part of the Liberal Democratic Party, made a speech yesterday talking about the classification board’s decision to ban the game. Leyonhielm. seems to be on the opposite side as he feels they should leave video gamers alone as there more disturbing things in the real world to focus on.
This video game takes place in a fantasy world involving all kinds of creatures both human and non-human. The mere suggestion of an out-of-screen encounter between a creature and a human character was enough to get it banned altogether by the Australian Classification Board.
All of this operates on the false assumption that people who play video games are impressionable children who would play out anything they saw.
Yet the internet is now awash with all manner of unpleasant images involving real people – not computer generated images – and violent crime around the world is in decline.
However, just because a senator makes a remark about the ban doesn’t mean the game will be overruled by the Classification Board. At the time of writing, the game is still not allowed to be sold legally in Australia. Leyonhielm ended his speech with stating that the government and classification board “should leave video gamers alone.”
Outlast 2 is coming out this April 25 for Xbox, PS4, and PC.
