Silent Hill f Blocked in Australia
Konami's upcoming title, Silent Hill f, has received a Refused Classification (RC) rating in Australia, effectively barring its sale in the country for the time being. However, this RC rating was issued by an automated rating tool rather than the official Australian Classification Board. Based on past precedent, this automated decision is unlikely to be the final verdict.
While Konami does not handle its own game distribution in Australia, IGN has reached out to its local third-party distributor for a statement.
The specific grounds for the RC rating have not been disclosed. Since the introduction of the R18+ category for video games in Australia in January 2013, games are typically refused classification only for depicting sexual activity involving underage characters, graphic sexual violence, or incentivizing drug use. In 2008, Silent Hill: Homecoming was initially refused classification ahead of its release due to an intense torture scene. This occurred before the R18+ rating was available, which now permits high-impact violence. The game was later approved for release in Australia with an MA15+ rating after the problematic scene was altered with different camera angles.
What we do know is that the RC rating for Silent Hill f was assigned through an online tool managed by the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC). This system is designed for rating mobile and digitally distributed games. Developers complete an online questionnaire about their game's content, and the IARC tool automatically generates ratings based on the standards of each participating country. For Australia, the tool's decision is automatically published in the National Classification Database.
In Australia, this automated tool is reserved for digitally distributed titles. It was adopted in 2014 when the Classification Board was rating around 755 games per year, while over 40,000 games were being released annually on the iOS App Store alone. There have been multiple cases where automated IARC ratings have been more restrictive than those assigned by human classifiers. For instance, in 2019, there were widespread but incorrect reports that Kingdom Come: Deliverance and We Happy Few had been banned in Australia.
The IARC tool is free to use, offering significant benefits to small publishers and indie developers. However, all physical game releases must still be rated directly by the Classification Board. Therefore, if Silent Hill f plans a physical launch in Australia, a submission to the Board would be mandatory regardless. The Board also retains the authority to override any IARC-assigned rating if it disagrees with the assessment.
In Australia, game publishers can employ either accredited classifiers or authorized assessors. Accredited classifiers are in-house staff trained by the Classification Board who can issue official ratings. Authorized assessors, while similarly trained, can only make recommendations to the Board, which then makes the final classification decision.
At this stage, it is too early to determine whether the RC rating for Silent Hill f will stand after further review. Notably, this is the first Silent Hill game to receive an 18+ rating certification in Japan.
