PSN and Xbox Live versions of The Walking Dead finally make their way to Australia with MA15+ rating

Telltale Games' award-winning, episodic zombie adventure series The Walking Dead will finally be released in Australia after receiving a classification of MA15+ from the Australian Classification Board.

The game was released in the U.S. and Europe for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and iOS devices last year, but in Australia it only released on PC (via Steam) and iOS. A Telltale staffer said at the time that the reason the game was not getting a console release in Australia was "due to the OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification, which has since been renamed The Classification Board) ratings laws in Australia and New Zealand, and the fact that this is a mature game, we do not currently have plans to release the game there on consoles."

The reason The Walking Dead was released on Steam and iOS in Australia was due to a classification loophole where mobile games and apps and online PC games do not need to be classified by the government-run classification board. Console games, however, do need to be classified before they can be sold. It costs money to submit a video game to the board for classification and publishers are charged even if a game is refused classification, which could have been the case if The Walking Dead was deemed to be too mature for the MA15+ category, which was the highest rating Australia had for video games at the time.

The country has had a R18+ rating for video games since Jan. 1, 2013.

A listing for The Walking Dead on the Australian Classification Board shows that it has been given a rating of MA15+ for "Strong themes and horror violence." A release date is yet to be announced.