State of Decay receives R18+ rating in Australia on second go

An amended version of State of Decay, Undead Labs' open-world zombie survival title, received R 18+ rating from the Australian Classification Board after the original version was refused classification by the Board.

Under its rating, the game is flagged for high impact violence, moderate impact themes and language, as well as mild impact drug use and sex. In a response to a question if State of Decay will see a release in the country this weekend, the official Undead Labs account tweeted that it doesn't think "there's any chance" as the Australian version needs to be certified by Xbox Live Arcade.

The zombie title was denied classification by the Board late last month under the "Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games," because the title features use of "illicit or proscribed drug use" as incentives in the game, which is prohibited by the guidelines.

According to the Board's State of Decay Decision Report, the government body specifically took issue with the self-administering of legal and illicit substances "to restore a player's health or boost their stamina," including methadone, morphine, amphetamines, stimulants, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, codeine, aspirin, "trucker pills," painkillers and tussin.

At the time, Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain wrote on the studio's official forums, saying the game had run "afoul of certain prohibitions regarding the depiction of drug use." He also said the team was working with publishing-partner Microsoft to "come up with options, including changing names of certain medications in the game to comply with ratings requirements."

State of Decay launched worldwide on June 5 on Xbox Live Arcade and is due for a Windows PC release sometime in the future. It didn't launch in Australia as intended because of the delay with the country's Board.