Saints Row 4 'low violence' option appears on Steam

A "low violence" option for Volition's upcoming open-world game, Saints Row 4, is currently listed on Steam alongside the pre-purchase option for the normal version of the game.

At the time of writing, the low violence version can not be selected for pre-purchase. The new listing follows shortly after the news that the Australian Classification Board denied Saints Row 4 classification under the "Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games," saying that the title "includes interactive, visual depictions of implied sexual violence which are not justified by context" and features use of "illicit or proscribed drug use" as incentives in the game.

According to the Classification Board's decision report, the game was refused classification specifically because of a weapon called an "Alien Anal Probe" and an alien narcotic that gives players super powers when smoked. A Deep Silver spokesperson told Polygon at the time that Volition is amending the video game so it can be resubmitted for classification and ultimately see a release in the country.

Saints Row 4 is slated for release on Aug. 20 in North America and Aug. 23 in Europe for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. The open-world game made it onto Polygon's Editor's Choice selections for E3 2013, alongside Titanfall, Infamous: Second Son and Dark Souls 2.

Polygon contacted Deep Silver representatives about the content of the low violence version of Saints Row 4 listed on Steam.