Xboxist

It's Coming to Get Ya: Aussie R18+ is (Almost) Official

Freddy and Sub-Zero didn't get a chance in Australia (at least in Xbox 360 form), but now they just might be coming to get you down under (or perhaps even in their next appearances).

And in that respect, so too is the long-requested R18+ video game classification along with them.

What did so boot Mortal Kombat from down under market release is now almost a distant memory, as new draft guidelines begin making headway to reverse years of bad industry history that proverbially and literally banhammered everything over age 15 suitability all the way out of the video game outback.

"I am delighted that NSW has decided to support what is not just a practical public policy, but a very popular policy," Aussie justice minister Brendan O'Connor said in making the anouncement. "Once introduced, the new classification will also afford adults the opportunity to view material designed for adults." The New South Wales Attorney-General also pledged his "in-principle support" to the new measures despite having abstained from last month's vote.

Final approval of the necessary amendments should be forthcoming out of the requisite jurisdictional cabinets within the near future as the new policy progress toward formal approval, which previously had been targeted for the end of the year.