Konami’s upcoming Silent Hill F has been denied a classification in Australia. This means that at this point the game cannot be sold within Australia. However, based on precedent, it is unlikely that this is the end of the story, as Silent Hill F’s RC ratings are assigned by automated assessment tools rather than through actual Australian Classification Committee members.
Konami does not distribute its own games locally in Australia, but Passthecontroller has reached out to third-party distribution partners for comment.
No specific reasons for the Silent Hill F’s RC rating are currently provided. Since the introduction of the Adult Only Category (R18+) in Australia in January 2013, games that have been denied classification in Australia have been generally flagged for sexual activity with people who appear in children under the age of 18, visual depictions of sexual violence, or those who link incentives and rewards to drug use. Silent Hill in 2008: Homecoming was initially denied a classification in Australia until its release due to its high torture scenes, but that was a few years before the introduction of the R18+ rating. Silent Hill: Homecoming was later released in Australia, where the camera angle of the problem scene was changed and was rated MA15+.
But what we already know is that the RC ratings of Silent Hill F in Australia are actually assigned by online tools maintained by the International Age Rating Coalition, a classification system designed for mobile and digitally distributed games. The IARC Classification Tool is an online survey in which applicants simply answer a series of questions about the content of the game. The IARC tool assigns automatic ratings from each area based on classification criteria for each participating country. In Australia, the IARC tool will send you decisions that will be automatically published in Australia’s national classification database.
In Australia, this tool can only be used for digitally distributed games ( Adopted in 2014 The Australian Classification Committee rated an average of 755 games per year, but at the time, over 40,000 games were released each year on the iOS App Store alone. there was Many examples of automated IARC ratings showing a higher trend than human ratings From the Classification Committee. For example, few people were widely reported to have been banned suddenly in 2019 when Kingdom Come: Derverance and we were not in Australia.
IARC tools are free to use. This benefits especially small publishers and developers. Importantly, all physical releases need to be graded by the Classification Committee itself, so if Silent Hill F is planning a physical release in Australia, submission to the Classification Committee is always mandatory anyway. The Classification Committee itself can override any given classification if the IARC tool disagrees.
In Australia, game publishers may have staff members who are certified classifiers or approved evaluators. The certified classifier is an internal staff member who has completed training from the classification committee and is able to classify the game itself, and their decisions become effective as official classification committee decisions. The authorized evaluator is a staff or contractor with similar training, but the classification decision is limited to recommendations made to the Australian Classification Commission and it must decide whether to apply it.
For now, it is too early to say whether Silent Hill F’s RC rating in Australia will be supported after further action. But it’s the first silent hill game 18 or more ratings in Japan.
Luke is a senior editor of the Passthecontroller Review Team. You can track him down on Bluesky @Mrlukereilly and ask him about things.
