by Dylan Blight

We Happy Few Unbanned

Update: 

On a blog post on the developer’s website, Compulsion Games has stated the We Happy Few will be coming to Australian audiences without any changes.

We are extremely pleased with the decision of the board and excited that our Australian fans and new players will be able to experience We Happy Few without modification.

This is interesting given in the past titles that were denied classification usual have had to change something in the gameplay, be that Fallout 4 or South Park: The Stick of Truth, for example.

You can read the blog post here. 

The classification board in Australia has reviewed and reclassified We Happy Few which was originally refused a classification in Australia earlier this year.

Through the Classification Boards website today it was announced that a three member panel of the Classification Review Board today unanimously determined that We Happy Few would be classified R18+ with consumer advice for ‘Fantasy violence and interactive drug use.’ 

What’s interesting is that the game was originally refused classification due to the games drugs use. The Classification Boards rules for games states that games that promote the use of drug use as positive, or through in-game rewards will be refused classification. As such was the problem early in the year. 

From Mays Media Release:

Players have the option to conform with NPCs and take Joy pills when exploring the Village or Parade District areas of the game. If a player has not taken Joy, NPCs become hostile towards the player if they perform behaviours including running, jumping and staring. An NPC character called the Doctor can detect when the player has not taken Joy and will subsequently raise an alarm. A player who takes Joy can reduce gameplay difficulty, therefore receiving an incentive by progressing through the game quickly. Although there are alternative methods to complete the game, gameplay requires the player to take Joy to progress.

As such the board found the drug use to exceed the R18+ rating and was refused classification. What, if anything that has changed between the initial rating and now is currently unknown. 

The Review Board is a separate entity to the Classification Board so it will be interesting to see what the reasons for their ratings are when they are publised on the Classification website at a later date. You can read the media release here.

For now though Australia, we are getting We Happy Few.