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# [Very Australian Voice] 🎵 Tale As Old As Tooiimmeee 🎵
- URL: https://aftermath.site/halloween-game-banned-australia/
- Published: 2026-08-24T15:00:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-24T15:00:40.000Z
- Description: 'video games are refused classification if they contain illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards'
- Author: Luke Plunkett
- Tags: australia, Video Games, Halloween: The Game

Before 2013, [Australia did not have an R18+ age rating for video games](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian%5FClassification%5FBoard?ref=aftermath.site#1990s;%5FModifications%5Fand%5Fcomputer%5Fgame%5Fclassifications), meaning that any title the nation's classification board deemed was *too much* for kids simply wasn't allowed to be commercially sold here. This impacted a number of high-profile releases (the most prominent being *Fallout 3*), so when in 2013 we finally got an R18+ rating it felt like a final, belated acknowledgement that like any other form of popular media, video games could and were being enjoyed by *adults* in Australia.

Of course that acknowledgement came with a catch. Australia's classification board wouldn't be assessing video games by the same criteria that movies and TV shows were; by virtue of their interactivity they'd be much more closely scrutinised, and a number of conditions were added to the new ratings system, such as a stipulation that in most cases a gameplay mechanic that rewarded the player with in-game advantages after taking drugs would see the game refused classification, regardless of the new adults-only rating.

A number of games have been hit by these rules and either made edits or appealed the decision to be able to enter the market, a list that includes everything from *Disco Elysium* to *Rimworld*, while other games (such as *Wasteland 3*) have not and have thus simply remained without classification, which in effect means they are banned.

All of which brings us to *Halloween: The Game*. [As Jackson Ryan reports at The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/aug/24/michael-myers-halloween-video-game-banned-in-australia-drugs?CMP=aus%5Fbsky&ref=aftermath.site), the upcoming tie-in to the classic 1978 horror movie features a positive reward for the use of drugs, which brought it squarely into the classification board's sights: 

> In the game, players can smoke marijuana to see the location of Michael Myers in order to avoid being killed – a use of drugs that the Classification Board has deemed a “gameplay advantage”. Under the Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games 2023, video games are refused classification if they contain “illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards”.

Which means it's being refused classification. For a full run-down on the frustrations being felt locally around this latest decision, you should [definitely read Jackson's full story](https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/aug/24/michael-myers-halloween-video-game-banned-in-australia-drugs?CMP=aus%5Fbsky&ref=aftermath.site), as it interviews a number of local academics and industry representatives. 

I'd just like to add as an Australian that while I'm generally quite understanding of the glacial pace with which bureaucracy sometimes adapts to modern times--I live in the nation's capital, so most of my friends and family work in government, it's a long and boring job to change things!--I'm old enough to remember [working in games media during the fight to get the R18+ rating introduced in the first place](https://kotaku.com/how-australia-rates-video-games-5474445?ref=aftermath.site). To see us still being side-lined by antiquated rulings *13 years* after this supposed "victory" is taking the piss, even by my generous standards.

Hopefully change can come soon: [a review is currently underway to once again modernise Australia's classification standards](https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/have-your-say/modernising-and-harmonising-classification-standards?ref=aftermath.site), and one suggestion is to "remove the harsher judgement of video games’ interactivity".