EA has announced that due to harsh censorship rules in Australia, the upcoming shooter Syndicate won’t see a release Down Under. EA told Joystiq that the game was recently refused classification in the country, which effectively bans it from stores, as most retailers won’t carry games that aren’t classified.

Developed by Starbreeze Studios, Syndicate is an upcoming first person shooter set in 2069, where multinational corporations (syndicates) rule the world and are fighting over dominance. The game is scheduled for release on Feb 21, 2012 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Like many software-based industries over the past few years, video games have seen a lot of studios shut down and downsized, and Australia was one of the hardest hit on that front. Over the past three years, Australia lost half its workforce in the video game sector, or over 1,000 jobs.

Now the Australian government is trying to do something about it, and is offering combined tax incentives to the video game development industry of $1.9 billion USD, to be spent on video game development and R&D. The new tax incentive has already attracted interest from publishers, according to Develop. We can hope they’ll set up or expand their Australian presence with the new incentives.

Australia, recently at the forefront of Internet and videogame censorship, has apparently decided to unban Aliens vs Predator, which wouldn’t have otherwise seen a release in the country, as developer Rebellion refused to dumb-down the game for the Australian audience. Publisher SEGA appealed the decision, and now the Classification Review Board of Australia has overturned the initial ban of the game, and it will now be available to release in its original form, with no changes.

Yesterday we got word that the Classification Operations Board of Australia refused to let Sega‘s Aliens vs. Predator hit store shelves down under. We then learned that they were looking at way to get around this banning but it seems that the game’s developer, Rebellion, is none too pleased with the banning.

In fact, they have absolutely no intentions to clean the game of its content for an Australian release with their explanation below:

“The content of AVP is based on some of the most innovative and iconic horror movies, and as such we wanted to create a title that was true to the source material. It is for adults, and it is bloody and frightening, that was our intent. We will not be releasing a sanitized or cut down version for territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be able to make their own entertainment choices.”

So Australian gamers, unless Sega successfully appeals the original banning, chances are you won’t get a chance to play the game.

via gi.biz

The whole world, Australian gamers in particular, know that the Classification Operations Board of Australia is none too keen on letting fun overly violent games pass through their radar undetected. Unfortunately for you Australia AVP fans, the board’s latest victim is Sega‘s soon-to-be-released Aliens vs. Predator which got banned due to violent content.

Luckily, Sega Australia hopes to remedy this road block by either resubmitting the game with the violent content tuned down a notch or two or appealing the initial banning.

Will they succeed? Let’s hope so but as for us American folk well we’ll still be getting the game in February of next year.

via gamespot

It’s no secret that the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification is pretty strict when it comes to rating games considering their highest rating is MA15+ so the fact that they have turned their heads to Borderlands is no surprise.

Of course, the game isn’t actually set to hit Steam until October 30th but Australian gamers who were able to get their hands on a copy prior to its release date have found several instances of censorship. Now, this is all fine and dandy considering is it Australia but according to 2k Games, this wasn’t supposed to happen.

Luckily, the studio is working to get the actual uncensored version onto Steam and ready for its October 30th release date so Australian fans of blood and gore need not fret.

If you’ve been following Left 4 Dead 2 you may know that the game was denied classification in Australia due to “living humans with a rabies-like virus” and “realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence” which smells like a typical zombie shooter to me, right?

Well, Valve has submitted the paperwork to appeal this decision but just in case the appeal doesn’t work they have also submitted a second, toned down version of Left 4 Dead 2 that reportedly meets all of the requirements to get a MA15+ rating.

Valve hasn’t said what they have edited as they do not even want to release this toned down version but chances are, it’ll just be a hallow shell of a great game that could have been.

via thatvideogameblog

It seems that Sony feels gamers in Australia take to the Blu-ray format more than the rest of the world as they have recently announced the PS3 Ultimate Blu-ray Movie Kit.

Just how ultimate this kit is, however, remains questionable considering it only comes bundled with a PS3 remote and either 10,000 B.C. or Batman Begins with no console in sight.

Of course, it’s $60 AUD/$51 USD price tag makes it a bargain, and that’s all that matters.

via engadget

The new 1.4 firmware is now available for the Nintendo DSi. This firmware deems flash cards useless. All pirates are advised not to update if they want to keep using their ROMs and such.

Back in March, Nintendo revealed plans to expand to social networking options. Today, Nintendo has released a new application for the Nintendo DSi which allows players to upload their photos directly to Facebook.

To get setup, you need to link your DSi with your Facebook account via Facebook Connect. Once that’s done, a Facebook logo will appear on top of your photos. Users are allowed to upload entire albums at once (200 photos), and every photo after that, a new album is created.

The firmware is only exclusive to Japan, Europe, and Australia. No word on when the update will be released for North America.

Nintendo of America has announced that Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky will be seeing an October 13th release date, as opposed to the September 23rd date we saw back in E3.

The game will have the option to play as one of 19 different Pokémon, which will allow you to interact with over 490 Pokémon.

Explorers of Sky was released in Japan last April, and will be hitting Europe later this year, followed by a 2010 Australian release.