Illicit deeds have just gotten a new Halloween video game banned in Australia – and it’s not because of the violence
The upcoming multiplayer game Halloween: The Game has been refused classification in Australia, meaning it cannot legally be sold in the country. The ban stems not from its graphic violence, which includes brutal killings inspired by the horror film franchise, but from a mechanic allowing players to smoke marijuana to reveal the location of villain Michael Myers and avoid being killed, which the Classification Board ruled constitutes "incentivised drug use" under its guidelines.
Under the 2023 Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games, titles are refused classification if illicit drug use is tied to gameplay rewards or advantages, and the board said it had no discretion but to apply this rule to Halloween: The Game. The decision has provoked more than 500 complaints to the board and a backlash against developer Illfonic online, echoing earlier bans of games including State of Decay, Wasteland 3 and Saints Row IV, which were later reclassified after edits. Academics such as Claire Henry and Dan Golding argue the case exposes inconsistencies in how Australia regulates games compared with film and television, rooted in long-standing assumptions that interactive media is inherently more risky and primarily aimed at children.
- Halloween: The Game banned in Australia over drug use, not violence
- Smoking marijuana to track killer breaches "incentivised drug use" rule
- Case reignites debate over Australia's inconsistent game classification standards
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Halloween: The Game is an upcoming multiplayer horror title based on the Halloween film series, in which players face off against the masked killer Michael Myers. Before release, it has been refused classification by Australia's Classification Board, a government body that rates films, TV and games and can effectively ban a title by denying it any rating at all, which stops it being legally sold in the country.
The refusal is not about the game's violence, which is considerable, but about a feature letting players simulate smoking marijuana to gain an advantage in gameplay. Australian classification rules treat illicit drug use as unacceptable if it is built into a game's reward system, and the board has said its guidelines leave it no room for discretion in cases like this.
This is not the first time a game has fallen foul of these particular rules, and similar disputes in the past have sometimes ended with developers editing content so a title can be reclassified and released. The case has drawn attention to how Australia's rules for games differ from those applied to films and television, and to broader questions about how video games are regulated compared with other media.
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