The Hotline Miami Collection didn’t last long on the Australian eShop. It took about an hour from the release of the game for it to pulled from sale in Australia, although the move isn’t surprising. Hotline Miami 2 had previously been refused classification in Australia, and it looks like this is the reason the Collection has been pulled from sale in the region.
While anyone who has already purchased the game should be able to download it and play, nobody else will be able to purchase it in Australia unless it shows up on the eShop again. The original game received an R18+ in the region, with the sequel being refused any classification at all. Despite this, the game appears to have been listed as MA15+ on the store.
According to Vooks, Hotline Miami was refused classification twice last year, although it is unclear if this is related to the Collection, the original game, or if it is a typo and was actually about the sequel.
Australia has been coming down hard on games lately, with DayZ being banned in the region for what was considered a problematic portrayal of drug use. Not everyone in Australia is happy with recent events. Tim Quilty, Liberal Democratic Party member of the Victorian Legislative Council, has said “What makes this ban especially absurd is that Australia has an R18+ classification for videogames…refusal of classification should be reserved for illegal materials, things like child pornography and snuff films that should never have been created in the first place. It should not be used for zombie survival videogames.”
While these comments were made about the ban on DayZ, they can just as easily be applied to the Hotline Miami Collection as well.
