The week in news: 16 January 2013

The first R rated video game to be released in Australia has been rated by the Classification Board of Australia.  The game, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge will be released for Nintendo’s Wii U console later this year, and will feature “high impact, bloody violence”.    The new guidelines allowing adult games to be sold in Australia came into effect on the first of January, though Queensland is the only state to not have passed complimentary legislation.

Also, Warner Interactive has confirmed that they will be submitting Mortal kombat Komplete Edition for classification in Australia.  The title was released last February in the US. The original release of Mortal Kombat was refused classification in Australia under the old guidelines.

The National Rifle Association of America has come under fire after releasing a shooting game just weeks after blaming violent video games for the Connecticut shooting which left 28 dead in December.  Earlier this month, a spokesperson for the NRA said in a statement  that violent media, such as games films and music, were largely to blame for the increase in gun violence in America, and that further tragedies could be prevented by increasing the number of concealed weapons in places like schools and universities.  The game, called NRA: Practice Range, is a first person shooter where the player can shoot at human shaped targets with a range of pistols, shotguns and rifles, including the assault rifle used in the Newtown massacre.

World of Warcraft players have raised over 2 million dollars to assist victims of Hurricane Sandy. The Hurricane hit the US East Coast last year, and thousands of people still are dealing with the aftermath.  Blizzard released a new pet, the Cinder kitten, which could be purchased for 10 dollars, with 100 percent of the proceeds going toward the Red Cross hurricane relief effort.  In total, over 2.3 million dollars was raised.

Deep Silver, developers of Dead Island Riptide, have apologised after a statuette that was to be included with the “Zombie Bait” edition of the game was deemed to be in poor taste. The statue (pictured below) depicts a dismembered female torso wearing only a union jack bikini.  No mention was made of any decision to cancel the release of the edition or the statue.

Unsubstantiated Rumour Corner

Announcements for the most anticipated consoles of the next generation could be made as early as March this year.   Both Sony and Microsoft have scheduled press conferences around the same time as the Game Developers Conference at the end of March.     While the content of the press conferences are unknown, industry analysts have predicted that both manufacturers would be wise to unveil their upcoming consoles ahead of e3, the world’s biggest videogame press event held in June each year.