Katana Zero has been Refused Classification within Australia, publisher Devolver Digital has today advised.
“Heads up to folks in Australia / New Zealand – Katana ZERO has a ‘Classification Refused’ rating and therefore will not be released on Switch in Australia and New Zealand on Thursday,” Devolver said via Twitter. “Our team is re-submitting in hopes to get that changed and we’ll keep you posted with news!”
UPDATE: Devolver has advised that Katana Zero wasn’t submitted directly through the Classification Boards of either Australia or New Zealand, but rather through the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC).
The IARC “is a partnership of leading computer game ratings authorities from 36 countries across the world, including the United States, Canada, most of Europe and Brazil,” a fact sheet on the Australian Classification Board’s website reads. “In Australia, the IARC tool will be classifying computer games, in the form of a mobile app and online computer games.”
Developers can choose to use the IARC tool to complete a questionnaire about a certain title and then generate Australian rating and consumer advice about it ahead of sale availability on services like Google Play, Nintendo eShop and the Windows Store.
Devolver has said it will manually submit Katana Zero to the Australian Classification Board in light of this development.
Katana Zero was to be released on 18 April across Windows PC, Mac and Switch. The title is a 2D action platformer developed by Askiisoft.
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