New SA attorney-general denies pro-R18+ stance

@o0MrCheesy0o I'm with you man I hate it in the U.S they can buy new games for $50 but here they can go up to $110

@ WhiteFlame692 If people continued to pay the prices that they do now nothing will change. Retailers will see that people are willing to pay the ridiculous prices and just set them even higher. If sales dropped so would the prices, as it'll be clear no one is willing to pay $100 for a video game >_> They would have no choice but to reduce prices if they wanted to stay in business. Oh, and the retialers can do everything about it. They're just taking advantage of Australia.

@gameking5000 You're on to something here.

Finnaly something good comes out of Canberra :D To any American thats our version of DC.

@o0MrCheesy0o The more people that import the worse the prices will get, and there is not much Australian retailers can do about it. If more people import they will see game sales are down and need to up the prices even more, the best we can do is support aussie retailers and hope others do the same.

In the Immortal words of Quato: "Open your mind to me, Quaid... Open your mind!" and "Quaid, start the reactor..." but that's a different topic, focus on the mind opening part, that's the important one here, while ya at it... replace Quaid's name with John and let us have him start the reactor instead... I MEAN.. open his mind. Really though, I'm glad John Rau is willing to listen to both sides, better than we got with Michael Atkinson. Oh if only Quato were the South Australian Attorney-General, He'd make sure that dang reactor got turned on and that our minds were open.

I honestly don't care anymore. I'm done buying video games within Australia. They jack-up the prices and censore the content. Importing is for me. I wish I could support the industry within Australia, but until they do something about the ridiculous prices I will continue to import.

At last an open minded SA Governor General. I hope he listens to both sides and not just the ignorant opinions of people who've never touched a game in their lives.

Mhm interesting decision. Does he take bribes? :P

During Atkinson's reign (had to scroll up, forgot his name) all but he enthusiasticaly supported the need for an R18 classification. Thoughts on this being a huge issue in the recent election undoubtly motivated him to say he has not yet formed an opinion. Perhaps he will take in to account the growing support this movement has and how it could affect him should he choose to run for re-election when the time comes.

All we can do is cross our fingers and wait to see. For this to get passed it needs a consensus from all AGs and I have my doubt that all of them will agree. Still, we can hope... and whilst hoping we can import the 3 or 4 games that have been banned and leave games like God of War 3 and Dante's Inferno incorrectly classified :)

Meh. All he is going to hear is "The children! Think about the children!", bow to whoever has the largest vote, and that will be the end of that.

damn it!

So he's unbiased eh? Back to the drawing board for us >=/

He "intend[s] to listen to the arguments" - well that's one up on Atkinson already. We can only hope...

well at least he isn't ignorant about his opinion in any way. This is the next best thing after a pro-R18+ attorney-general.

Hopefully you Aussies will be lucky and this guy will be a student of the law, unlike the trend of judges worldwide who find themselves to be executors of the law. That's my hyped up way of saying to keep your fingers crossed.

At least he has said he is going to listen to both sides and make an informed decision. That's better than covering his ears screaming, la la la la la, cant hear you, la la la la la

So far so good, at least.

Let's just hope a bunch of Dumbass Gamers DON'T try to solve this by sending Death Notes by his doorstep. We should not do anything stupid for a while.

Right, at least there's some hope. He's willing to listen to debate and acknowledge he's not the be all and end of this debate even he likely is

Well, it's been two weeks ago I heard the replacement of Michael Atkinson is John Rau. It's too early to tell but because of thousands of submissions starting December last year, I guess you need to be a good reader to get through that process over a simple R18+ for games. Anyway, I don't know what else to say except this is now down whether all attorney general is going to by unanimously support this very important thing for games or continue to treat us Australian like a bunch of teenagers.

@ Sir_Lemsip I have actually read the majority of things Michael Atkinson has said both on the Classification and other issues with much interest. He openly said he would not pay any attention to the public submissions as it would only be filled out by gamers. He has at every turn said openly he would not change his vote on the matter. He has even said he doesn't care if other countries think we look behind he would never change. If that's not closed minded I don't know what is.

"I have no preconceptions about this issue and intend to listen to the arguments" -i really, REALLY hope you do...

Way to go Chris/G4C with the false info... bravo. But lets hope he takes a good hard and unbiased look at the two sides and with any common sense he will see the R18+ rating will ensure kids dont get adult games in oz anymore.

Sounds like he's a little more rational than Old Man Atkinson. The fact that he even mentions the required support of all jurisdictions means he's open to change.

Hopefully something will happen. We should all knock some sense into them.

Stray2615, have you taken the time to listen to interviews with Atkinson regarding the classification issue? He is by no means closed minded and definitely not ill informed...in fact i'd wager that he's far more informed than most of the pro-R18+ people on this website. I personally am pro-R18+, but it does pay to step back and listen to both sides, rather than be closed minded on the proR18+ side like you apparently are...

RE: flammable_zeus's comment. You do know that Attorney Generals do more than determine classification regulations for games right?

Wait, the guy took up the job of SA attorney-general without reading up on the R18+ issue? Really? This man was the best person for the job?

No preconception is better than a closed minded ill informed negative one (ala Mick Atkinson). An open mind is exactly what we need everyone who is making a decission on anything to have, lets hope the submissions help all the AG's make an informed decission.

haha I'm under 18 and my mom don't care what I play but I don't see why we don't have one there is parental controls on all the the systems these days

one small step at a time but it better come soon!

I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. This is mainly because, since I am under 18, some games such as Prototype or Heavy Rain would be outside my reach. However I am supportive of the idea, and very opposed to the idea of Australia being censored to these things. I just hope that I will be able to purchase new, and violent games into the future