Sexy Poker folds in Australia

WiiWare strip poker game banned down under for reward-based nudity.

Australia's tough classification regime for games has struck again, although this time the victim isn't as high profile as last year's big-name casualties (such as Fallout 3 or F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin). Sexy Poker--an upcoming WiiWare game developed by Gameloft--has been refused classification by the Board, effectively banning the strip poker game from sale down under.

Sexy Poker pits a player against six different female opponents who wear stereotypical costumes, such as nurses' outfits, sports uniforms, police clothing, and business wear. According to the Board, the game was refused classification because nudity was used as an incentive--in this case, winning a game of poker.

"In the Board’s view Sexy Poker offers depictions of nudity as an incentive or reward to interactive game play. In the Board’s view, the general rule in the Guidelines for the Classification of Films and Computer Games prohibiting depictions of nudity as an incentive or reward, applies to the game play described above, as the player is shown increasingly detailed amounts of nudity following successful game-play," the statement said.

"In the view of the Board, the impact of the game exceeds strong as except in material restricted to adults, nudity and sexual activity must not be related to incentives or rewards. As such the game cannot be accommodated in a MA15+ classification." Because there is no R18+ rating for games in Australia, the highest classification level for a game is MA15+.

With Sexy Poker, 2009 has now seen two games banned in Australia, although Necrovision--which was banned in April--has since been reclassified as M-rated after the developer made changes to the game.

For more on Australia's classification regime, check out our Censory Overload feature.

38 Comments

  • ymarkman

    Posted Dec 15, 2009 4:23 pm PT

    Hahahaha nudity. That's funny.

  • 9thedevilmaycry

    Posted Dec 12, 2009 5:31 pm PT

    GIVE IT A M, I CHEAKED AND THEY ARNT NAKED, NO JIGILY, NO NAKED WOMEN JUST BIKINIS WITH POSES!

  • Semione

    Posted Aug 11, 2009 1:27 am PT

    fyi this all started over i think one of the gta's (san andreas) where you can modify it with i think the "coffee part". australia never used to be soo anal but i guess its for our kids protection...even though they are 13 pregnant drinking and smoking, just as long as they dont play video games everything will be alright.PLEASE for all you gamers around the world can you please write a letter to the Office of South Australian attorney general Michael Atkinson. he is the basterd who is stopping the R18+ of games, all the other ministers dont disagree like he does.

  • An-Archist

    Posted May 28, 2009 2:11 pm PT

    @Dr Satan
    I agree totally!

  • dr_satan666

    Posted May 28, 2009 8:26 am PT

    Someone needs to tell these people that the age of pacman and pong is long gone.....

  • Aletunda

    Posted May 28, 2009 3:36 am PT

    haha it were as if kevin rudd or john howard were the head of the board. There is far worse out there, especially on the internet, a child could easily just find some free stuff by typing some words on google that is real, these are poorly computer generated people, how is a child going to be able to aquire the points neccessary to purchase the product if you need either A a credit card (which i highly doubt an australian child has) or B scrounge up enough money in order to go to eb or jb and buy the card for points, and beside a parent can just as easily delete it.

  • raptor1906

    Posted May 28, 2009 1:43 am PT

    I dont see how banning the game would make any difference Underage/horny people are more exposed to real nudity rather than pixel animated ones. i dont get it, pornography is so much easier to get just by typing into google why play poker just to see animated nudity?

  • vandrius

    Posted May 27, 2009 7:10 pm PT

    Hah!

    The old codgers and prissy pants constantly worry about it "falling into the hands of children"... But I have yet to see the internet banned, and no matter how good your parental controls are a simple search on google images can return pictures FAR worse than any video game or movie.

  • Sagacious_Tien

    Posted May 27, 2009 11:03 am PT

    Not a major loss, but it still shows how far behind Australia is when it comes to our classification system.

  • SpinoRaptor24

    Posted May 27, 2009 3:49 am PT

    Oh please they show like far worse stuff on those Animal Planet shows.

    How come they don't ban that?

  • gameking5000

    Posted May 26, 2009 11:38 pm PT

    @Inconnux

    That is not the case, the government are here to help since the government seems to doing most of the work as with other things. Still if all games were released and there was an reliance for parents then it would not work.

  • Sillygostly

    Posted May 26, 2009 10:35 pm PT

    Mind you, this game was given a relatively light 15 rating by the U.K. censors for "moderate nudity".

  • imprezawrx500

    Posted May 26, 2009 8:38 pm PT

    glad I live on the other side of the tasman where we have a r18. aussie really needs a r18 with the amount of game that have to be changed to keep the sensors happy.

  • rockatanski

    Posted May 26, 2009 7:20 pm PT

    Rewarded depictions of nudity.

    I get turned on more by watching those stupid music video sluts on the Saturday morning music shows on a channel that's free to air. This banning is easly the most ridicolous one to date.

  • Sillygostly

    Posted May 26, 2009 6:40 pm PT

    This is easily one the most hypocritical classification decisions in the OFLC's history. Breast nudity is considered to be perfectly acceptable in a PG rated film or DVD in Australia, yet the very same level of nudity in a video game is banned purely on the technicality that "nudity relating to incentives or rewards" is instantly inappropriate for anybody under 18. Spare me. Are they forgetting the nudity in the Playboy games which (correct me if I'm wrong) contained unlockable images of real life full frontal nude centerfolds? Surely that too can be considered a form of "reward".

    Appeal the decision, Gameloft. A very similar game was dropped to a legally UNRESTRICTED M rating a few years back (without cuts, mind you).

    God, I'm so sick of the censorship board leaning on technicalities to justify senselessly banning games. -.- IMO, there's NO way a game of this nature would exceed MA15+ let alone M.

  • mickwounds

    Posted May 26, 2009 6:40 pm PT

    ah so its ok to kill anyone, deal drugs, swear, steal cars, blow off heads, arms, legs, put peoples heads in vices, kick the crap out of old grannies etc etc etc but its NOT ok to see a naked woman haha. oh i love our rating system. we protect the children from seeing a naked person but we show them violence galore.
    Either ban everything past a G rating or dont touch anything at all.

  • Payback7

    Posted May 26, 2009 4:29 pm PT

    Sigh - not that I would have bought this. But again - let the parents decide what their children should be playing - at the end of the day it's THEIR responsibility. Just bring out an R18+ rating and be done with it - over it!

  • brain3d

    Posted May 26, 2009 3:34 pm PT

    Goddamn Nanny state killing everyone's fun.

  • Inconnux

    Posted May 26, 2009 11:33 am PT

    Once again the state is taking over the job of being parents. Parents please wake up and realize that it takes more than sex to have a child and stop defaulting responsibility to the Government.

  • Freezezzy

    Posted May 26, 2009 10:48 am PT

    Little late for an April fools joke, isn't it?

  • gnbfd

    Posted May 26, 2009 9:34 am PT

    WTF? This is on the Wii? Really?
    *goes to buy a Nintendo Points card*
    no really though the game will probably suck, so no big loss. Besides, they can't really have full nudity in a game can they? Especially here in America where violence=good sex=bad

  • almightybob14

    Posted May 26, 2009 6:47 am PT

    Wait, this is on a Nintendo system?!?! I think they finally figured out the one way to get their old hardcore gamer fans back. Sex

  • Scarface5962

    Posted May 26, 2009 4:13 am PT

    why do they give games clacifications no one reads them

  • Maersyndel

    Posted May 26, 2009 3:35 am PT

    Zap: Thats GS adding it in, but it's a fair point.

    As if I'd ever buy the game, but still....

  • Generic_Dude

    Posted May 26, 2009 3:20 am PT

    No reward-based nudity? But that's the best kind!

  • zaprct

    Posted May 26, 2009 3:06 am PT

    Haha, a game that was going to be sold directly through WiiWare got banned here? It wasn't that long ago that Nintendo games couldn't have red blood or religious symbols.

    I like how the classification board always end their explanation with the mention of there being no R18 rating for games. They clearly think that there should be one.

  • VitasV

    Posted May 26, 2009 3:01 am PT

    DAMN YOU ATKINSON. DAMN YOU

  • mlisen

    Posted May 26, 2009 2:52 am PT

    Haha @ Lucidmike, nice one. How do they stop wiiware going through anyway?

  • Ground_Zero

    Posted May 26, 2009 1:55 am PT

    Nooooooooo I want my pixel boobies!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Chunky_Tomster

    Posted May 26, 2009 1:54 am PT

    omg thats funny, wii has a title that gets banned well xcuse mai over the top laughter but...

    lolololololololololololloloolololloolololloloololololloollolololololol

  • Lucidmike78

    Posted May 26, 2009 1:03 am PT

    What is this about folds down under? I think people have a lot better *incentives* on the internet than Nintendo approved money shots.

  • monkeyd_93

    Posted May 26, 2009 12:59 am PT

    *rubs eyes* wow first wii title to get banned, but wii want sexy poker, the wii is nothing without sexy poker

  • juliangui

    Posted May 26, 2009 12:56 am PT

    I have no strong feelings about this one way or the other. -_-

  • p-mor111

    Posted May 26, 2009 12:35 am PT

    lol

  • doorselfin GameSpot staff member

    Posted May 25, 2009 11:54 pm PT

    So, how would we hypothetically go about regulating the purchase of restricted titles on a digital distribution platform?

  • Turbo-Evil

    Posted May 25, 2009 11:40 pm PT

    This is why we need an R rating... so we can see pixelated boobs!

  • mystic_knight

    Posted May 25, 2009 11:27 pm PT

    Um i don't see how its any worse than losing money.

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