I’ve said a lot about Austalia in recent times, mostly that they are descendants of psychopaths for that whole sharing a good five square feet with big spiders. Though I’m sure that one was in private. Here and generally online I’ve spoken about their rating board. The Australian Classification Board, or ACB for short, is one of the most restrictive and utterly useless ways of spending taxpayers money. I also used this board to prove my point of their effectiveness on the “games cause gun violence,” argument. So what have they done now?

DONTNOD’s Life is Strange 2. As I’ve not been following this, I would assume it means the second ‘season’ of the franchise. I don’t know what this could be and DONTNOD has not commented on why this has happened. In a brief announcement on Twitter, the Life is Strange account said: “#LifeisStrange2 will be unavailable to purchase on all platforms as well as re-download on PS4 for approximately 2 weeks from Wednesday onwards.” Going on to name-check the ACB for this disruption and stating they are working together on this case.

Heads up for Australian digital store customers. #LifeisStrange2 will be unavailable to purchase on ALL platforms as well as re-download on PS4 for approximately 2 weeks from Wednesday onwards, while we work with the Australian age ratings board (ACB) to review age ratings.

— Life is Strange (@LifeIsStrange) September 9, 2019

This comment was soon followed up by stating the temporary change in distribution will only affect Australian digital storefronts. It went no further to comment on why this has happened, what caused the game to be pulled, and pulled from digital storefronts in particular. Though with my mild knowledge of the previous game in the series, or shall I say, season 1, i remember it featured a suicide for the player to try to prevent. If this was not the case, one would assume this could be a major factor for the game to be pulled.

We could look to more recent cases such as the DayZ matter where the game was rescinded, and then soon after reinstated with its original rating for drugs. Another case, similar to DayZ‘s and is referenced in the latter article, would be Fallout 3‘s meth being turned into Med X. Little did Australia know, that soon after Fallout 3 shipped, saw hate from many fans, and then was used as the stick to beat Bethesda with once New Vegas released, that Breaking Bad (A very small show that never got anywhere right?) would be a show about meth.

Given the themes of Life is Strange can shift into either the supernatural or depressing grim reality of life, one could see this as the case. Though this is all speculation on my part, and at the time of writing, there is no official word of what triggered this sudden suspense of digital distribution. As I said, there is a large chance it could have been drugs or it could have been something else., we just don’t know fully at this time. Though if you are in Australia and want to download your copy of Life is Strange 2 on your PS4, you will have a hard time of it at this moment.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.