Dead or Alive: Dimensions Australian rating revoked

After one of Australia's famous media circuses, Dead or Alive: Dimensions has had its classification revoked and is at least temporarily off the market.

DOA: Dimensions pulled from shelves

The Classifications Board listing for Dead or Alive: Dimensions currently proclaims the game's rating has been revoked. As unclassified games may not be retailed in Australia, the game has effectively been banned.

The Classifications Board responded to a request for comment with the following statement:

"Information provided to the Board last week suggested that the game contained content not drawn to the Board’s attention in the original classification application.

After considering the response to a show cause notice issued last Thursday (June 2), the Board made the revocation decision.

Dead or Alive: Dimensions is now unclassified and cannot be sold in Australia unless it is re-submitted for classification."

According to Kotaku, retailers were advised just after four this afternoon to pull the game immediately.

Nintendo is said to be seeking a re-classification for the game, expecting to be awarded MA15+, the nations highest category.

Based on reports of its failure to release in Nordic territories, Australian media loudly protested the game's original PG rating for "mild violence and sexualised gameplay."

Dead or Alive: Dimensions includes a Showcase mode which allows the player to view female characters in scanty outfits. In the game's printed materials, three of the characters were listed as under 18 years of age. This eventually led to Nintendo's decision not to distribute the Tecmo Koei title in Sweden following high-profile child pornography cases.

In Australia, no mention of the characters ages is made in any materials associated with the game.

The cause of the furor

In response to the revoked rating, Nintendo has blamed the media attention brought to the title for all the current troubles going on at the moment.

According to the representative, Nintendo is not asking the ACB for an MA15 rating specifically to get the game back on shelves, and furthermore, the representative told Kotaku that the media attention surrounding the photography mode was what alerted the Classification Board in the first place.

Nintendo also re-confirmed Dimensions had already been classified PG, after THQ sent the game in for classification. Nintendo also said it is "happy to provide the ACB with whatever they need.”

ABC News, the nationally funded news service, led calls for the "child porn" game to be re-classified within Australia, nudging the federal minister for home affairs, Brendan O'Connor into action.

In its research for the story, ABC News sourced an image from Gamesradar, a joke composite of at least two different Dead or Alive games with a pterodactyl head from Metroid stuck on. It has since updated with a more titillating image.

Dead or Alive: Dimensions joins a small number of notorious titles removed from Australian store shelves after public outrage sparked a re-classification, including Rockstar's Manhunt and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Thanks, Kotaku.