RimWorld, a sci-fi simulation game by Ludeon Studios, got banned on Steam in Australia according to a new blog post on Steam.
Unfortunately, we’ve just been informed that RimWorld has just been made unavailable for new purchases by Australian customers on Steam.
This does not seem to affect existing owners – it only prevents new purchases. Anyone who already owns the game is still be able to play, receive updates and access community features like the forums and workshop. The Ideology and Royalty expansions are also not affected.
Why is it Banned?
It seems the banning was ordered by the The Classification Board in Australia which are well known for their strict censuring of games. They mostly target games containing drugs or other addiction related game features. As RimWorld does feature this kind of content in its civilization simulation this seems a likely option. In the Blogpost Ludeon Studios said “the Australian Classification Board classified a potential console version of RimWorld as “Refused Classification (RC)”
At first it seemed that the classification was only affecting the console version, now also Steam sales and keys are being rejected. They commented “We did not expect this to affect the Steam version because in previous similar cases, as with Disco Elysium for example, an RC rating on a console version did not affect the availability of the PC version on Steam. We’re not sure why this decision was made in RimWorld’s case.”
As the ban happened last Friday they could not get in touch with someone from The Classification Board to get more information about the situation. This week should give more clarification of the current status and possible future of the game in the land down under.
For players outside of Australia RimWorld is still available on steam now.
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