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The Absurdity of International Game Ratings

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Different cultures have different tastes. That's a given, and will always result in slight differences in game ratings. But what's just happened to 3DS game Dead or Alive: Dimensions is too strange to overlook.

The game won't be sold in Sweden, Norway and Denmark because of fears over the region's child pornography laws, which forbid the illustration of underage girls in sexualised situations. True to the series' form, Dead or Alive: Dimensions has that in spades in its photography mode.

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Yet in Australia, a land constantly derided for its supposedly antiquated video game classification, it's received a PG rating. Meaning it can be bought and played by anyone. Even if that anyone is a five year-old kid. Or, as some Scandinavian lawmakers would fear, child pornography aficionados.

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Perhaps sensible, normal gamers in both territories could institute some kind of hostage swap. Direct trades of copies of Dead or Alive: Dimensions for the new Mortal Kombat, for example.

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Nintendo 'child porn' game PG in Australia [SMH]