The Australian Classification Board has classified Saints Row IV as MA15+. Our friends down under can now all enjoy fighting aliens as the President of the United States.

All it took was the removal of a brief side mission in order to appease Australian legislation. The mission itself had the player taking alien drugs in order to gain temporary superpowers. Apparently its a big no no in Australia for drugs to have a positive reward in a videogame regardless how silly the game may be.  Saints Row IV was refused classification twice by the ACB before finally being approved.

Deep Silver released a statement announcing the good news:

“Deep Silver and AIE are pleased to report that the Australian Classification Board has now approved Saints Row IV for sale. They have granted the game an MA15+ rating. To achieve this rating one loyalty mission featuring the character Shaundi has been removed. This mission has been widely reported on and contains the use of alien narcotics to obtain certain superpowers.

“This mission represents approximately 20 minutes of gameplay out of the hours available to purchasers.

“The removal of this mission has no negative impact on the story or the superpowers and will not detract from the enjoyment players will get from their Saints Row IV experience. The rectifier weapon will be available as part of a DLC package as originally intended. Deep Silver stands by this decision and thanks the Australian Classification Board for their assistance with this matter.”

Seems like losing one short side mission is a fair compromise in order to ensure that  Australian game retailers could stock Saints Row IV in Australia.  Its weird that the Australian Classification Board has a problem with you taking alien drugs but shooting people with gun that gives anal probes is totally cool. Oh well.

Saints Row IV is due out in this month, August 20th, and August 22nd in Australia.