RimWorld has been removed from Steam in Australia after all

While the space colony sim RimWorld has been available digitally in Australia since 2013,

it was recently introduced by the Australian Classification Board in conjunction with a potential console release. This would mean that the physical copies on the shelves would have to be age-rated. In their wisdom, the Council has given RimWorld a “Classification Denied” rating, making it illegal to sell in Australia due to how it handles. “Issues of sex, drug abuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence, or heinous or disgusting.” Phenomena in such a way that they violate the norms of morality, decency. And propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults.

At the time, we assumed this would probably not affect the PC version.

So did the developers of RimWorld, Ludeon Studios, who wrote in a news post. “We didn’t expect this to affect the Steam version because in previous similar cases, like with Disco Elysium. The RC rating on the console version didn’t affect the availability of the PC version on Steam.” It turns out we were wrong, and RimWorld has disappeared from sale on Steam in Australia. As long as previously purchased copies remain in their respective libraries. Their Steam page is not available in the region. (Although it is still available for sale directly via the Rimworld website.)

“I’m sorry this news came so suddenly, and to everyone who was bothered by it,” notes Ludeon Studios. “We are working to resolve this situation and make RimWorld available to everyone again as soon as possible. But we do not yet know what this may require and how long it may take.”

While some games that have been denied classification in the past have been removed from Steam in Australia,

As in the case of Hotline Miami 2, others remain freely available despite the rating. Such as Postal 2, Phantasmagoria, Mother Russia Bleeds, and Leisure Suit Larry. : Honours. Whether a given game that was denied classification will be removed from digital storefronts in Australia. Or simply not sold in physical stores and remain available online remains annoyingly opaque.