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Aussies denied APB
The Land Down Under has always been notorious about creating obstacles between perceived violent video games and Australian gamers, but for once, a game title that's denied to the populace has nothing to do with its love of beatdowns. Kotaku Australia is reporting that All Points Bulletin won't see the light of day in Crocodile Dundee's backyard when it launches elsewhere in July. Apparently, because of its fast-paced gameplay, APB needs local servers to facilitate low latency -- and Realtime Worlds has no plan to open an Australian server. No server, no release. Crikey! Considering all of the positive buzz swirling about this GTA-like game, it's a shame to see a good chunk of game fanatics denied the basic right of life, liberty and the pursuit of all suspects. Aussies can buy an overseas copy and attempt to play on those servers, but as you might imagine, the ping will make that a frustrating experience.
World of Warcraft no longer legally for sale in Australia
One of the major stories that is breaking today around the internet is the fact that in Australia a number of MMOs are no longer legally able to be sold. This is due to their lack of classification, things like M for Mature, PG, 18+, etc...Our sister site Massively covered this extensively last week, and Tateru Nino's article on it has been picked up by the editors over at Slashdot. This is in particular interest to World of Warcraft folks in that WoW doesn't have a classification, and thus cannot be legally sold in Australia.According to Tateru's research, the only two MMOs that are presently available for Australia are Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and EVE Online.If someone was to sell WoW in Australia, they would face a possible penalty of AU$27,220.80 or two years in jail.
Rumor: Australian retailers consider the 360 dead [Update 2]
Update 2: According to iTWire, Microsoft has denied the Smarthouse article, which claimed that the Xbox 360 was "dead" in Australia. Mariana Cidade, PR Manager of the entertainment and devices division for Microsoft Australia, noted that over 2 million pieces of Xbox 360 software have been sold in Australia and New Zealand, which is "nearly double [the Xbox 360's] next-gen competitors combined." Also noted was the Xbox 360's attach rate of 7 games per console in Australia, hardly the kind of sales garnered by a dead console. The data comes from GFK, a market research firm, and puts something of a damper on Smarthouse's already dubious (and anonymous) claims. Find our original post after the break.
