The Walking Dead won't head down under

Australian and Kiwi zombie enthusiasts looking forward to the first episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead have been infected with something even more dangerous than a dead-raising mutagen: Disappointment.

While a listing for the title reportedly exists on the Australian PSN, The Walking Dead cannot actually be purchased or accessed in any fashion, according to a thread on the official Telltale forums. As it turns out, things are a bit worse than a broken listing: "Due to the OFLC ratings laws in Australia and New Zealand, and the fact that this is a mature game, we do not currently have plans to release the game there on consoles," so sayeth Telltale forums rep Mike.

For those of you not mired in the intricacies of Australian censorship politics, "OFLC" stands for the Office of Film and Literature Classification, which was the Australian Classification Board's parent agency until it was dissolved in 2006. Currently, the Classification Board belongs to the Attorney-General's Department, where it is responsible for assigning ratings to movies and video games.

At any rate, it must be reassuring to our friends down under that their island nations are apparently completely immune to zombie invasion.