We Happy Few refused classification in Australia

Yet another game has received the big red cross from Australia’s classification board, this time it is We Happy Few.

We Happy Few is a survival game that you may remember from the amazing debut trailer way back at E3 2016. The game told the story of a dystopian world where society had to take their happy pills to perceive life as pleasant and colourful, something that it most certainly was not. The game got a huge amount of attention from its debut showing and launched into Early Access on Steam and Xbox Game Preview. From there the game got a steady amount of updates and there was even talk of creating a movie based on the license.

With Gearbox on board as a new publisher, We Happy Few was looking like a bigger and bigger project every time we saw it. In fact, the game was announced to be releasing worldwide as a full-priced retail product. That release is still planning to happen later this year, just not in Australia anymore.

Unfortunately the Australian Classification Board has deemed the game inappropriate for all audiences issuing an RC (refusal of classification) on the game.

Those who own the game already will presumably be able to keep the game once it fully releases. This is how games have been handled in the past on services such as Steam. Although there is no official word currently to confirm this.

The refusal of classificiation comes under the following rather vague clause:

“computer games that depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.”

My guess is that this time it is all about drug use. Thanks, happy pills.

As to whether or not the game will censor or alter content and be resubmitted to the Australian classification board for reclassification, we do not know. Although we are certainly eager to find out.