Life is Strange 2 is being (temporarily) removed from Australian storefronts

Posted on September 11, 2019

The ban-happy Australian Classification Board are claiming another victim, with Life is Strange 2. The game will be temporarily taken down from digital storefronts for two weeks while the game’s age ratings are being reviewed. During this period, the game cannot be bought or re-downloaded if you already own it.

Life is Strange 2 is an episodic adventure game series following the adventures of Sean and Daniel Diaz, two brothers on the run. A weird thing about episodic games is how the game’s rating must be reviewed with each episode; the initial launch is only going to have a small percentage of the whole game. As such, newly released DLC can result in classification boards needing to review the whole game again now that new content is available. This was seen recently with Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which temporarily disappeared from digital storefronts when its latest DLC came out.

The official Life is Strange Twitter account weighed in on the situation to assure customers it wasn’t permanent. “This situation is temporary and only affects Australian digital storefronts. We will restore service asap and will keep you updated with any developments. Already installed LiS2 content will not be removed from your device during this period and will still be playable.” So don’t go deleting your copies of the game, as they won’t be available for re-download until Life is Strange 2 has been reviewed, at least on PS4.

It is not clear exactly what prompted the temporarily delisting of Life is Strange 2. However, considering how the game deals with some very mature themes, it could be hard to pinpoint an exact cause. The Australian Classification Board has also been in the news recently for rather belatedly banning Day Z, and causing it to be edited worldwide. It is not clear if it has any changes in mind for Life is Strange 2, but I am sure we will find out when it returns in approximately two week’s time.