The Australian Classification board has officially refused classification for Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, effectively barring the upcoming downloadable release from being sold in the country in its current form, thanks to what the board describes as the "visual depiction of implied sexual violence."

In a report on the decision, the Australian Classification Board website cites a National Classification Code rule barring classification for 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."

A more detailed report obtained by Kotaku Australia goes into much greater detail on at least one scene that led to the rating refusal (warning, graphic descriptions of sexual violence in the excerpt below):

In the sequence of game play footage titled Midnight Animal, the protagonist character bursts into what appears to be a movie set and explicitly kills 4 people, who collapse to the floor in a pool of copious blood, often accompanied by blood splatter. After stomping on the head of a fifth male character, he strikes a female character wearing red underwear. She is knocked to the floor and is viewed lying face down in a pool of copious blood. The male character is viewed with his pants halfway down, partially exposing his buttocks. He is viewed pinning the female down by the arms and lying on top of her thrusting, implicitly raping her (either rear entry or anally) while her legs are viewed kicking as she struggles beneath him. This visual depiction of implied sexual violence is emphasised by it being mid-screen, with a red backdrop pulsating and the remainder of the screen being surrounded by black.

The above report seems to be describing the game's opening scene (viewable in context here around the 0:40 mark), which first drew controversy in 2013, after being shown at trade show demos of the game.

In a statement published in response to the decision, developer Dennaton games and publisher Devolver Digital said they "have no plans to officially challenge the ruling." That said, they take issue with the rating's board's description of the scene in question.

We are concerned and disappointed that a board of professionals tasked with evaluating and judging games fairly and honestly would stretch the facts to such a degree and issue a report that describes specific thrusting actions that are not simply present in the sequence in question and incorrectly portrays what was presented to them for review.

The developers also note that players are given an option at the start of the game to "avoid content that alludes to sexual violence," adding that they stand by their "creative vision for the storyline, its characters and the game and look forward to delivering Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number to fans very soon."

The developers at Dennaton told Rock Paper Shotgun in 2013 that they were considering editing that scene after what they said was an unexpected reaction from many survivors of sexual assault following the game's first public demonstrations.

"We were really sad that some people were so affected by it, because maybe they had been through something like that of their own," Dennaton's Dennis Wedin told RPS at the time. "Maybe they had a terrible experience of their own that was triggered by the game. That was not intentional at all. We didn’t add the scene just to be controversial. There is a meaning to these two characters. There’s a lot more to them than just this scene."

is the fourth game to be refused classification in Australia since the country approved the R18+ rating in 2013, thoughandwere all released in the country after edits. Before the R18+ rating, games including, andwere refused classification.

Last month, Target and K-mart Australia decided to stop selling Grand Theft Auto V in their stores, following an online petition decrying the game's use of sexual violence.