The game is called Detroit: Become Human. The problem its critics have is that it turns the very serious issue of domestic violence into a concept people can play.

It's the year 2038 and players have to decide: what would an android do?

Players make decisions to manipulate the androids' behaviour and one of the scenes is "chillingly close" to a real-life incident of domestic violence.

The scene in question ...

In a teaser video of the yet-to-be-released PlayStation game, a player-controlled android is a housekeeper.

Her human owner is a slob, and unpredictable, violent father.

In one scenario in the video, the violent father kills his daughter

In one scenario in the video, the violent father kills his daughter In another, the android intervenes, helping the child escape

In another, the android intervenes, helping the child escape In another, the child shoots her father dead with his pistol

Yes, this is a game people play but this style of production is called "interactive fiction".

Gamer Kieron Verbrugge said: "Detroit's not a traditional sort of game in the sense of there being challenges or levels to compete or anything."

"It's an interactive fiction, so you play from the perspective of a few different characters and your responsibility is to sort of make choices along the way, small dialogue choices or actions that affect the outcome of the story."

So, is the point that players have to figure out what social situation an android should intervene in?

Mr Verbrugge:

"Yeah, definitely. It's set in Detroit and it's set at a time where androids are integrated quite well into society but small pockets of them are starting to come to realisations about their role, ways to be treated, equality in humanity," he said.

"So it kind of explores what it is to be human."

The resistance in Australia

Domestic violence should not be entertainment, is the message from several Australian opponents to the game.

Players control the decisions of an android maid and decide how or if she should intervene in a domestic violence situation. ( Twitter: @Detroit_PS4 )

"This presents violence against children and violence against women and children together," Assistant Professor Shanti Raman from the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect said.

"As a game or entertainment it normalises violence, it normalises that whole relationship between parent and child being sinister."

Dr Raman wants the game banned and says it's all too real.

"I think it's chillingly close. The figures, although it's animation, they are so real," she said.

"We deal with children and families who are victims of violence almost on a daily basis.

"Because I work in child protection, this was really very, very disturbing for me to watch because it just really seems to play out some of the lives of the children that I see."

Glen Cupit is a retired developmental psychologist and spokesman for the Australian Council on Children in the Media.

He's also seen the promotional videos for the game, and hopes it's refused classification when it's reviewed by the Classification Board over the summer.

"We in Australia have a major problem with domestic violence," he said.

"Why would we want our kids to be playing a game where they're involved in a situation of domestic violence?"

Why would anyone want to play this?

Well, because people love to be in control.

Mr Cupit:

"I got into this when I did some research on commercial videos that children were watching," he said.

"One of the questions we asked was 'tell me a scene you really like to remember'?

"And over 40 per cent of the kids recited a scene of extreme violence as one they really like to remember.

"It seems to tap into some latent desire or power and control, or something of that kind, that is very attractive to people.

"But if we knew how to control that, we would be in a much better place as a society."