Update:

IGN has been advised by the Australian Classification Board that, at the request of Outlast II’s

Earlier today in a statement provided to Press Start Outlast II developer Red Barrels said, “Outlast 2 has been rated R18+ by the Classification Branch in Australia and will be released 26th April 2017. There will be only one version of Outlast 2 available worldwide.”If both of these statements are factual Outlast II it would appear Outlast II may have been edited for its worldwide release. The game is yet to appear in either the ESRB or PEGI ratings databases.IGN has contacted the game's distributor for clarification.Original story continues below.

Outlast II's new entry in the Australian Classification Board database.

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Outlast II will be coming out in Australia after all; the game’s rating has been changed from RC to R18+.Outlast II has been reclassified R18+ for “high impact horror themes, violence, blood, gore and sex.” ‘High’ is the highest impact level Australia’s ratings guidelines describe (following ‘very mild’, ‘mild’, ‘moderate’, and ‘strong.’)The circumstances surrounding the reclassification are not entirely clear at this stage; IGN has reached out to developer Red Barrels and the Australian Classification Board for clarification.In previous cases some games (2009's Aliens vs. Predator is one example ) that have been refused classification by the Australian Classification Board have had those decisions overturned by the Classification Review Board, which is a part-time panel with members from different parts of Australia who must travel to Sydney to make review decisions. In 2013 South Australian Attorney-General John Rau made a number of official applications to the Australian Classification Review Board to review the MA15+ ratings of 12 games . The Review Board upheld all 12 MA15+ ratings and did not see fit to reclassify any of the games.The rating reversal follows a speech in the Australian Senate on the topic of game classification by controversial NSW Liberal Democrat crossbencher David Leyonjhelm.Outlast II was originally refused classification and banned for sale in Australia last week over a sequence involving sexual violence.As opposed to the self-regulated, industry-led rating systems managed by the ESRB in the US and PEGI in Europe, Australia’s film and games rating system is operated by the Australian Classification Board, a government agency that applies ratings in accordance with the guidelines determined by legislation.

Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter