Update 2:

PQube Games has gotten back to us with the following statement on the situation by Peter Fury the PR Executive at PQube:

I can confirm that EB Games Australia has taken both Gal*Gun Double Peace and Senran Kagura Estival Versus off shelves in their stores. We just got confirmation of it last night. Apparently pre-orders will be honoured but other than that EB Games will not sell those titles anymore. When we inquired further, we were told that apparently this was brought about by someone at EB Games reading a story on GalGun and getting upset by the content they saw. They specifically referred to the term “orgasm bomb”, so I’m guessing they got an eyeful of some glorious doki-doki action. It is our understanding that this is not an Australia ban, but rather EB Games deciding to take this off their shelves on their own.

This also confirms that Senran Kagura Estival Versus is affected by the situation as well. Additionally, the Australian Classification Board has said that they will be issuing an official response on the situation. We will continue to update this story.

Update:

EB Games got back to us with the following statement on the situation:

Thank you for contacting us.

Australians who are 18 years or older have the right to make their own choices about what video games they play.

We assess our product range on a regular basis using a number of key business factors, including sales rates. In this instance we have made the decision to no longer stock these products.

The extremely small number of customers who have an existing preorder are still able to collect their copy of these titles.

Thank you again for contacting us

Assuming there is nothing else, this would be a case of an Australian retailer opting to no longer stock a game, not a case of the Australian Classification Board changing classification or anything else. This would make it more comparable to when Target and K-Mart opted to no longer carry Grand Theft Auto V.

Original Story:

TechRaptor recently reported on indie title The Bug Butcher receiving a "Refused Classification" rating from the Australian Classification Board. Unfortunately, the English localization Gal*Gun: Double Peace by PQube Games may have suffered a similar fate, as the UK-based website Rice Digital is reporting that the game has been pulled from the shelves of the Australian branch of EB Games.

Gal*Gun: Double Peace was released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Japan on August 6, 2015, with the European localization releasing earlier this month on July 22, 2016 (the North American localization is slated for next week on August 2, 2016). Publisher PQube Games has previously stated that Gal*Gun: Double Peace would not see any censorship in its localization. That helps explain why the title received an R 18+ rating from the Australian Classification Board on June 2, 2016, for "sexual activity related to incentives and rewards". This rating would require proof of age in order to purchase it, and in some cases, stores would require plain packaging and separate shelving for titles with this rating.

TechRaptor staff has reached out to EB Games Australia, PQube, and other related parties for comment on this situation. At the time of writing this article, we've only heard back from the Head of Marketing at PQube Games, Geraint Evans, who commented that they were hoping for clarification from the Australian retailer.

PQube Games also commented in a (now deleted) tweet that, if Gal*Gun: Double Peace was pulled from Australian retailers, it could likely have to do with the manufacturing of the box. They replaced it with the following tweet:

TechRaptor staff will update this article if and when we receive any contact from the companies we have reached out to.

For our Australian readers, Gal*Gun: Double Peace is still available for digital purchase on the PlayStation Network, and Rice Digital has confirmed that they do ship physical copies of the game to Australia.

Stay tuned to TechRaptor for further information on Gal*Gun: Double Peace and the state of gaming in Australia. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Gal*Gun: Double Peace feel free to read our preview on it.

What are your thoughts on this development? Let us know in the comment section below.