‘RimWorld’ returns to Steam in Australia after having its ban overturned

The studio announced the game’s return in a blog post published yesterday (April 21), after the Australian Classification Board gave RimWorld a rating of “Refused Classification” in March, which removed it from Steam in the country.

Then in early April the board said it would be meeting to discuss the rating, which has now been overturned. On April 20 developer Tynan Sylvester asked followers on Twitter about “examples of games which are rated by the Australian Board which include drug use, especially connected to player incentives?” in an effort to bolster the studio’s case to reinstate the game, and it appears to have worked.

Good news! RimWorld is now rated and legal to buy again in Australia.

We’ll have it back up on Steam soon.

Thanks to everyone who lent their support.https://t.co/KBRR9sySp4

— Tynan Sylvester (@TynanSylvester) April 20, 2022

The Classification Board confirmed on April 20 that RimWorld now has an R 18+ rating in Australia due to the “themes and drug use [having] a high impact.

“The game includes fantasy drug use, but in the Review Board’s opinion, the game mechanic ultimately provides disincentives related to drug-taking behaviour, to the point where regular drug use leads to negative consequences such as overdose, addiction, and withdrawal,” added the board.

“The game also contains high impact themes that are justified by the context of colonists surviving in an inhospitable fantasy world.”

Originally, the rating meant that RimWorld could not be sold in Australia after the developer aimed to get the game a console release.

After RimWorld was reinstituted to Australia’s Steam platform, Ludeon Studios offered “a big thanks to everyone for your support, that was a wild couple of months!”

In other news, a Tales From The Borderlands sequel is in the works at Gearbox and will release later this year.