this is what's really ballsed up about games in Australia.

just copied from Wiki but whatever:

Australia (and as a by-product, New Zealand) is often a target of Regional Lockouts, as companies find they can charge a much higher price in Australia than the equivalent cost of a game or DVD in the United States or the UK. This was originally blamed on a weak Australian Dollar and import costs, but as the Australian Dollar rose, and import costs fell, the majority of companies refused to drop their prices, as they found that the market would tolerate high prices regardless of other concerns.

A major example is in Video Games, which often cost double their equivalent price in the UK or the United States. Games often sell for ₤25 GBP or $50 USD in these countries, but in Australia games will be sold on release at $100, which is equivalent to ₤45 GBP or $93 US Dollars, twice the cost or higher of the same game in the US or the UK.

On Valve software's Steam digital distribution system, THQ have locked out Australian users from buying their games. This is because the cost of Steam games is in US Dollars, and since the resurgence of the AUD to over 0.90c USD, it is not as profitable to sell over Steam as it is to sell at retail. These decisions have been immensely criticised by disgruntled prospective customers.[citation needed]

An example of this cost difference between retail and steam is Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. On Steam, the price is $29.95 USD, which is equal to $32 Australian Dollars. At retail stores (both online and "brick and mortar" stores) the game retails for approximately $80 AUD, which is equivalent to $75 USD. This difference of over $45 US Dollars ($48 Australian Dollars) has caused THQ to block the sale of the game over Steam to Australia, and as such the game is invisible to an Australian user, either in the steam client or on the steam website. If any attempt is made to purchase the game by using a non-Australian version of the Steam Website, a "territory error" is shown and the game will not be able to be purchased.

^Yeah, I've always complained about that. It's insane that we should be paying 55-60 dollars but instead get it bumped up to 100 because our currency was weak for a while (but now is quite strong).

I mean, we pay about $10 US more for a DS game than they do for a full priced 360/PS3 one.

I've really taken to using Steam/importing as much as possible (especially for PC since it's all pretty easy) and if companies like THQ are going to dick us around then I'm definitely not going to support then and will acquire their games through other means. I probably sound like a wanker but I've put an insane amount of money into gaming considering what the equivalent would be in the US and coupled with shit like our retarded OFLC and stupid release dates (Brawl just came out here) it's making me a bit jaded.

thanks bleep now my children won't play fallout 3 in the future come back to the past and commit a massacre on their highschool.

srsly was that a joke?

i didn't notice that.

I for one am glad this game is banned, it is vile and not what gaming is all about.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pta3VHiVTQ

Thanks Bleep, I agree whole-heartedly. Semper games.

http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/896/896091p1.html

Looks like we're getting it after all - they did the expected, 'altered' the references and left it at that.

As my friend said, this won't mean any outcry and means we'll probably get stuffed over again in future, but I doubt not getting the game at all would've accomplished much anyways.

I'm still gonna try to grab an NZ copy.

My local games store is getting the imported copy of this; while I love this fact, it shouldn't have to be some big deal anyway. I mean, I'm happy that I'll get the uncensored version, but we really should have got it all from the start.