Hotine Miami 2 is back in the headlines, but not for a new trailer nor a release date finally announced. The Australian Classification Board has denied Hotline Miami 2 even their harshest rating. Not rating the game effectively bans the sale. Expanding on their report, the board claimed that the main character “strikes a female character wearing red underwear. She is knocked to the floor and is viewed lying face down in a pool of copious blood. The male character is viewed with his pants halfway down, partially exposing his buttocks. He is viewed pinning the female down by the arms and lying on top of her thrusting, implicitly raping her.”
Related: Hotline Miami 2 Denied Classification In Australia
Publisher Devolver Digital and developer Dennaton Games released a joint statement Thursday morning to respond, saying the board stretched the facts. Here are three things the Australian Classification Board left out about the opening scene.
1. There is an option to skip scenes with sexual violence. Hotline Miami 2 acknowledges that it contains allusions to sexual violence, and asks the player if he or she would like to skip those scenes.
2. The scene does not contain any “thrusting,” as the board states. Devolver Digital said this particular misrepresentation was disappointing for “a board of professionals tasked with evaluating and judging games fairly and honestly.”
3. The scene in question is done on an in-game set as part of a film. Even in the game, this act of implied sexual violence is not real. After the act in question, a director stops the whole thing by yelling “cut!” and then says “and we’re filming the scene where you carry her to your car on Thursday.” Then the victim and perpetrator are seen standing next to each other. The Australian Board stated that the character broke into a movie set and murdered all the helpless actors. Watching the video below, you can see that he was an actor himself.
The joint statement by publisher said that they will not be challenging the ruling, and said they look forward to delivering Hotline Miami 2 “very soon.”
