The recent DayZ Australia weed ban stopped developer Bohemia on its tracks and interfered with the plans for a release in the region. The Classification Board decided to revoke the previously assigned MA15+ for a physical release and the survival game was suddenly banned from sale on all platforms in Australia.
Bohemia recently made a statement that confirmed it would do its best to comply with all the regulations. According to Kotaku Australia, the dev has confirmed that DayZ is going to be modified to pass the approval system, removing all the items that stirred controversy and ended up being the main reason for the DayZ Australia weed ban.
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However, there is a twist. Instead of solely modifying the Australian release, Bohemia is aiming to change the game globally, in a bid to keep Australian players as a part of the global player base:
“We don’t want to separate Australian players from the rest of the world, since many people play cross-region,” Bohemia said. “We love that DayZ is the place to meet with friends and experience the game without dramatic regional lag. We don’t want to change that.”
Confirmation of the global changes came with the following statement:
“At the moment, we are editing the global version of DayZ so it will fit into the Board’s requirements. The key objective is to keep the gameplay as authentic as it was, so players are not affected by this change.”
There is no word on what these changes may be, but considering that it all started due to the alleged inclusion of cannabis as a healing item, it’s likely that this is one of the things that will be removed from the game. Oddly enough, this item wasn’t actually available in-game, but its introduction was probably planned.
