On Sept. 9, Michael Myers returns in Halloween: The Game. Players will get to step into the oversized shows of the ruthless killer or try their best to escape his grasp. Unfortunately, not every region will be able to enjoy the experience, as Halloween: The Game will not be available for sale in Australia and New Zealand.

According to the official Halloween: The Game account on X, the Australian Classification Board has denied the game a rating based on the presence of a controlled substance. While not many details were provided, it's possible to piece together what caused this. In March, content creator Slash 'N Cast played Halloween: The Game at Pax East and shared information about a specific mechanic. They stated that "Smoking weed in Halloween allows you to see Michael's pings across the map and can give you an advantage," and this seems to be the exact issue that led the Australian Classification Board to deny a rating.

While the Australian Classification Board allows depictions of controlled substances in video games, they cannot be advantageous, as this is seen as incentivizing drug use. Nevertheless, this does not explain why Halloween: The Game wouldn't be available in New Zealand, a separate country.

New Zealand and Australia have different classification systems. While there is a cross-rating system policy, it does not extend to media classified as mature or restricted. Plus, if media is denied altogether, it won't be eligible for a cross-rating. Developer Illfonic would therefore have had to submit it separately in order to get a rating in New Zealand and successfully publish the game.

A similar scenario happened in 2022, when the Australian Classification Board reviewed Rimworld and denied it a rating due to the depiction of substance use. The application was then resubmitted with an explanation of how taking drugs in-game hinders progress and has negative effects. This was enough to reverse the board's decision and bring the game into Australia. However, during the time that Rimworld remained unavailable in Australia, players in New Zealand never had to deal with the ban. This is likely because Ludeon Studios submitted to New Zealand's Classification Office separately.

It is possible that Illfonic didn't submit Halloween: The Game to NZ's Classification Office. "This could definitely be a case of the publisher deciding that paying the fee to classify it in NZ isn't worth the purchases they would get here. Guess publishers think NZ is too small a market," user jaccoo123 said in a Reddit thread about the matter. User Petes117 responded with, "Without Australia they won't have to bother with Oceanic servers either." Oceanic servers have a high percentage of Australian players, so this could be a measure to avoid inactive servers in this region.

Unfortunately, Illfonic has already stated that the game will not be available in either country. However, fans remain hopeful that the developer won't give up so easily. The game looks quite good and fun to play, based on the demo shown at PAX East. According to Polygon's Corey Plante, "It isn’t just another asymmetrical horror game — it’s one that actually understands what makes Michael Myers terrifying, and builds its entire design around that idea."

Halloween: The Game will be released on Sept. 8 for Xbox, Windows PC, and PlayStation.