South Park is one of the most delightfully offensive series in existence, with a cornucopia of controversies and other amusing stories under its belt. That’s why it’s rather unexpected to hear that South Park: The Fractured But Whole will be uncensored everywhere worldwide — including Australia.
The news comes from Ubisoft San Francisco’s associate producer Kimberly Weigend who told GamesIndustry that with the game receiving a R18+ rating with no content cut or censored in Australia, South Park: The Fractured But Whole will be released in its pure, unadulterated form the world over.
So, what exactly caused The Fractured But Whole to receive its current rating in Australia when the game’s predecessor — 2014’s South Park: The Stick of Truth — was unable to do so? The immediate assumption would be that it was tamer in its explicit content than its predecessor, which saw content involving anal probing and performing an abortion on a man removed. However, as Weigend notes, series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker didn’t do anything different with this game when compared to the last one.
“We really didn’t hold anything back with The Fractured But Whole,” she said. “We worked very closely with Matt and Trey to tell their story – and they obviously don’t hold back as well.”
If nothing with the game changed, then the only explanation would be that the ratings board members were the ones who changed. Of course, the only people who could answer that question would be the people involved in the process themselves, because Weigend certainly had no clue when asked.
“It could be a changing of the times, that they’re more open to ideas. Maybe they saw the reception to the first game… We’re honestly not entirely sure why, but we’re very happy that everyone’s going to get the same experience because that was such a big bummer for the first game, that there were certain things we couldn’t show in some countries.”
Regardless of why it happened, the result is that the world as a whole can finally enjoy a South Park game the way it is supposed to be played, and this could indeed be is a sign that perceptions about mature content in video games are changing.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole will release worldwide on Oct. 17 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
