UPDATE 4.30pm UK: Eurogamer has received the following visual statement from Hotline Miami 2 publisher Devolver Digital, in response to today’s news:
Eurogamer’s original story follows.
ORIGINAL STORY 1pm UK:
PlayStation has removed Hotline Miami 2 from sale in Australia and refunded PS5 owners who bought the game, a decade on from the infamous kerfuffle over its release down under.
Back in January 2015, designer Jonatan Söderström memorably told Aussie fans to simply pirate Hotline Miami 2 after its release was blocked by the notoriously-strict Australian Classification Board, due to its inclusion of a skippable scene that showed simulated sexual violence.
But all of that seemed to have been smoothed over last October, when Hotline Miami 1 and 2 got a native release on PS5 in the country. Indeed, Hotline Miami 2 was later added to the PlayStation Plus Extra catalogue too.
12 months on from its PS5 arrival, however, Australian owners of the game on PS5 are suddenly receiving refunds – as someone, seemingly at the ACB, has once again stepped in to enforce the board’s original ruling.
PS5 owners of the game report receiving the following statement (thanks, Press-Start):
“We have become aware that the product Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number has not received a proper rating from the Australian Classification Board and have therefore taken steps to refund customers who have purchased the game.
“We have issued a refund of the total purchase price for the product back to your original payment method. This may take 30-60 days to appear on your bank statement. If your original payment source is unavailable, we will refund the purchase amount to your PlayStation Network wallet.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Similarly, anyone who acquired a copy of Hotline Miami 2 via PlayStation Plus has also been told by Sony that their access has been removed.
In 2019, a Hotline Miami 2 port for Nintendo Switch was briefly made available in Australia via the Switch eShop – though the ACB acted far swifter then, and the game was pulled in under 24 hours.
It’s unclear why action is being taken against the PS5 version of Hotline Miami 2 now, a full year after its release, but Eurogamer has asked publisher Devolver for comment.