Halloween: The Game banned in Australia over drugs, and GTA 6 fans are nervous

Halloween: The Game — the upcoming slasher based on the classic 1978 horror franchise — is launching in September on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but Australian and New Zealand players are locked out. The Australian Classification Board denied the game a rating, and the reason isn't Michael Myers or the gore: it's drugs.

The developers confirmed the ban on August 9 via social media, explaining that the ACB's decision came down to the presence of a controlled substance in gameplay. Specifically, Halloween: The Game lets players smoke weed and consume other drugs to gain in-game bonuses and advantages — and that mechanic is what triggered the denial. Without a classification, the game can't be sold physically or digitally in either country.

This isn't a new problem for games in Australia. Fallout 3 famously had to rename the healing drug morphine to Med-X to get past a similar classification issue, which ended up permanently altering the franchise's lore. Australia's classification system has historically been strict about drug use that rewards players, and the ACB has denied or forced changes to several titles over the years on those grounds.

What's making GTA 6 fans in Australia anxious is the timing. Last month, Rockstar quietly removed casino gambling access for Australian GTA Online players — seven years after the feature launched — apparently due to recent regulatory changes. That move, combined with the Halloween ban, has some players worried GTA 6 could face similar scrutiny or content cuts when it launches later this year. The more likely outcome, though, is that GTA 6 follows the path of GTA 5, which launched in Australia with an R18+ rating despite containing references to weed, meth, and other substances. A game of that scale will almost certainly get a rating rather than an outright ban — but Australian players are watching closely.