DayZ Gets Banned in Australia Over a Drug That Can’t Be Used Yet

The physical release of the survival game DayZ has now been blocked in Australia over an instance of drug usage in the game, new reports have stated. News began circulating earlier in the week that indicated the Australian Classification Board had denied the game a classification while pointing towards a broad reason for the decision. It appears that the refusal was due to the fact that weed is in the game as a resource players can use, though the drug isn’t actually in the live game yet and has only been referenced in the files.

Over on the Australian Classification site, DayZ was refused classification on the grounds that it is among games that “depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.” That doesn’t provide any specific reason for the ban of the physical product, but the Australian Classification Board’s report on the game was obtained by Kotaku Australia which then revealed that the denied classification was because of “illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards.”

“Through general gameplay, the player is able to collect and use a variety of equipment, supplies and weaponry,” the board’s report said according to Kotaku Australia. “One of the options to restore the player’s health is a marijuana joint, labelled ‘cannabis’, which is denoted by a cannabis bud in the player’s inventory.”

This decision from the board blocks the physical sales of the game, but Kotaku Australia’s report says that the board is also currently working to pull the game from digital platforms as well. The DayZ Twitter account shared a message about the situation recently in the tweet above.

While weed indeed exists in the game in the form of several cannabis items, it’s only in the files right now and can’t actually be used. Players have pointed this out online and noted that the cannabis items were apparently found in the files long ago.