Psychedelic survival adventure We Happy Few has been rejected for certification by the Australian Classification Board, preventing its release and effectively banning it from sale in the country. Developer Compulsion Games has now addressed the board’s decision in a new blog post.
We Happy Few’s events unfurl in the shadow of a dystopian society, which, as in the seminal 60s TV series The Prisoner, hides behind the quaint facade of a picturesque English village. Wellington Wells’ always-smiling citizens, eager to forget a horrifying shared experience, spend their days high on a hallucinogenic drug called Joy – leading into We Happy Few’s core themes of addiction, mental health, and drug abuse.
According to the Australian Classification Board’s website, games that are Refused Classification commonly “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.”
It’s not entirely clear what specific elements of We Happy Few the notoriously ban-happy classification board took umbrage with, but fans suspect that it’s to do with drug use. Famously, Fallout 3’s Med-X item was originally known as morphine – until the Australian Classification Board refused to grant a certificate unless Bethesda removed all real-world drug references. Obviously though, “Joy” is not a real drug, so it’s unclear what’s happening here.
Addressing the board’s decision, Compulsion said it had received “hundreds of messages from fans appreciating the treatment we’ve given [We Happy Few’s themes], and we believe that when players do get into the world they’ll feel the same way.”
The studio also, pointedly, drew attention to the fact that We Happy Few’s first scene “consists of the player character redacting material that could cause offense to ‘society at large’, as part of his job as a government ‘archivist’. It’s a society that is forcing its citizens to take Joy, and the whole point of the game is to reject this programming and fight back.”
“In this context,” it said, “our game’s overarching social commentary is no different than Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, or Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.”
Compulsion notes that it “will be talking to the ACB to provide additional information, to discuss the issues in depth, and see whether they will change their minds”. If its attempts are unsuccessful, however, the developer says it will make sure that Australian fans “can get a refund, and we will work directly with affected Kickstarter backers to figure something out.We would appreciate if you give us a little bit of time to appeal the decision before making a call.”
This isn’t the first controversy to befall We Happy Few, of course. Eyebrows were raised when, following the news that Gearbox would publish the title, its early access price leaped from 23 to almost 40. Compulsion later suspended its early access programme in response to criticism.
We Happy Few was originally scheduled to launch on PC, PS4, and Xbox One in April, but was delayed to “summer” in order to improve the game’s structure and flow.
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