Gore, Michael Myers, lots of blood, brutal deaths, torture. So far, so good. But… weed? In a game that kids could play? That’s crossing the line.
At least that seems to be the reason why Halloween: The Game, the new survival horror game developed by IllFonic and scheduled for release on September 8, 2026, was ultimately kept off the Australian market.
This is an asymmetrical survival horror game: one player takes on the role of Michael Myers while the others try to survive by alerting and warning their neighbors in order to stop him. It will also include a single-player mode.
However, the game will not be available for sale in Australia after authorities refused to issue a rating for it. IllFonic also announced that, as a result of that decision, the game will not be sold in New Zealand either, even though that country has its own rating system.
The reason? It wasn’t the stabbings…
Why Did Australia Ban the New Halloween Video Game?
It wasn’t because of the violence or the famous character who embodies terror itself as he hunts down and kills people, but because of a feature related to cannabis.
Survivors can use weed in the game and receive a benefit: for a few seconds, they can detect Michael Myers’s location. That’s where the regulatory problem lies.
Australian regulations are particularly strict when a video game links the use of an illicit or controlled substance to an in-game incentive or benefit. It’s not simply a matter of “someone smoking marijuana”; the player consumes the substance and gains an advantage from it.
As a result, the Australian Classification Board refused to classify the game, giving it an RC (Refused Classification) designation. In practice, a video game that receives this rating cannot be sold normally in Australia.
IllFonic responded by pointing out just how absurd the discrepancy seems to them: according to the studio, the refusal was not related to Michael Myers or the violent killings the player can carry out, but rather to the presence of a controlled substance.
HobbyConsolas points out that “the use, possession, or trafficking of marijuana/cannabis is strictly prohibited in Australia.” So, it would seem that the relevant regulatory issue for the video game is not simply the appearance of cannabis, but rather that its use produces a positive effect within the game.
This also explains why directly comparing the case to GTA V or Far Cry 3 can be misleading. Both games include references to or depictions of cannabis and are available for sale in Australia, but depicting a drug is not necessarily the same as turning its use into a “power-up” or an advantage.
Australia Already Has a History With Cannabis in Video Games
Halloween: The Game is far from being the first video game to run afoul of this particular aspect of Australian regulations.
One of the clearest examples is DayZ. In 2019, the Australian Classification Board found that the game allowed players to use a joint to improve their character’s health stats: it increased their food and water levels and lowered their body temperature. For regulators, this meant that using cannabis improved the chances of survival, effectively turning it into a reward. Guess what happened… yes: Refused Classification.
More revealingly, the board explained that if cannabis had appeared without providing that benefit, the content could have fallen under an R18+ rating. In other words, the problem wasn’t necessarily the joint; it was that the joint improved your chances and gave you an advantage while playing.
DayZ ended up being modified and subsequently received a rating that allowed it to be sold.
There’s also the case of We Happy Few. In that game, characters can take a fictional drug called Joy, which alters their perception and allows them to navigate certain situations more easily. The Classification Board considered that making the game easier through the use of the substance constituted an incentive and originally denied it a rating.
RimWorld faced a similar issue in 2022. The agency concluded that the game depicted illicit drug use associated with incentives or rewards and once again issued a Refused Classification.
Even Fallout 3 initially received a Refused Classification in Australia in 2008 amid objections related to its depiction of drugs. The official Australian registry still retains that initial decision.
This pattern, then, has been going on for some time.
Australia can classify video games with extremely high levels of violence for adult audiences. But if an illicit drug becomes a tool that makes a character stronger, restores their health, or makes a mission easier, that content may fall outside the classification system entirely. So, simply saying that Australia “bans marijuana in video games” would be incorrect.
In Halloween: The Game, the equation seems pretty straightforward: smoking marijuana makes it easier to find Michael Myers. And that was enough for Australia to say, “Hmm… No.”
Michael Myers? Yes—A Joint to Help You Escape? No
The result highlights a paradox that’s hard to ignore. We’re talking about an adaptation of Halloween, a franchise built around a serial killer who hunts people down with a knife, often in graphic and disturbing ways. Violence isn’t an incidental element of the game: it’s essentially its raison d’être.
However, it was a relatively minor cannabis-related mechanic that ultimately led to the game’s removal from the Australian market.
On the other hand, the situation in New Zealand is a bit different. Although IllFonic announced that Halloween: The Game will not be sold there either, the “Refused Classification” decision that sparked the controversy was made by the Australian regulatory body. New Zealand has its own classification authority, so the game’s absence from that market appears to stem from the commercial and regulatory decision made following the Australian rejection, and not necessarily from an independent ban issued by New Zealand authorities.
For now, IllFonic has not publicly announced whether it will modify the game’s mechanics to try to obtain a new classification. Australian media have already reported that major retailers have begun removing the title from their listings.
So Michael Myers will be able to continue doing his thing in much of the world when Halloween: The Game arrives in September. But in Australia, at least for now, this is apparently too dangerous: his victims smoking a joint and being able to track the killer’s location.
Cover photo by Mooshuu from San Diego, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons // Edited with AI
