Update: A ‘Refused Classification’ rating for Silent Hill f published on the Australian Classification Board website has been taken down, with the organisation confirming it was purposefully removed, and the game is not currently rated in Australia.
“Silent Hill f is not currently classified as ‘Refused Classification’ in Australia,” the ACB told a variety of publications, including Stevivor. “The 14 March 2025 entry on the National Classification Database has been removed. A classification decision will be published to the National Classification Database ahead of the game’s release.”
Based on wording, it appears the spotted listing was made in error, or otherwise not meant to be live. We’ll hear more about Silent Hill f and its official rating closer to its planned release date.
The original story continues below…
Silent Hill f has been refused classification in Australia, following an IARC Global Rating Tool submission. While the details of the entry have been made private, a range of outlets spotted the report on publication, noting its rare RC, and a lack of details in the listing.
For now, there’s not a lot of reasons to panic for those Australian fans keen to play the game in future. As noted by the briefly-live listing, Konami appears to have submitted via the IARC, which is a globally-used, automated rating system with very strict bounds. It’s essentially a simple, streamlined way to get a game rated, with a range of criteria set for content. Developers must answer a questionnaire about what they want rated, and then a decision is handed down.
Given Silent Hill f was announced as having “depictions of gender discrimination, child abuse, bullying, drug-induced hallucinations, torture, and graphic violence,” with its first major trailer reveal, the game getting an RC flag in Australia isn’t quite unexpected.
The Australian Classification Board is notoriously strict on video games, for a range of reasons we’ve previously discussed. Games with difficult, heavy themes are often flagged with harsher ratings in Australia, and even small details can get games banned. Recently, Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact was banned in Australia for a scene “where an adult male exposes himself to persons under the age of 18 years.”
Read: Why Australian classification law is so tough on video games
Silent Hill f sees a young schoolgirl facing all manner of horrors in her journey through an isolated town, so it’s very possible her status as a teenager has contributed to this RC. The other distinct possibility is that the drug-induced hallucinations have triggered the RC, as any depictions of drug use are very carefully analysed and rated in Australia. The usual flag is they must not be tied to a reward in any way – although given the focus of Silent Hill f, we do expect the hallucinations won’t be beneficial in this game.
So, what’s next for Silent Hill f?
We expect what’s next for Silent Hill f will be an appeal to the Australian Classification Board, with humans stepping in on both sides to discuss the content of the game. With the title failing the IARC, it’s likely Konami will need to formally outline the game’s features in an in-depth analysis, particularly highlighting the nature of the game’s drug use, and the horrors facing protagonist, Hinako.
Given the game’s horror setting and the intention of its core themes, we do expect some leeway from the ACB, but for now, it’s a waiting game. With the popularity of the Silent Hill games, and the resources behind Konami, we do expect a solution will be found.
If we use Silent Hill: Homecoming as an example of a game banned prior to the introduction of the R18+ rating, we could see Silent Hill f released in Australia with modifications or changes. That said, it could still fit into the R18+ category without changes, depending on the content of the game, and the decision of a potential appeals process.
For now, it could just be a matter of a re-submission with human eyes over it. Stay tuned for more as Konami and the ACB work through this challenge.
