The upcoming Halloween: The Game – based on the freaking awesome horror classic Halloween movie from 1978 – will not be legally available in Australia or New Zealand when it launches on on September 8 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Is it because it features the Iconic slasher brutally murdering teens? Nope. It it because of horrifying levels of blood and gore? Nah. it’s because you can light a joint and get high.

IllFonic themselves confirmed that the game won’t be available. When a fan asked where the PS5 version of the game was in Australia.

“Despite every effort on our part, the Australian Classifications Board has denied ‘Halloween: The Game’ a rating,” says IllFonic. “The denial was not based on the presence of the iconic slasher, Michael Myers, or the outstanding kills that can be performed in the game, but rather the presence of a controlled substance. Unfortunately, to our disappointment (and certainly yours) this means that we cannot sell the physical or digital product in both Australia and New Zealand.”

Interestingly, the developer also says the decision means Halloween cannot be sold in New Zealand. That’s slightly odd, because New Zealand has its own classification system and the Australian Classification Board doesn’t have jurisdiction there. The two countries’ systems do interact — New Zealand can cross-rate Australian decisions — but an Australian refusal isn’t simply a New Zealand ban. At the moment, IllFonic hasn’t explained why the Australian decision has also killed the New Zealand release, and people are asking them to appeal the Australian decision, as well as put the game through the New Zealand system seperately.

There’s also another reasonable course of action, which would be to alter the scenes involving weed. Australia specifically doesn’t allow the player to use real-world illicit/proscribed drug and get rewards them for doing so. In the case of Halloween: The Game, horror website Bloody Disguisting says players can smoke weed in order to see Micheal Myer’s pings on the map, thereby helping them evade The Shape.

To get around this, Illfonic could just have players take something else. In 2008, Fallout 3 managed to get a rating by morphine to Med-X. State of Decay renamed its drugs to vitamins, and that let it slip by.

There may also be ways of censoring it, or even removing the mechanic entirely in the Australian version. That would let the game be sold, opening up a whole market. On the other hand, it also means changing the original vision and intent, which Illfonic may not want to do.

People have been asking Illfonic if they intend on changing the mechanic, appealing the decision or fighting it, but thus far Illfonic have not said anything else on the subject.

So now we just have one of those funny situations where brutal teen murder is okay, but getting high to stop Micheal Myers from stabbing you is not allowed.