PlayStation suddenly withdraws Hotline Miami 2 from Australian PS5 owners after realizing the country’s review board denied the game’s release a decade ago

PlayStation has withdrawn Hotline Miami 2 from sale in Australia and refunded PS5 owners who purchased the game, ten years after the infamous row over its release down under.

In January 2015, designer Jonatan Söderström memorably told Australian fans to simply pirate Hotline Miami 2 after its release was blocked by the notoriously strict Australian ratings board due to the inclusion of a skippable scene that showed simulated sexual violence to see.

But all that seemed to have been ironed out last October, when Hotline Miami 1 and 2 received a native release on PS5 in the country. Hotline Miami 2 was also later added to the PlayStation Plus Extra catalogue.

However, 12 months after the PS5’s arrival, Australian owners of the game on PS5 are suddenly receiving a refund – because someone, apparently at the ACB, has once again intervened to enforce the board’s original ruling.

PS5 owners of the game are reporting that they have received the following statement (thanks, Press Start):

“We have become aware that the Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number product has not received a good rating from the Australian classification society and have therefore taken steps to refund customers who purchased the game.

“We have refunded the total purchase price for the product to your original payment method. It may take up to 30-60 days to appear on your bank statement. If your original payment source is unavailable, we will refund the purchase amount to your PlayStation Network wallet.

“We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

Similarly, Sony has also informed anyone who obtained a copy of Hotline Miami 2 through PlayStation Plus that their access has been revoked.

In 2019, a Hotline Miami 2 port for Nintendo Switch was briefly made available in Australia via the Switch eShop – although the ACB then acted much more quickly and the game was snapped up within 24 hours.

It’s unclear why action is being taken against the PS5 version of Hotline Miami 2 now, a full year after release, but Eurogamer has reached out to publisher Devolver for comment.