By A PlayStation ad for the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition in Australia carries an “X 18+” rating, and within a day a good part of the internet had decided that means explicit sex scenes. Beebom reported the ad and pointed out that GTA V got R 18+. I haven’t seen the ad page myself, only the reports, and here’s why I wouldn’t build anything on that label.
X 18+ is real in Australia, but it isn’t a games category. The Classification Board uses it for adult films with real sexual content, and those can be sold only in the two territories, not in any state. Games have their own ladder: G, PG, M, MA 15+ and R 18+, and R 18+ is the top. A game that goes past R 18+ doesn’t get a higher letter. It gets refused classification and can’t be sold at all. So a game can’t be rated X 18+, and a shop ad for a game on sale can’t be quoting the Board.
That leaves a few readings, and the likeliest is the dullest one: a typo or a template. Someone building the ad typed X where R belongs, and R 18+ is what GTA V carries. The next one is a placeholder, an age badge filled in before the rating exists and never swapped. The third is that it’s real, and I don’t see how, because it would be a rating the Board doesn’t give to games. Reports on the game’s actual Australian rating disagree with each other, so I’m not putting one here until the Board’s own page settles it.
What the label can’t tell you is anything about the content. Rockstar and Sony haven’t commented, the ad lists no content descriptors, and a rating letter on its own doesn’t say what’s in the game. If you want the real picture, it will be the Board’s classification page for the game, with the rating and the consumer advice spelled out, and the store page closer to launch.
For now an X on a shop banner is just a letter. What’s in the box we’ll know on November 19.