Weeks ago, Valve appealed the Australian classification board’s decision to not rate Left 4 Dead 2, and offered an edited version; still hoping that the appeal would be successful and Australians would experience zombie killing in all its gory glory.

The appeal has been denied, and Valve reports that the approved, edited version of the game will be the one that’s commercially released down under. The decision reads:

According to the Classification Review Board, the game has been once again refused classification due to violence.

In the Review Board’s opinion, Left 4 Dead 2 could not be accommodated within the MA 15+ classification. The computer game contains a level of violence which is high in impact, prolonged, repeated frequently and realistic within the context of the game.

In addition, it was the Review Board’s opinion that there was insufficient delineation between the depiction of general zombie figures and the human figures, as opposed to the clearly fictional ‘infected’ characters. This was a major consideration of the Review Board in determining the
impact of this game on minors.

Computer games classified RC cannot be sold, hired, advertised or demonstrated in Australia.

The Classification Review Board convened today in response to an application from the distributor of the computer game, Electronic Arts, to review the decision made by the Classification Board on 15 September 2009 to classify Left 4 Dead 2 RC.

Left 4 Dead 2 will be released on November 17th for the PC and Xbox 360. Those who haven’t pre-ordered yet still have time to get in on the pre-order goodies.

If you need more zombies, check out the Zombies Exposed blog and see HyTek’s Top 20 Zombie Movie Countdown!