The Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) is the government agency in New Zealand that is responsible for the classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in the country. It is unconnected to the Australian agency that had the same name until 2005 – Australia and New Zealand have entirely different classification regimes.
According to the OFLC, the New Zealand ratings are only applied to games if they:
- Are restricted (classified as MA15+ or R18+) in Australia
- Are refused classification (banned) in Australia or the UK
- Are classified 15, 18, or R18 in Britain (or PEGI 16 and PEGI 18)
- Have restricted content under New Zealand law[1]
Grand Theft Auto Game Ratings[]
The majority of the Grand Theft Auto series has been rated R18 by the OFLC in New Zealand; a rating for GTA Advance and GTA London 1961 is not found in their database, so its actual rating is unknown. GTA Chinatown Wars war rated R16 by the OFLC in New Zealand. Both the first and second versions of GTA San Andreas were granted the R18 rating. The original Grand Theft Auto was initially rated R18, but was downgraded to an R13 in 2018. Grand Theft Auto 2 also received an R18, but was downgraded in 2023.
The following games are rated R18
- Grand Theft Auto: London 1969
- Grand Theft Auto III
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
- Grand Theft Auto V
The following games are rated R16
The following games are rated R13
The following games were not rated in New Zealand
See Also[]
- BBFC, the British media rating system
- ESRB, the United States, Canadian, and Mexican computer and video game rating system
- PEGI, the European computer and video game rating system
- ELSPA, the former British computer and video game rating system, replaced by the PEGI ratings.
- USK, the German computer and video game rating system
- ACB, the Australian media rating system
- CERO, the Japanese computer and video game rating system