mrkgnao: It has other options of following the law, such as:
a) Asking me to click on a checkbox that I am not living in Australia when I come to buy the game.
b) Not selling the game.

Grargar: Assuming they decided to implement your a) solution, they would be breaking their contract with the publisher, which is what also got them into trouble with Namco. How would Devolver Digital be moving from then on, is another matter.

PaterAlf: Wouldn't option b) promote and enforce censorship even more?

ForgottenTrope: Any reasonable person can see that GOG is not doing this to exploit its customers.

mrkgnao: Not to me. I believe I discussed it in post #85.

realkman666: And no one is saying that, so why would you bring that up? Still, I hope they release a statement to explain their decision.

ForgottenTrope: So that we don't lose sight of the forest for the trees. I felt it would be useful to keep things in perspective after reading some other comments here.

GOG's explained its decision in an edit to the pre-order thread.

realkman666: They'll have to be clearer than that regarding the implications of selling a game to an Australian.

bansama: "Though we have no plans to officially challenge the ruling, we stand by our developers, their creative vision for the storyline, its characters and the game and look forward to delivering Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number to fans very soon.

- Devolver Digital and Dennaton Games" (http://www.devolverdigital.com/blog/view/hotline-miami-2-australian-classification)

And that is the real reason this game is restricted. Simply because the publisher, although acknowledging that the classification ruling was wrong, won't be bothered to fight it.

In turn, that means by restricting the title on GOG, GOG aren't preventing "AU censorship" from being forced on everyone, but are instead endorsing publisher decisions to not sell in certain regions. This is no different to a Japanese publisher refusing to sell in Japan simply because.

GOG may as well just go all the way now and start selling Steam keys.

gunsynd: They can BAN what they want,we'll just go Pirating....

mrkgnao: One does not fight wrong laws by capitulating to them. One at least attempts to resist them.

mistermumbles: Yet they're still selling Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, Postal 1 & 2, Phantasmagoria, and Risen to Australians. All of these are still banned in Australia. I call major bullshit. I also blame fucking Playstation for this hot mess because that's the reason they bothered to get the game classified in the first place.

There are plenty of indie games that probably would get banned in Australia if it wasn't for the fact that digital-only games on PC don't actually need classification ratings.

Lifthrasil: All this talk about Australia remindet me of a joke:

A man wants to move to Australia and is asked in the immigration office:
"Do you have any criminal record?"

He answers: "Oh, I didn't know, that that is STILL a requirement!"

ForgottenTrope: That's a bit of a jump. Keep in mind that the publisher makes less money by not being able to sell to Australians, so they wouldn't be enjoying this outcome. It's simply a massive imbalance of power. GOG also makes less money from not being able to sell the game to Australians. What would you expect them to do that's not illegal?

bansama: Not a jump at all. The publisher could have appealed. They made the decision not to. They actively chose not to make a profit from that market. They are just using censorship as an excuse. Japanese publishers refuse to sell in Japan all the time, not even with the excuse of censorship. This is just what companies do. They decide who they want profit off of. Likewise, GOG should have stuck to their principles and refused to sell the game at all. Or, as many have pointed out already, simply carried on selling it - as they are already happy to do so with other games banned in Australia.

bansama: Ask the businesses that make that choice. Start with Ubisoft* who choose not to release the Prince of Persia DLC on the PC for "business reasons". Ask Nintendo of America who choose not to release already localised games for "business reasons". Pretty much all business make such choices. You'll have to ask them why -- and then hope they actually give you a truthful and meaningful answer.

What do Japanese publishers get out of not selling here? Again, ask them. Don't expect an answer though. They don't like to bother with such niceties as responding to feedback and requests from customers.

* While you're at it, why not ask Ubisoft why they're fucking around with the PC release of Far Cry 4 in Japan. Again, don't expect an answer. They won't answer the many other people who have been asking the same question.