It looks like Bethesda's censorship troubles didn't end with the Aussies.  Fallout 3 product manager Pete Hines admits that developing a game for a global audience has proven "frustrating" because of varying censorship laws.

While Hines declined to talk about their problems with Australia, where Fallout 3 was initially refused categorization, he delves into the general issues Bethesda has been faced with trying to cater to each country's differing restrictions:

"The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different 'hot buttons'.

I guess that's the way of the world - not every country is the same. You're not aiming at one target, you're aiming at six different ones, worrying about how each one will feel about different things."

Hines did make a point of saying that the hassle of censorship did not effect the game's development.  "We just go through and make the game that we want to make," he explained.  "We have our eyes wide open, mindful of the things that could be flagged up and how we're going to resolve them if that becomes a problem."

Fallout 3 is scheduled for North American release on October 28, with its European release falling back to October 31, 2008.