Hotline Miami 2 creator on ban: 'Just pirate it'

'No need to send us money, just enjoy.'

Hotline Miami 2 was banned in Australia over its depiction of violence despite being a simplistic 2D game

In an email to a loyal gamer, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number creator Jonatan Söderström cheerily said that if the game remains banned in Australia people should download it through torrents and "just enjoy".

The gamer posted a screengrab of the correspondence on Reddit, which saw him say he would be "delighted" to pay the developer for the game if he could find a way to do so.

But Söderström said he needn't bother, writing: "If it ends up being released in Australia, just pirate it after release. No need to send us the money, just enjoy the game! Peace."

The email has since been confirmed as real by Polygon and Arts Technica.

Devolver does not plan to challenge the Australian Classification Board's ruling over the game's sexual content, though it said in a statement: "[W]e are concerned and disappointed that a board of professionals tasked with evaluating and judging games fairly and honestly would stretch the facts to such a degree and issue a report that describes specific thrusting actions that are not simply present in the sequence in question and incorrectly portrays what was presented to them for review."