Why is there such a huge gap because American and Australian game releases?

[Snowy]

From Bulbapedia

It was released in Japan on September 17, 2015, and in North America on November 20, 2015, and is scheduled to be released in Europe on February 19, 2016, and in Australia and New Zealand in February 20, 2016.

I understand the delay between Japan and NA. It has be translated from Japanese to American English, and Europe contains more languages than just English that the game probably needs to be translated into.. But Australian English isn't too different from American English.

I'm curious if anyone knows why there is such a big delay between this game's release in the US and here in Australia?

Thanks.

Also, I apologize if there is a better forum for this.

 

[henrymidfields]

I actually did wonder about this and wrote a similar question over in the general video game section. Apparently part of the reason is the difference between the US and Australian classification, which has some differences in how contents are rated. I hear Americans are more strict on foul language and sexual references, while I think Europeans/Australian classifications are more strict on violence, if I remember correctly. Certain swear words also gets censored differently too

Although, you're still right: this doesn't explain why couldn't the English versions get rated all at the same time together (US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and maybe South Africa), considering there is minimal differences. Similarly, why do the European versions have to be released simultaneously? There's the obvious option to localise the more widely spoken languages first: the French (Quebec, Switzerland, Belgium, and France), Spanish (Central South America except Brazil, and of course Spain), and Portugese (Brazil and Portugal) first, and then German (Switzerland, Austria, Germany), Italian (Switzerland and Italy) and the rest later. (Consider that, particularly for Germans, Dutch, and other Northern Europeans, English is generally widespread, and an limited European release with British English could have been done as a second-best option, instead of the obvious worst option.)