The Callisto Protocol is too violent for the Japanese ratings board

techradar.com:

After push-back from Japanese censors, The Callisto Protocol will not be making its way to Japanese consoles and screens this December after all.

The Computer Entertainment Ratings Organization (CERO) deemed horror game The Callisto Protocol — with its ray-traced eyeballs and abundant viscera — too gory and violent for public consumption, refusing to rate it unless Striking Distance Studios agreed to a censored edit for the region. Given CERO’s stringent measures, Japanese developers are used to making this compromise, with Capcom toning down Resident Evil games(opens in new tab) for their home-turf releases.

USA-based Striking Distance Studios declined to make a modified version of The Callisto Protocol, saying this would create a poor experience for players, and instead will refund all pre-orders from the region.

pic.twitter.com/fXtsIY4Fz3October 26, 2022

This isn’t the first time ratings teams have rejected a game, and it’s certainly not a Japanese issue at all.

Film, media, and internet censorship are nothing new. The so-called “Great Firewall of China(opens in new tab)” has been implemented since the mid-90s to control information distribution, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a video game that isn’t banned for nudity, violence, or seditious behavior(opens in new tab) in places like Saudi Arabia.

But the West has had its fair share of video game policing, too, especially when it comes to violence.

When Manhunt 2 was released in 2007, it stumbled at the hurdle of the UK rating authority. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) refused to rate or approve it for release, and American boards gave it an Adults Only rating that effectively barred it from being distributed.

The game, which depicts an amnesiac man being