Gears of War: Reloaded has been cancelled for PlayStation 5. In Japan, anyway.
As reported by IGN, Xbox’s Japan Newswire revealed that the game would no longer be coming to PlayStation 5 for their country due to ‘platform policies’. While Xbox did not elaborate further, IGN figured out that Microsoft has the game rated in their Japanese Xbox store under the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), as opposed to CERO. And this may be central to the PlayStation 5 cancellation.
As you may remember, CERO has been notorious for refusing classification for games to enter Japan, particularly for extremely violent content. As we had reported in the case of The Callisto Protocol, CERO explained to the public that their regulation system is actually completely voluntary. In many cases where violent games get rated by CERO, the publisher and developer of these games voluntarily makes versions with changes to meet their rating standards themselves.
While it’s the prerogative of game developers and publishers to approach CERO, the reality in the Japanese market is that retailers won’t take games that don’t have a rating. As Microsoft has demonstrated the IARC does exist as an alternative rating agency to get their games rated and sold in Japan, but this isn’t an option that Sony was willing to take. It seems that PlayStation in Japan does all their ratings through CERO, and they were not willing to budge in this case.
In spite of appearances, this is a situation that’s poorer for both Microsoft and Sony alike. Sony doesn’t gain anything from not selling Microsoft’s game in Japan, when they cleared it for sale in other parts of the world. Subsequently, we have seen that Microsoft wants to give their game studios the biggest chances of success, even when it seems contradictory to their own interests.
But then, this also demonstrates a situation where Microsoft can justify being both the biggest video game publisher in the industry, and remain a platform holder alongside Sony and Nintendo. They can’t guarantee that their games will be accepted in different platforms and regions, as the platform holders are the ones in control. Of course, if Microsoft is a platform holder themselves, they can create those opportunities as well.
It’s up to Microsoft to sell their own services, like Xbox consoles, or better, Game Pass, to the Japanese gaming audience. With the growing PC player base in Japan, Microsoft does have Windows Store and Game Pass as opportunities to break through. This situation certainly gives them motivation to keep trying for sure.
