Stellar Blade will be released uncensored in all regions, prompting criticism from EA Japan executive
Shift Up's upcoming Stellar Blade will be released uncensored in all countries, prompting EA Japan general manager Shaun Noguchi to question why the Japanese rating board denied Dead Space despite it featuring similar elements.
The details:
Shift Up announced the uncensored release in a post to X over the weekend. “Stellar Blade offers the same uncensored version in all countries, including the Japanese version," the developer wrote. Previously, many games had regional differences to secure ratings, which included reducing gore and sexual content that could be banned.
Following the announcement, Noguchi took to X to question Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) for approving the game despite essentially banning EA's Dead Space. “What’s going on CERO? The Stellar Blade’s demo was really fun and absolutely action-packed,” Noguchi said (translation by Automaton). “However, CERO, you denied our Dead Space a rating because it included cross-sections of severed body parts and internal organs, but here we have both cross-sections and insides on display passed off with a CERO D rating. I find this hard to accept…”
Dead Space is still not officially available for purchase in Japan, having failed to obtain even a CERO Z rating, which is reserved for games that can only be purchased by those over the age of 18. Another recent example of a game not being released in Japan is the Dead Space-inspired The Callisto Protocol, whose developer refused to make changes to the title as they would significantly alter the experience.
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