Striking Distance Studios developers appear to be quite sorry, pointing out that the Callisto Protocol, as it stands, will just fail to make it through the CERO accreditation process of the national reviewer for a release in Japan. Instead of making further efforts to get The Callisto Protocol into compliance, the developers decided not to censor the project, and thus, to not publish The Callisto Protocol in the country at all.
The game developers decided that making changes required by Cero would not deliver the desired player experience, therefore The Callisto Protocol will not be released in Japan at all. The Callisto Protocol will not release in Japan, because it could not get an age rating because of its violent content, and the developers were not willing to release a toned-down version of the game.
The cancellation was caused by the game’s violent content, meaning that Striking Distance was not able to receive an age rating from CERO (Japan’s equivalent to PEGI in Europe, and ESRB in North America). The announcement implies its developers were unable or unwilling to make any changes to the game which could have secured its ratings and cleared it for release in Japan.
What this boils down to is the Japanese rating boards refusing to grant The Callisto Protocol a Japanese rating in its current gory state, and the developers at Striking. CERO is the Japanese rating board, and in order for The Callisto Protocol to get a rating and release in Japan, developer Striking Distance Studios and publisher Krafton will need to make a few changes to The Callisto Protocols content.
— The Callisto Protocol (@CallistoGameJP) October 26, 2022
It is believed at this time that Japanese authorities requested the Callisto Protocols violence-inducing visuals to be toned down in order to comply with requirements imposed by CERO, which is essentially the Japanese equivalent of the ESRB. According to Japanese analyst Serkan Toto on Twitter, Japan’s video game rating boards have been heavily clamping down on violent games since the organization’s founding in 2002. While the country rating board has forced developers to alter games to remove violence and nudity before they are released in the country, including The Last of Us, Cyberpunk 2077, Uncharted, The Witcher 3, and GTA V, games are rarely banned.
As one might hope, Japanese players who pre-ordered the game would be reimbursed, but it is unfortunate that this game has reached such an impasse with the Japanese rating board. Those all over Japan who pre-ordered the game will get refunds. Japanese analyst Serkan Toto also noted that developers would normally accede to Japanese video game review board requests, so that makes Striking Distance Studio’s refusal to do so even more notable.
