"Rule of Rose" Ruled Out in U.K.

"Rule of Rose" Ruled Out in U.K.

November 24, 2006
It looks as if the recent political outcry in Italy and elsewhere has killed Rule of Rose in the European market.

The horror-RPG was originally scheduled for release today in the U.K. However, Eurogamer is reporting that the game has been canceled by publisher 505 Games in the wake of the controversy.

Rule of Rose remains available in the North American market where it is published by Atlus.

GP: A dual shout-out to Danzuke of Bits, Bytes, Pixels & Sprites and longtime GP reader Joel Atkinson for the tip!

Comments

Thank you Mt Rome mayor and friends. Thanks ALOT.
How sad, it's coming to the point where a controversy will stop a developer/publisher? how dissappointing. I'm not sure who's wore though, the officials for misreporting it or the publisher for dropping it.
At least it was the publishers choice to drop it but still, thats a bad sign for us poor old europeans. I don't think it would have mattered to the UK audience if it had been released as its only really Italy and Germany throwing a wobbly but still...disappointing and potentialy terrible for future releases.
*rolls his eyes* The really sad part is that RoR is actually less graphic/gruesome than most games in its genre from what I've seen and played of it. It focuses more on psychological horror, or tries to.
Wow, they refused to publish a game that had been supported by Atlus? That group hasn't published a lot of really racey games. That should be a clue that the game might not be as bad as implied by some...

On a side-note, Atlus did also publish Steambot Chronicles in North America, which does parody Hot Coffee at one point...
We push and push and push for Japanese games that are out of the ordinary to get localizations and then look what happens... no wonder us western gamers tend to get shafted.
...any word from the publishers as to the rest of Europe?

/b
To the best of my knowlege 505 were publishing it for the whole of europe - which means it will have been canned everywhere right?

I still don't get why they bowed to the pressure. we've had far more controvertial games released in the UK - hell Clock Tower 3 has a girl getting smashed with a giant hammer and that got released!
"To the best of my knowlege 505 were publishing it for the whole of europe - which means it will have been canned everywhere right?"

While they do have the rights for all of Europe, evidence seems to suggest that the UK is the only place they've pulled it (thus far anyway). I've had a look on some French and Italian sites which reckon they have the PAL version in stock and available (and not at an inflated price, unlike our dear friend eBay).
Ah, shit! It's the chilling effect!
On a slighly related note:

X-Play has recently reviewed the game, and gave it a two out of five. Normally I don't watch their show much, but they had footage of gameplay, and boy, did it look bad. The graphics looked like something Resident Evil 3 threw up, you get a load screen every time you go through a door, and the game just doens't seem that scary. So if you plan to buy the game because of the controversy, it might be better not to. This one looks like a stinker.
It's only really got attack because they caught wind that you can see two underage girls kissing in it. That's the only reason most likely since I've seen far worse in other games, and most likely since it's a mediocre game anyway not too many people would be playing it anyway. It's just an illusion, a magic trick if you will, they do stuff like this to distract us from their own inadequacies and short comings in their profession.
If this game sucks, then maybe it would be best no to buy it, but there is a much bigger issue here. These games are being attacked across the globe. It has to stop. When will the madness stop?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Personally I'm annoyed at the company itself, they are inviting further persecution of the video game industry by showing, quite frankly, a complete lack of bollocks.

I know people don't start a gaming company to deal with small minded, prejudiced idiots like Sun journalists, but to simply bow out of the fight merely means that they've allowed that prejudice to win.

I'm not looking forward to seeing the Sun tomorrow, 'The Sun defeats 'evil' video game! Turn to page 5 once you've finished leering at Belinda (19) from Newcastles tits!'
I can't even begin to word my anger. Mass hysteria is amusing, until it starts to actually affect what you do and don't get access to.
This is what eBay is for.
What makes this even more bizarre is that 505 themselves published arthouse developer Grasshopper Manufacture's Michigan in Europe. This is a game in which you are actually scored for the amount of time you spend staring at a woman's polygonal arse (like, *actually*, literally), as well as giving you moral decisions between saving lives or filming brutal deaths for a news scoop (likely inspiring Dead Rising in the process, but I digress). Would they have canned this if the Daily Mail had caught wind?

I used to respect 505 for their willing to bring over games that no other publishers believe there is a European market for, but this has just inverted my opinion of them. As soon as I read they they chickened out on no less than the street date I went and ordered myself a Canadian import.

Stick it to the man!
"You fools, you must CENSOR TELEVISION!!"

I am constantly reminded of that quote from Family Guy episode PTV...It's so relevant.
This is fucking ridiculous.
There you have it. Moral conservatives at their finest oy.
Paracelsus -

You say you've seen some French and Italian sites selling the PAL version of the game - could you let me know which ones please?

Thanks, Hazel
I'm from NZ, and the game has been banned in Australia too, so the chance of me getting it (thanks to those idiots) is as slim as an anorexic toothpick.

Do any of you know Elfen Lied? That doesn't hint at sexual abuse of an underage girl, it fully STATES it and get's very, very close to showing it. It's rated R16 here.

Therefore, they cannot expect me to be quite about this.

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 07/04/09 at 11:08pm
Andrew Eisen: LGJ - Not that I'm aware of. The Twitter feed was someone else's live blog of the debate.
Posted 07/04/09 at 11:04pm
Leet Gamer Jargon: @AE: Wait, wait, wait: JT has a Twitter account?! Are you serious?
Posted 07/04/09 at 09:24pm
PHX Corp: For those that want to know what i watching it's called man vs cartoon(a.k.a fixing Wile E. coyote's Mistakes one trap at a time by EMERTEC)
Posted 07/04/09 at 08:20pm
GoodRobotUs: Went out for my Mum's 65th Birthday, which is the only relevance 4/7 has in the UK for me ;)
Posted 07/04/09 at 08:18pm
Andrew Eisen: Beach + fireworks + root beer + strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, whipped topping, and pound cake = my Fourth of July!
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:58pm
GoodRobotUs: Which seems to be the only point Jack proved, that some people find some games offensive. i.e. Nothing.
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:57pm
GoodRobotUs: The discussion was supposed to be whether games were dangerous not 'Do you find some games offensive'...
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:55pm
GoodRobotUs: Some agreed, some didn't, but it was their choice to make, not the governments.
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:55pm
GoodRobotUs: By asking the audience their opinion, he more or less proved that it's a matter of personal choice
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:55pm
GoodRobotUs: Meh, he ended proving Mark's point for him
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:26pm
Erik: Jack if you are reading this you are a LIAR. There is no legal weight to the MPAA's ratings.
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:24pm
JDKJ: I still think my buddy the midget who rides a unicycle backwards while juggling four bowling pins would have been a much bigger hit with that crowd. And he can make up statistics and misinterpret studies, too.
Posted 07/04/09 at 06:33pm
Alyric: Of course, Mark falls into the common trap about Columbine, which had nothing to do with bullying, etc. See: http://slate.msn.com/id/2099203/?GT1=3256 for a more thorough explanation.
Posted 07/04/09 at 06:32pm
PHX Corp: Read this http://www.destructoid.com/sgc-09-liveblogging-the-jack-thompson-debate-138502.phtml#ext
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:54pm
PHX Corp: JT is afraid of such ban then advocates it That's what i call a total Hypocrite
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:50pm
PHX Corp: AE: JT is a -Bleeping- Jackass
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:07pm
Andrew Eisen: JT "knew it would be a good audience." Not what he said on Tuesday.
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:01pm
Andrew Eisen: VG cause violent behavior. VG companies influence behavior to get sales. Yeah, that makes sense. (To be fair, the Twitter feed makes deciphering JT's point pretty tough.)
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:52pm
Andrew Eisen: Yes, it's been proposed but as far as I know it has not been passed. Big difference.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:50pm
Cheater87: http://www.gamezine.co.uk/news/formats/xbox360/all-violent-video-games-be-banned-in-germany-$1301757.htm
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