No Gears of War 2 for Japan, Germany
No Gears of War 2 for Japan, Germany
October 22, 2008
Edge Online reports that upcoming Xbox 360 gore-fest Gears of War 2 will not be released in Japan or Germany.
Germany is perhaps not a surprise, given that the original 2006 GoW was banned there. Not selling the game in Japan, however, is raising some eyebrows. From the EO report:
“We can confirm that Gears of War 2 will not be available in Germany or Japan indefinitely” said the [Microsoft] spokesperson.
The news may come as a shock to many observers as the original Gears of War was one of the first titles to crack the Japanese software charts during a time when the 360 console was selling at its slowest...
The reasons why the game will not be released remain unclear... Edge has approached Microsoft’s offices in Japan for comment.
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Posted 11/21/09 at 01:00pm
ZippyDSMlee: MT taco:Come come join us, we have discounts!!!
ZippyDSMlee: MT taco:Come come join us, we have discounts!!!
Posted 11/21/09 at 12:35pm
magic_taco: It doesnt have anything to do with the "National Institue of Morons & Failures"
magic_taco: It doesnt have anything to do with the "National Institue of Morons & Failures"
Posted 11/21/09 at 12:34pm
magic_taco: No, I just recently had something on my mind.
magic_taco: No, I just recently had something on my mind.
Posted 11/21/09 at 10:57am
ZippyDSMlee: magic_taco:days are more specail when zippy gets up in the AM!!!!
ZippyDSMlee: magic_taco:days are more specail when zippy gets up in the AM!!!!
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:21am
magic_taco: ...ok...
magic_taco: ...ok...
Posted 11/21/09 at 08:16am
ZippyDSMlee: Welcome and goodmorning its zippy in the AM....wat OMG its 8:50AM!!!!
ZippyDSMlee: Welcome and goodmorning its zippy in the AM....wat OMG its 8:50AM!!!!
Posted 11/20/09 at 05:42pm
ZippyDSMlee: oh may the cute stab out your eyes, http://www.youtube.com/user/simonscat
ZippyDSMlee: oh may the cute stab out your eyes, http://www.youtube.com/user/simonscat
Posted 11/20/09 at 05:17pm
JDKJ: O.K. Suit yourself. But when you're wearing Ray-Bans, sitting on a curb with a white cane and a cup of pencils, and doing Stevie Wonder impersonations, don't say I didn't warn you.
JDKJ: O.K. Suit yourself. But when you're wearing Ray-Bans, sitting on a curb with a white cane and a cup of pencils, and doing Stevie Wonder impersonations, don't say I didn't warn you.
Posted 11/20/09 at 05:10pm
ZippyDSMlee: JD:No thank you I don;t want your cooties...or STDs...
ZippyDSMlee: JD:No thank you I don;t want your cooties...or STDs...
Posted 11/20/09 at 05:01pm
JDKJ: Me. I'm rehearsing the role just in case I do get dubbed Zippy The Soecnda.
JDKJ: Me. I'm rehearsing the role just in case I do get dubbed Zippy The Soecnda.
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:59pm
DarkSaber: Wait, is that meant to be Zippy, me or you?
DarkSaber: Wait, is that meant to be Zippy, me or you?
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:49pm
JDKJ: I cud caer lez. =^^= *wakes up in mid-afternoon after staying up until 3:00AM soldering resistors on to circuit boards, stumbles around in formerly white but now grey underwear, while simultaneously scratching groin with vigor and making coffee*
JDKJ: I cud caer lez. =^^= *wakes up in mid-afternoon after staying up until 3:00AM soldering resistors on to circuit boards, stumbles around in formerly white but now grey underwear, while simultaneously scratching groin with vigor and making coffee*
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:46pm
DarkSaber: knell? Don't you mean Neil? Anymore of tht and I'll dub thee Zippy The Soecnda
DarkSaber: knell? Don't you mean Neil? Anymore of tht and I'll dub thee Zippy The Soecnda
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:44pm
JDKJ: Now, now, Saber. Don't be salty. You weren't the first one to knell and bob and you ain't gonna be the last one, either.
JDKJ: Now, now, Saber. Don't be salty. You weren't the first one to knell and bob and you ain't gonna be the last one, either.
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:42pm
DarkSaber: JD's feeling rather desperate it seems.
DarkSaber: JD's feeling rather desperate it seems.
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:33pm
JDKJ: C'mon, Zip. You already touch yourself way too much. Spread the love. Before you go blind.
JDKJ: C'mon, Zip. You already touch yourself way too much. Spread the love. Before you go blind.
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: JD:No and I ain't touching any part of you or your friends!! :P
ZippyDSMlee: JD:No and I ain't touching any part of you or your friends!! :P
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:25pm
JDKJ: @Zip: You know Lik Mitaint?
JDKJ: @Zip: You know Lik Mitaint?
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:18pm
ZippyDSMlee: neill and bob,oldest giveing head joke and most lamest...
ZippyDSMlee: neill and bob,oldest giveing head joke and most lamest...
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:18pm
JDKJ: But thanks for the memory. MIB's a classic. *sings* "Here come the Men in Black. Galaxy defenders. Here come the Men in Black. They won't let you remember."
JDKJ: But thanks for the memory. MIB's a classic. *sings* "Here come the Men in Black. Galaxy defenders. Here come the Men in Black. They won't let you remember."
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Comments
Wow, I expect this sort of thing with Germany, but JAPAN? The country that has a porn vending machine doesn't want this?
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
Forget the porn vending machine, some countries hold violence as worse than nudity and sex in media, what about their Biohazard series (aka Resident Evil).
Don't forget the UK. We seem to have an issue with violence as well...
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Joining the Manhunt 2 rush on the 31st!
Strictly speaking, isn't it?
No, Luke, I AM the Walrus
I'm still surprised by Japan's recent banning of games.
I mean they have a game where you play a big-boobed chick in a thong bikini (is there any other kind in Japanese games?) that runs around chopping up zombies with a katana who spew out gallons of blood as you hack away at'm.
Yet Gears 2 gets banned.
I'm wondering if it's really the violence or if their getting anal about how western games have, recently, been doing very well. Japan is known for trying to shut-down overseas competition.
Tea and cake or death! Tea and cake or death! Little Red Cook-book! Little Red Cook-book!
Name the game you mention or it doesn't exist.
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IMA FIRIN MAH LASER!!!
Aree you /sure/ you want to know? It's kinda... cheesy.
Oh, ok. The series is called Oneechanbara. And traditionally the Japanese have been more squeemish about violence, not sex, though seeing the two combined in Oneechanbara makes me wonder if there's a double standard.
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"They were retarded hairless pink bunnies, all of them. Except Shigeru Myamoto and... well, the good ones were just too /rare/ to be worth bothering about." - Mason Hornblower on the extinction of the human race
It got a small release as Zombie Hunters here in the UK
and a rumoured 360 release in Q1 2009 for the 360
Is it that these games are not being allowed to be released in Japan, or that the publisher/distributor is deciding not to release in Japan?
or is it all just an excuse to not hire a localisation team?
Why I´m thinking Japan don´t want any competition with their games?
The cynical side of videogames (spanish only): http://thelostlevel.blogspot.com/ My DeviantArt Page (aka DeviantCensorship): http://www.darkknightstrikes.deviantart.com/
Yeah the recent string of banning western games either rings of harsher censorship issues or to prevent competition...either way it is very unfortunate :\
I guess it's more about the competition, after all, this version is supposed to have a toggle switch that turns off the blood and the swearing.
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
Where does it say GoW2 is being banned in Japan? Its not printed here or on Edge Online. It just says it won't be released in Germany and Japan.
Exactly. "Won't be released." My guess is that it got a CERO Z, and MS doesn't want to deal with it at this time.
For the record, Resident Evil 4's chainsaw bit was censored for the Japanese release. Gears 2 has a lot of chainsaw bits that are a lot worse.
Wow. Just wow! With all the explicit sex and rape games here, not to mention printed publications of the same nature as well as the Lolita variants I'm amazed something as tame as GW2 would get blocked. Then if one were to looks to the movies - after all Japan invented the splatter and mutilation flicks back in the early 70s. This is amazing to me.
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"The most difficult pain a man can suffer is to have knowledge of much and power over little" - Herodotus
Japan has a boner for censorship, so everything gets a mosaic in sex games and porn and such. So, yes, there's sex games, but you can't see anything.
Not in the majority of games I have see. Public hair is forbidden but many girls are dipicted with none (think lolita) and that seems to be OK.
Note: I'm no expert on the subject I have only seen about a dozen or so such games over the past decade and none of them were censored.
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"The most difficult pain a man can suffer is to have knowledge of much and power over little" - Herodotus
When will the ECA come out and fight the bannings?
--- Official Protector of Videoland!
My guess the games need to be really banned in the first place before the ECA would think about it. Also the ECA onlt deals in the USA and Canada markets currently. Microsft not choosing to release a game in a market is their choice and its hardly banning the game.
Japan also censored the boobs in God of War and the beheadings in Ninja Gaiden, if I recall correctly.
-Remember kids, personal responsibility is for losers! Jack Thompson is still a dick...
I find that odd given breast are regularly shown on normal TV here in primetime.
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"The most difficult pain a man can suffer is to have knowledge of much and power over little" - Herodotus
One word:
AKIHABARA
Yeah, it seems as though the game has officially been banned in Japan.
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
Maybe if the Gears of War cast were raping innocent women and children it would be on store selves in Japan. Sadly Japan and it's history is a history full of them raping other countries and women. You think American Cruise Ships had it bad with the Japanese turning Western Women caught into "comfort women" but the Chinese and the Koreans had it even worse.
Japan is just an evil vile country which doesn't like violence unless its against a woman in another country
So I guess you think that US soldiers' penchant for raping Japanese girls is just the chickens coming home to roost? I guess you think those young girls are just evil and deserve everything they get.
This notion that an entire nation can be evil is just juvenile.
Speaking as an none Asian American man living in Japan for more than an decade and as a former manager of several night clubs in Roppongi I can assure you that the same treatment of women runs both ways. Japanese men are no different than American, European, Asian or African men. If you think otherwise you are naïve beyond reason.
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"The most difficult pain a man can suffer is to have knowledge of much and power over little" - Herodotus
Man, I wish I lived in Germany or Japan. If only my local game store wasn't going to be polluted by that lame homoerotic game.
It's true that western games have been dooing very well lately, but banning it to shut out competition seems like too much of a conspiracy theory. With the PS3/Wii so deeply entrenched in japan and lackluster at best 360 sales, I just don't see Gears 2 as being that much of a threat. At least in Japan that is. But then I'm not expert so what the hell do I know?
As for double standards *shrugs* what else is new? Every culture has different hot buttons when it comes to content. In the US violence and drugs are fine but so much as hint at sex and it's the end of the world.
I hate to break this too you bud but the 360 has been out selling the PS3 in Japan for a couple months now
I hate to break this to you bud, but according to Kotaku it has not. The XBox360 may have the fastest growing sales, but it's still outsold by the PS3 3:1. Even if XBox sales continue to grow that rapidly, once it outsells the PS3, it'll still have to catch up to more than four times the number of total sales.
Source: http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/10/lets_japanese_lifetime_console_sa...