{"id":48830,"date":"2025-06-09T18:13:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T09:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=48830"},"modified":"2025-06-09T18:14:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T09:14:29","slug":"microsoft-cancels-gears-of-war-reloaded-ps5-release-in-japan-due-to-regional-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/microsoft-cancels-gears-of-war-reloaded-ps5-release-in-japan-due-to-regional-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft cancels Gears of War: Reloaded PS5 release in Japan due to regional restrictions\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Microsoft announced on June 9 that Gears of War: Reloaded <\/strong>will not be launching on PlayStation 5 in Japan.  According to a notice on Xbox Wire Japan<\/a>, \u201cregional rating restrictions and platform policies\u201d are to blame for the cancellation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While fans in Japan will still be able to play Gears of War: Reloaded on all other planned platforms on launch day, the PS5 release has been forgone entirely. This is possibly due to the platform\u2019s local restrictions related to gore. Gears of War is known for its graphic depictions of gore and violence, which caused the original 2006 release on Xbox 360 to be censored in Japan, with scenes of severed limbs being blacked out. As for the remaster, it seems the gore was judged too extreme to release the game by PlayStation\u2019s standards. Or alternatively, Microsoft may have been asked for modifications it was unable to comply with. So far, there has been no censorship confirmed for other versions of the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gears<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, this kind of cancellation is not rare in Japan. Striking Distance Studio\u2019s The Callisto Protocol was cancelled on all platforms after failing to obtain an age rating from Japan\u2019s rating board (CERO). Similarly, the Dead Space remake from 2023 was banned from releasing on consoles<\/a> in Japan, and Dead Space 2 only recently became available on Steam after being locked from Japanese users for 12 years<\/a>. More recently, Ubisoft\u2019s Assassins Creed: Shadows was forced to censor depictions of gore<\/a> (specifically severed heads and limbs) despite being rated CERO Z (ages 18 and up). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gears of War: Reloaded launches August 26 for Steam, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming and PlayStation 5. The PS5 release will not be available in Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related articles: Shinji Mikami slams video game censorship in Japan: \u201cThe rules are made by people who don\u2019t play games\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gears of War: Reloaded will not be launching on PlayStation 5 in Japan due to local platform and rating policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":48832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-48830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nMicrosoft cancels Gears of War: Reloaded PS5 release in Japan due to regional restrictions\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gears of War: Reloaded will not be launching on PlayStation 5 in Japan due to local platform and rating policies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/microsoft-cancels-gears-of-war-reloaded-ps5-release-in-japan-due-to-regional-restrictions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Microsoft cancels Gears of War: Reloaded PS5 release in Japan due to regional restrictions\u00a0 - 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