TGS 2009: Why Epic Games briefly gave up on Gears of War 2's Japanese release
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Sep 25th 2009 at 7:00AM } 
In spite of all the effort, Japanese sales of the first GoW represented "less than 1% of Gears sales worldwide," prompting Epic Games to simply give up on working on a Japanese version of the sequel. "We could never make a version for Japan that would fit our creative vision," Capps said, content with avoiding a Japanese release of GoW2.
"But our fans in Japan were very vocal about playing the new game." According to Capps, about 50,000 Japanese fans in Japan imported the game from America. With encouragement from Microsoft Japan, the team discovered that censorship had become a bit more lax since the release of the first game. Development ended, with a Japanese release of GoW2 in July, over half a year after the US release. Capps was happy with getting the critical reception in Japan, but the trials of the Gears of War franchise show the continuing problem of games censorship in Japan.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
NOOK @ Sep 25th 2009 7:07AM
Hint: A censored japanese version might also be suitable for sale in Australia and Germany. CoD5 sold pretty well over here, even though the zombie mode was missing and quite a lot was censored. L4D was a huge hit here, still with all the green blood o.O
Premature ejaculation man @ Sep 25th 2009 7:19AM
Australia doesn't censor human killing and dismemberment, just zombies. Gears of war 2 is uncensored here.
Sonic_13 @ Sep 25th 2009 7:44AM
No, Australia doesn't censor zombies - just "living humans infected with a rabies-like virus that causes them to act violently".
DeepFriedSushi @ Sep 25th 2009 7:45AM
lol i'd like to see that law....
page100, clause 17: the laws constitute that there shall be no images of the living dead, or zombies or brain feeding reanimated humans and any violence portrayed upon them which includes dismemberment of limbs or head. these entities are protected and any image(s) portraying such acts are strictly prohibited for sale.
Cody @ Sep 25th 2009 8:22AM
Japan's censorship laws are simple really: too much blood and gore, not enough boy on boy gay porn action.
Gibbeynator @ Sep 25th 2009 7:36AM
Chainsaw high five!
Mazrael @ Sep 25th 2009 7:53AM
Have the Japanese seen some of their Anime/Manga...?
James MacWico @ Sep 25th 2009 8:03AM
They seem to be the opposite of America, where cartoon violence is forbidden but game violence is ok...
The Fist of The North Star is one of the most violent movies I´ve ever seen!
Muu @ Sep 25th 2009 8:28AM
Censorship rules are still censorship rules; they can be avoided with minimum creative loss as long as stuff's made with them in mind. "No head decapitation" is one that immediately comes to mind (have you watched any _recent_ anime that's had that?) for Gears; you simply are not allowed to directly depict human-like characters getting their head lopped off. Don't know if shadows of 'what happened' are allowed, but if that's the case, of course an animation work can just pan the camera around, keep the sense of violence in place with puddles of blood and decapitations elsewhere in the body (Assuming that's allowed); in the case of Gears it possibly creates some serious gameplay issues because the game was never created with such rules in mind.
Vcize @ Sep 25th 2009 11:11AM
Gears 1 had a "no gore" option which removed all dismemberments, blood, etc. If you chainsawed or headshotted someone they would just fall over.
I'm not really sure what else they can do...
Temple @ Sep 25th 2009 12:03PM
Japanese games are also violent, and Japanese in general are less prudish then Americans (as well as German's and Australians for that matter).
It comes down to the CERO rating system. Gears of War would have gotten a "Z" rating from CERO; which means it can only be sold to people over 18. Cero 18/Z was mixed up along with erotic games and other unsavory games.
So Microsoft doesn't want to be releasing a ton of Z rated games, which many stores either don't carry or will stock along with their porn games section.
There is actually NO restriction from Epic or MS selling the game in Japan even if it had all the violence of US release, they just don't want to sell the game and get the Z rating for violence.
Ryan Hamilton @ Sep 25th 2009 8:01AM
Japan has some of the most violent and sexual cartoons on Earth, but GOW2 has to be censored? I don't get it.
Gibbeynator @ Sep 25th 2009 8:26AM
This appears to be a recent trend, as it seems as though both One Piece and Dragon Ball Kai have been censored in Japan. And, in Kai's case, it reaches almost 4kids levels of censorship.
makimak22 @ Sep 25th 2009 11:42AM
Germany have some of the sickest porn you can (or can't) imagine. They also have tough game censorship too....
ytilanigiroon @ Sep 25th 2009 11:43AM
Simple answer: it's not from Nippon.
Doug @ Sep 25th 2009 12:19PM
The only Japanese censorship laws I'm aware of wouldn't apply to GoW, unless there's unmosaic'd, full-frontal-nudity or something...
Since when did the Japanese care about violence in their video games, when some of their animated shows have gone way, way beyond what you'd be able to put into movie without getting a NC-17 rating...
avan @ Sep 25th 2009 12:39PM
Dont forget the many rape simulators, multiple woman humiliation and the lil bit of pedofile content in all their products.
-Z- @ Sep 25th 2009 8:04AM
I would've figured it was because they couldn't get the right generic stereotype demeaning black guy voice for Cole Train in Japanese.
WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ Sep 25th 2009 9:48AM
Are you implying Cole isn't already a demeaning black stereotype?
drumwiz86 @ Sep 25th 2009 8:12AM
What are you trying to say about downs people?
lowlight @ Sep 25th 2009 8:30AM
So ass-raping 12 year old girls with tentacles and making them eat their own poo before severing their heads is okay, but headstomping is not?
Go Japan!
Jerkamie @ Sep 25th 2009 9:13AM
as long as her puss & ass is censored out, ya its all fine.
Geist @ Sep 25th 2009 9:17AM
Yet in NA, it's okay to show a guy headstomping another guy into a bloody mess, but sex? Oh no, not that!
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Sep 25th 2009 9:17AM
Epic....how about this...
RELEASE GEAR 3 on PS3 and it will sell...that is all
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Sep 25th 2009 9:17AM
*GEARS
XBL: xGeneral DEATHx PSN: Deeth82 [Planeteer | Power of General Hostility and Angst] @ Sep 25th 2009 9:56AM
LOL...wtf is on your head in that pic??
Reason @ Sep 25th 2009 10:10AM
you do realize that the Gears of war franchise is owned by microsoft don't you?
I don't think anything else needs to be said about the possibility of a ps3 release...
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Sep 25th 2009 10:30AM
you do Realize that Gears is OWN by EPIC don't you??
I dont feel the need to go thru this EVERYTIME...but Check the patent and trademark websites....look up say...Halo...the Trademark is Owned by Microsoft....look up Gears....the Trademark is OWNED by EPIC...MS just had the Rights to the first 2 games...
hell it even says it on the back of Gears game cases....OWNED BY EPIC...
D dogg @ Sep 25th 2009 1:19PM
Still doesn't answer the question: WTF is on your head?
Is that the helmet where Kano got half his face from?
Lurkero @ Sep 25th 2009 10:57AM
Gears 2 could have been as violent and mature as they wanted it to be if Epic would have just made it look like an anime
lokar82 @ Sep 25th 2009 11:37AM
I don't know if I believe this censorship stuff, Ninja Gaiden Sigma is from Japan and is one of the more violent games I have ever played, with tons of blood and decapitations galore. Can't wait for the sequel on Tuesday!
lokar82 @ Sep 25th 2009 11:38AM
As for Gears of War on ps3, it will never happen and I am a ps3 owner. If microsoft won't even GoW2 on PC, there is no way it will come out on ps3.
makimak22 @ Sep 25th 2009 11:45AM
Forget GoW2, did you know "Call Of Duty: World At War" was not released officially in Japan? I wonder why.....
sniperewin @ Sep 25th 2009 7:14PM
Because in the game you fight against Japan
makinohiroshi @ Sep 26th 2009 11:43PM
Not because fighting against Japan but because of appearance of Emperor Hirohito (and also atomic bombing) in movie. This is the biggest taboo in Japan.
holto @ Sep 25th 2009 2:25PM
You know what might be great? Get the f-ing US version to actually be able to play an online match without cheats/hacks/lag.
THAT might make all the people who loved the first gears consider even buying the third one. I can tell you right now, I will be waiting to see what the lag situation is like. I honestly can't understand how on a franchise that is so huge and makes you so much money, as well as being a system seller for MS how you can't manage to get a set of dedicated servers or something.
Jeez. Gears 2 is crap all because of the online shit.