It’s not only fans in Australia who will have to sit on the sidelines and watch others play Halloween: The Game when it launches on Sept. 9. In Japan, Halloween: The Game won’t be available on PlayStation, as it has been denied a rating from the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) required for all mature game releases on the PS Store.
For a game to launch in Japan, it needs a domestic rating from CERO. If CERO refuses to rate a game, companies will have to work around this and instead try to obtain a rating from the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), which makes it possible for games to be sold digitally when CERO denies a rating. However, even that option won’t make Halloween: The Game available for PS5 users in Japan.
IARC Rating System Permits Halloween: The Game to Be Sold Digitally on Xbox and PC in Japan
Thanks to its IARC rating, Halloween: The Game will be available on Xbox and PC. Regarding the PlayStation release, in March 2022, Sony changed its policies so the PS Store in Japan would accept IARC-rated games. However, CERO ratings were still required for physical releases or for digital releases rated 18+. Since Halloween has been deemed a mature game in Japan due to its “visceral violence and nudity,” it requires a CERO rating in order to launch on the PS Store.
“We have determined that regulating the content to achieve compliance would significantly compromise the worldview of the original film, and would also prevent us from providing the gameplay experience that players expect,” the official Halloween: The Game account shared on X. Developer Illfonic could make changes to certain aspects of the game to diminish its violence and eliminate nudity but has opted not to.
Japan isn’t the only country that has refused to rate Halloween: The Game. The Australian Classification Board denied the game a rating due to depictions of controlled substances that grant characters advantages in-game. According to the board, this incentivizes drug use, which is why the game was banned in Australia, and initially New Zealand as well. Illfonic did not request a separate New Zealand rating and relied on the cross-rating system. However, it has since spoken with the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and gotten permission to sell the game digitally in New Zealand.