Halloween: The Game will not be available on PlayStation in Japan when it launches on September 9. Polygon reports that the game has been denied a rating by the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization, the domestic body whose classification is required for mature releases on the Japanese PS Store.
Games refused a CERO rating are not automatically shut out of Japan. Publishers can instead seek a rating from the International Age Rating Coalition, which allows digital sales, and Halloween: The Game will reach Xbox and PC there on that basis. PlayStation is the exception: Sony changed its policy in March 2022 so that the Japanese PS Store would accept IARC-rated titles, but kept the CERO requirement for physical releases and for digital releases rated 18 and over. Halloween: The Game was judged mature in Japan for what Polygon describes as its "visceral violence and nudity", which puts it back inside the CERO requirement.
Illfonic will not cut the game
Developer Illfonic could edit the game to meet the standard, and has said it will not. The official Halloween: The Game account set out its reasoning on X.
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.
Australia said no first
Japan is the second country to refuse the game a classification. The Australian Classification Board denied it a rating over depictions of controlled substances that grant characters in-game advantages, which the board treated as incentivising drug use. That decision banned the game in Australia.
New Zealand was initially caught by the same outcome, because Illfonic had not requested a separate New Zealand rating and was relying on the cross-rating system. The studio has since spoken with the Office of Film and Literature Classification and secured permission to sell the game digitally there.