Halloween: The Game Faces Rating Denial in Another Country

It’s not just fans in Australia who will have to miss out on playing Halloween: The Game when it drops on September 9. In Japan, the game won’t be available on PlayStation due to a lack of rating from the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO), which is necessary for all mature titles on the PS Store.

For a game to launch in Japan, it must receive a domestic rating from CERO. If CERO declines to rate a game, developers can seek a rating from the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), which allows for digital sales when CERO denies a rating. Unfortunately, this workaround won’t help Halloween: The Game for PS5 users in Japan.

However, thanks to its IARC rating, Halloween: The Game will be accessible on Xbox and PC. In March 2022, Sony updated its policies to allow the PS Store in Japan to accept IARC-rated games, but CERO ratings are still mandatory for physical releases and digital releases rated 18+. Since Halloween has been classified as a mature game in Japan due to its “visceral violence and nudity,” it needs a CERO rating to launch on the PS Store.

The official Halloween: The Game account stated 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.” While developer Illfonic could modify certain elements to reduce violence and remove nudity, they have chosen not to.

Australia isn’t the only country that has refused to rate Halloween: The Game. The Australian Classification Board denied the game a rating because of its portrayal of controlled substances that provide in-game advantages. The board argued that this could encourage drug use, leading to the game’s ban in Australia and initially in New Zealand as well. Illfonic did not seek a separate rating for New Zealand and relied on the cross-rating system. However, they have since engaged with the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and received approval to sell the game digitally in New Zealand.