Japanese Deus Ex release ruined

By Tom Phillips Published 6 September, 2011

Square Enix delays launch last minute.

Square Enix has pulled this week's planned launch of Deus Ex: Human Revolution in Japan.

The last minute delay means Japanese gamers must now wait until October.

Why the month-long holdup? Square Enix has discovered an area in the game which contains expressions prohibited by the Japanese games ratings board, reports Andriasang.

What could the problem be? The publisher has declined to share any further details on the problem - except that the forbidden content is visual in nature and only appears once throughout the game.

Square Enix's stealth shooter launched in the UK two weeks ago to healthy sales and critical acclaim.

Tom Bramwell snuck out a 9/10 score in Eurogamer's Deus Ex: Human Revolution review.

Eurogamer plays Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard. @TomPhillips151 on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 9 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • metalangel #1 9 months ago

    Perhaps they're getting rid of Adam's stupid pointy beard and giving him a long emo prettyboy haircut?

  • geeza2020 #2 9 months ago

    I always thought that was just the natural shape of Adams chin. Used for caving in skulls.

  • kinky_mong #3 9 months ago

    Square Enix has discovered an area in the game which contains expressions prohibited by the Japanese games ratings board, reports Andriasang.

    Pubes that aren't blurred out?

  • Der_tolle_Emil #4 9 months ago

    Does anyone know what kind of visual imagery could be troublesome? After playing through various Suda51 games and also seeing that games like Rapelay actually exist I was thinking I have seen it all. Apparently not though.

  • CaptainQuint #5 9 months ago

    Not shipping with a deep romance simulator mini-game is deeply offensive to Japanese gamers.

  • CrispyXUK64 #6 9 months ago

    It's not like you can buy Rapelay in any old shop Der_toll_Emil.
    Edited by CrispyXUK64 at 06/09/11 @ 09:47

  • senso-ji #7 9 months ago

    According to Wiki, Fallout 3 was edited in Japan because it had a weapon called the Fat Man (name was changed for obvious reasons) and Homefront also had all references to Kim Jong-il and North Korea removed as well.

  • Dr_Cowley #8 9 months ago

    Japaneese Gamers cant pronounce the first bosses name correctly so they have to change it

    "Ballett...Baarrlett...Balll... AHHHH GIANT MECH-SAN

  • GamesConnoisseur #9 9 months ago

    Likely something to do with Shanghai portions of the game me think. Could be the symbols used which went over our heads but quite loaded to them?

  • azazel_fallenangel #10 9 months ago

    Really trying to rack my brain as to what this could be, can't think of anything that is particularly offensive to the Japanese.

    Spoilers!!!

    the nuclear bomb footage in one of the endings?? It's not an expression, I know, but seems like the only thing...

  • Rogueywon #11 9 months ago

    My guess would be it's something connected to the "hotel" in the Hengsha hub city - possibly some of the posters on the walls. Japanese ratings boards are actually pretty draconian regarding these things if you don't want an "adults only" rating.

    Given the extreme last minute nature of the delay, I'm guessing that Squenix only noticed the problem after they'd already printed and shipped physical media. This could be pretty expensive for them, unless those discs can be re-routed to another territory (which they probably can't, if they have Japanese language defaults).

  • jablonski #12 9 months ago

    "ruined"

    Sensationalist, much?

  • Nephirion #13 9 months ago

    Killing chinese people maybe?

  • CheesecakeBobby #14 9 months ago

    Maybe it will be recalled in Korea because it sounds like 'Daewoo sex'?

  • spekkeh #15 9 months ago

    I feel kind of sad for knowing this, but seeing as the hookers don't even have a pelvis (their legs just end in mid-air), I can hardly believe there's anything genuinely sexual still in there. Maybe some funny post-it note was offensive to Japanese?

  • DDevil #16 9 months ago

    It's the illuminati blocking the release of the game!

    /dramatic music.
    Edited by DDevil at 06/09/11 @ 10:33

  • Alestes #17 9 months ago

    @azazel_fallenangel, I think you're right. It's not possible to destroy Megaton in the japanese version of Fallout 3.

  • Daeda #18 9 months ago

    Im 99% sure its the Dildo you can find in the game:
    http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/7003/...

  • GAmbrose #19 9 months ago

    That can't be right, as Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 had footage of Nuclear bombs going off....

  • saku_luk #20 9 months ago

    @Dr_Cowley

    Actually they can... you just have to use katakana for that and spell it Barretto, problem fixed :)

  • Doctor_What #21 9 months ago

    Enough with the 'Japanese people can't pronounce the letter R' jokes please. Mild racism is still racism.

  • spekkeh #22 9 months ago

    They can pronounce the r pretty well, but the l less so. And a) it's not racism, it's true; and b) it's perfectly in line with the game.

  • RedPanda #23 9 months ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Faramis #24 9 months ago

    "..except that the forbidden content is visual in nature and only appears once throughout the game."
    So it takes one month to remove one thing from game? Wow, that's called working speed.

  • -cerberus- #25 9 months ago

    [This offensive post has been carefully deleted because of offensive content that may or may not have offended you because of your fucking overly sensitive culture brainwashed you into thinking like a fucking overly sensitive little twat that takes offense at just about anything that isn't meant to offend but entertain]

  • Chibi-Kibou #26 9 months ago

    Eurogamer Commentors: Because insulting other cultures makes you awesome!

    Anyway, on the topic.. hard to tell. A lot of people make the mistake of assuming just because Japan actually has some decent freedom of expression, their ratings boards will let anything slip by, whereas they just have a thriving development and artistic community running completely independently of street retail and rating systems. DLSite and its ilk were doing online game distribution a long time before it caught on elsewhere.

    I have no idea what it could be, though; the rating system's a bit of a mess because it's still got relics of what America imposed on them at one point. Thus the pubic hair thing someone else referenced above. At least, that's my understanding anyway. Frankly though, I'd sooner assume it was something considered culturally rather than sexually distasteful.
    Edited by Chibi-Kibou at 06/09/11 @ 11:49

  • Cherub007 #27 9 months ago

    On a similar but unrelated note, I once had a t-shirt with what I assumed to be funky, cool, street oriental writing all over it. My mum then housed a visiting Japanese exchange student who cracked up laughing when she saw me before telling me I was effectively wearing an advert for an estate agent.

    That aside, I reckon it was Daeda's dildos, if that's a real pic.

  • metalangel #28 9 months ago

    Yeah, Adam and Megan are too old to be the heroes in a Japanese RPG... I mean, they must be at least late 20s if not *gasp* 30!

  • GAmbrose #29 9 months ago

    Adam Jensen is 34, I'm sure it says that in a E-book thing in Megans office.
    Edited by GAmbrose at 06/09/11 @ 12:33

  • geeza2020 #30 9 months ago

    Don't get too bogged down with ages/names/dates in Deus Ex HR, its only meant to take place about 15 years from now, so its all nosense anyway. Theres no way China are going to build some multilayered super city like freaking Midgar in that time.

  • Rogueywon #31 9 months ago

    It won't be anything to do with nuclear bombs or tsunamis; while cultural sensitivity prevents some authors from including references to these, there's absolutely no law against it - and I'm sure there would be an outcry at any effort to introduce such a law. If you look at examples from anime, Evangelion and Macross fudge the nukes issue with "N2 Mines" and "Reaction Weapons" respectively, but Gundam series - including the spin-off games - have never shied away from calling a nuke a nuke (and there are examples of both protagonists and antagonists making use of them). Tsunamis are obviously a sensitive issue this year and a good bit of self-censorship is to be expected - but then, similar things happened with depictions of terrorism in games in the year or two following 9/11, again with no force of law driving it.

    The Fallout 3 changes were a voluntary effort aimed at averting public outcry - not imposed by a ratings body. CERO (the Japanese ratings agency) did get concerned about the game - but that was due to a more general point regarding the ability to kill civillians (also raised by ratings bodies in other countries and sometimes leading to a ban) - an ability which was not, ultimately, removed for the Japanese release. The Japanese rating system for games is ultimately not really any harsher on balance than the UK's (though its emphasis sometimes differs and there are some strange oddities - one of which has likely tripped up Squenix here) and it's certainly less restrictive overall than the policies of Germany or Australia.

  • xuiton #32 9 months ago

    when are the elites who control censorship going to realise how ridiculous stuff like this is. Japanese people are not retards, they can think for themselves. Some people might get offended with movies, but nobody ever gets offended by video games.

  • rudedudejude #33 9 months ago

    Interesting.

    "expressions prohibited by the Japanese games ratings board"

    Facial expressions? Body expressions? Political expressions?

    These japs need to chill the fuck out. Oh noes a sign in a game offended meee! I must now kill myself.

  • Flabio #34 9 months ago

    Wouldn't surprise me if someone had cut and pasted what they thought was some Chinese onto a poster only for it to actually be Japanese and something offensive.

    But to be honest it's far more likely to be the hidden dildo. Yes, you see stuff like that in Japanese PC games all the time, but *they* don't have to go through CERO. Only console games do.

  • monsieur_qwerty #35 9 months ago

    Wow people are still posting butthurt comments. 'My granddaddy was forced to do japanese game show stuff whilst in a POW camp in Burma, boo hoo, wah wah wah wah'. And other comments to that effect. Get a grip you retards, no wonder the english gaming industry is going down the drain. Not a moment too soon.

  • kassmageant #36 9 months ago

    they have to add glowing save-point crystals scaterred around the levels

  • Kaminari #37 9 months ago

    Rape is tolerated in Japan. Not filthy pubic hairs.

  • metroid455 #38 9 months ago

    geez will people stop with the insults on Japan already its just childish!!
    on a related note i really don't understand what it could be thats got square to delay it like this?

  • SomaticSense #39 9 months ago

    Remind of the Trenched fuck up.

    Ie, a release being delayed at the absolute last minute because of a potential problem that really by now should have been; a) spotted months ago, and b) researched by the relevant person(s) who should've contacted the relevant person(s) to find out if it would indeed cause a problem within that region.

    Why do devs sign up to publishers again? Isn't it their responsibilty to sort these things out way before launch week?
    Edited by SomaticSense at 07/09/11 @ 11:21