505 responds to Rule of Rose controversy

By Games Industry.biz Published 17 November, 2006

Get over it, essentially.

Publisher 505 Games has issued a statement inviting politicians and journalists to judge new PS2 title Rule of Rose for themselves following controversy over the level of violence in the game.

"Rule of Rose is a horror genre videogame, similar to a number of other videogames and movies on the market today, but does not in anyway incite minors to commit violent acts and does not promote acts of violence towards minors," the statement reads.

"Following an in depth analysis by Pan European Game Information, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe and the Video Standards Council, the Rule of Rose videogame was judged to be suitable for European market distribution." The statement goes on to observe that PEGI awarded Rule of Rose a 16+ rating.

505 Games's comments are in response to a wave of negative criticism from various corners. The mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, demanded that the game be banned in Italy as children "have the right to be shielded from violence".

Then European justice and security commissioner, Franco Frattini, wrote an open letter criticising games with violent content - highlighting what he describes as the "obscene cruelty and brutality" in Rule of Rose. Frattini wants government and games industry representatives to discuss moderating the content of games, and has urged the EU to take another look at ratings systems.

In the UK, Rule of Rose has made The Times and the Daily Mail following Frattini's comments. But it's coverage in Italian publication Panorama which 505 Games has taken exception to - they claim the magazine "erroneously stated" that the winner of the game is the player who buries a young girl alive.

"The burial of the protagonist or of any other child does not appear in any scene of the game, not even indirectly," according to 505 Games.

"The scene that has triggered the discussion is in reality a dream sequence that serves as part of the introduction to the adventure: a non-interactive video sequence in which the protagonist, who is not a minor, is captured inside a crate.

"The interactive part of the game is based primarily on exploration and the solving of mysteries. The only sporadic fighting scenes are against monsters."

Rule of Rose is due out in Europe next Friday. 505 Games has announced that it will be inviting politicians and journalists to the game for themselves by attending a preview presentation, to be held on November 23 in Milan.

Picture of Games.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kangarootoo #1 5 years ago

    Quite a good statement that. Polite and to the point.

  • neuroniky #2 5 years ago

    Good statement, I agree. Unfortunately this won't stop the stupid crusades against videogaming...

  • itamae #3 5 years ago

    /buries girl

    YOU WIN!


    ... yes, that might just work.

  • AcidSnake #4 5 years ago

    23rd you say?
    Any chance of us gamers being admitted?
    Milan is at about an hour drive from here...

  • aine #5 5 years ago

    I saw the story on the front page of the Times - the headline called it a "children's game" and it was referred to as "Sony Playstation's Rule of Rose", which is about the equivalent of referring to a album as "CD Player's". Good to see the usual fine standard of videogame-based journalism in mainstream newspapers.

  • aine #6 5 years ago

    I have to say though, 505 have done quite well out of this - I was talking to a mate who had never heard of the game before, but now wants to buy it.

  • Kos-Mos #7 5 years ago

    this game is awesome

  • Steroyd #8 5 years ago

    And now you've officially joined my ignore list which now consists of 3 people.

    CONGRATULATIONS AOE. :)

  • Lacero #9 5 years ago

    19 year olds are thought of as minors in the US aren't they? Not that the bloke saying it was american..

  • dadrester #10 5 years ago

    is the game actually any good? was it the one that was released in japan by capcom?

  • Rirekon #11 5 years ago

    @AdamOfEternia;
    Go go uninformed opinion! You lose teh interweb!

  • Paracelsus #12 5 years ago

    dadrester: No, the game was in fact published in Japan by Sony themselves. It's kind of funny if you read interviews with the Japanese staff about it; apparently Sony commissioned them to make a western style horror game that would be easier to market in the west than Forbidden Siren, then refused to publish it themselves outside of Japan.

    As for whether it's any good... well, the plot and general atmosphere are great, but the game itself has a couple of fairly big flaws (can you say "dodgy collision detection"?) which become especially evident during boss battles. I like it but it could be so much better than it is as a result.
    Edited by 1 at 17/11/06 @ 17:25

  • Kami #13 5 years ago

    AoE, hate to admit it, but that was a comment that was totally uncalled for and actually rather ignorant and prejudiced.

    Pissing people off = not good thing.

  • dudefella #14 5 years ago

    And all this controversy over a game no one will buy!

    Well I guess more people will after all this, to which I say good job Mr Mayor of Rome!

  • Kami #15 5 years ago

    AoE, thing is I might want to actually play it before passing comment (a bit like the people who had a go at "Bully", even though the end result is actually pretty tame in truth), you know, rent it out for a weekend and decide for myself if it's really sick and twisted or (more likely) unjustified media distortion over a game which just dares to be a bit different.

    Although that said, Haunting Ground was Capcom's last effort to try something different and that was a little on the warped side. But damn I enjoyed it, and I loved it so much I wrote a walkthrough for it! This might be up my street, I'm a survival horror fan from days of old.

    But again... I want to play it first. I'm not going to base it on this political hoo-hah from people whose only interest is another column inch or two. I'm 25 and old enough to make my own decisions without politicians trying to interfere.

    The end.

  • holloguts #16 5 years ago

    Unfortunately, the more rattled the politicians get, the closer we get to having regulation imposed and gaming dropping to the extreme levels of censorship that exist in Germany.

    It's ok for developers to wave away the politicians, but that attitude will cause them to lose in the end. This game may appeal to quite a lot of people, but if legislation is brought in to censor then these people will no longer be interested in the game and a lot of work will simply get trashed. So developers are treading a fine line. They need to be careful not to lose their balance. Soon, we will be at the stage (can't remember where but thought it was the US in some states a few years ago) that censorship will only allow GREEN blood, no violence showing decapitation etc.

    The industry was self censoring, but soon it will be under control of the politicians.

    For myself, I don't fancy this game at all. But I have never thought that any game was responsible for a crime being commited by any person. Someone who commits a crime, does so because it is in them to do so. It has nothing to do with games or films.

  • peak_performance #17 5 years ago

    I love the way 505 is handling the situation. Kudos to them!

  • Salato #18 5 years ago

    I've got to agree with those that find this game quite disturbing somewhat, as after seeing the trailer for it on youtube, it is kinda sick, and an almost perfect gift for the morality police to hit games in general hard with.
    I really hope this story does just fade quite quickly, as its kinda hard to defend a game that includes extreme and disturbing violence and characters, sexualised themes and imagery all included with children. The kids/violence/sex themes is the big problem.
    As has been mentioned, I too saw the "children's game" on the front page of today's Times and sighed at the usual absurd stereotyping. The problem is that far too many people still see games like that, and until people can learn that games are not just for children, these problems are going to keep returning.
    However, as this is not the case at the moment, Rule of Rose seems to be almost the perfect opportunity for politicians eager to create new laws to show off "what good work they are doing to help families and protect children", and further try and demonise games.
    Both because it does seem quite sick, but mainly because of the possible negative backlash against the rest of games if this story keeps going and gets to the attention of more people and opportunistic politicians, I wish this game had not been made, or at least not been released outside of Japan.

  • Kami #19 5 years ago

    Yeah, I did check the trailer. It's a bit odd, but horror fan I am - I'll try it. It's hard to tar a game based on 60 seconds of footage, ya know? I do try and be open-minded about a game, and not swallow any political or marketing BS.

    And AoE, I'm... too nice? Does not compute. Error. Error. This system will detonate in 10 seconds...

    Seriously though. I just don't have the heart anymore to be combatative... besides, I'm in a good mood, I am happy, and I vented my spleen in my last reader review. Not really got it in me right now to be nasty...
    Edited by 2 at 17/11/06 @ 20:27

  • Cappy #20 5 years ago

    If people want to throw words like 'sick' around its an idea to have perhaps played the game first. The game has already been through the ratings system and is rated 16+, a comparable age rating to a Silent Hill game. You can be assured that if this game had questionable content it would have been refused a rating. End of story. Having actually played the game myself I agree with that rating.

    Even if through a combination of shop assistant negligence and parental stupidity a kid got their hands on this game they would probably switch it off within ten minutes through sheer boredom at the lack of explosions or any other real spectacle to hold their limited attention spans. This isn't a pick up and play bells and whistles game like GTA. Its a slow paced game which concentrates on story telling.
    Edited by 1 at 17/11/06 @ 21:04

  • Kami #21 5 years ago

    As I said, I'd like to play it and not take the political/marketing BS at face value. I doubt there is anything resoundingly questionable in it.

    But Cappy has a point, no explosions means most kids will get really bored with it... and it'll end up like Haunting Ground, a great but niche title...

  • SeesThroughAll #22 5 years ago

    "children have the right to be shielded from violence".

    Erm, that is the responsability of retailers and parents, isn't it? Especially the parents'.

  • Kami #23 5 years ago

    Well of course. Just we live in a society where parents can be absolved of their childrens upbringing by blaming the TV, the rap artists and video games...

  • Aretak #24 5 years ago

    The game is supposed to be pretty rubbish anyway. It's been getting scores of around 6/10 on average. EDGE gave it 3/10.

  • Cappy #25 5 years ago

    I would say Rule of Rose got one of the worst Edge reviews ever but to tell the truth poor reviews are hardly uncommon in Edge. Rule of Rose has had mixed reviews ranging from highs to extreme lows.

  • WhyMeeeeee #26 5 years ago

    top marks 505 for getting free publicity
    this was one of the top articles on sky news today

  • YourMessageHere #27 5 years ago

    Go 505.

    I don't get why people are reacting to this game. The youtube trailers are all completely non-sexual. It's obvious that it's not a violent or exploitative game. It's clearly more of a psychological game with an emphasis on story. It happens to use kids as characters. What's wrong with that?

    @ AdamOfEternia:

    1) You're not funny, please stop with the "jokes".

    2) Urotsukidoji is a particularly twisted example of hentai, i.e. adult-aimed pornographic anime, which is no more available to kids in Japan than live action porn is available to kids here in the UK. That damn series has so much to answer for concerning people's perception of anime here. If that's what you think is representative of Anime, well, you're dead wrong.

    3) You don't get sexual violence in kids anime. Japanese TV standards for broadcast anime are stricter than UK live action standards, and violent stuff usually airs in the wee small hours. Granted, the DVD release versions of things occasionally have violent/sexual scenes added in, but they're still not available to kids; the Japanese have age ratings too.

    4) All the "used knickers vending machine" stuff is a bit out of context. Besides, I went all over Tokyo in 2004, including some anime shops with very large porn sections and floors of just vending machines, and I never saw any of those machines. I believe you'd find them only in dedicated sex shops. Not many kids in sex shops.

    5) Japan-bashing is usually done purely from a position of ignorance. Cultural differences between our society and Japan are vast. Consider: no christian values, so no endemic moral sexual taboos. Younger age of sexual majority (legal to have sex aged 14). Innocence and youthful ingenuousness is prized in Japan, usually in a platonic protective way, but often misinterpreted in the west as having a sexual dimention and hence mistaken for pederasty. Yes, there's also lots of actual pederasty compared to the west (still v. little overall, though), but it's a hell of a lot more complex than "Japan loves pederasty".

  • gaijin #28 5 years ago

    "just google to learn"
    yes kids - remember, *everything you read on the internet is true*

  • YourMessageHere #29 5 years ago

    Well, I had to try. Fact is, some people just like being stupid; time to try this "ignore poster" thing. EG staff, Please ban this sick filth =P

  • haowan #30 5 years ago

    Well, let's not get rid of him totally; it's worth keeping his pathetic reply to your excellent post there just for comedy value.

  • Azazel #31 5 years ago

    Speaking of out-of-touch silliness, did anyone see News Nights 'review' of the PS3 and Wii the other night? It was pretty cringe-worthy. It just goes to demonstrate that the BBC, even though they have given videoGaiden a 2nd series (yeah, on BBC2 Scotland, tsch) they still don't have a fucking clue how to talk about games on any kind of mainstream show.

  • YourMessageHere #32 5 years ago

    Now that's the sort of thing that makes me miss having a TV. When they talk about actual highbrow culture Newsnight Review is usually good, but now and then they slip up and review something more mainstream that they clearly have no idea about. I remember seeing their review of the first Tomb Raider film and laughing my arse off at them.

    I can picture it now: Tom Paulin being completely unimpressed and holding the PS3 pad upside down, Germaine Greer trashing the Wii for the phallic symbolism of the controller, Mark Kermode boasting in uber-smug mode about his madskillz and being roundly thrashed by Kirsty Wark in R:FOM DM; meanwhile Bonnie Greer is sounding off about the symbolism of the black PS3 and white Wii, and Ekow Eshun can't be peeled away from the PS3 and frequently interrupts the ill-informed, er, debate with cries of "RIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RAAAACERRRRRR!". That about the size of it?

  • Azazel #33 5 years ago

    Surprisingly, upsettingly near the mark...

    The phrase: "You still can't beat a good book" was actually used. Paul Morley actually spoke those words.

    *sigh*

  • mash the x button #34 5 years ago

    The "ignore poster" feature is really excellent.

  • nanasaya #35 3 years ago

    i bought this game and i was actally surprised at how "not" sexualized and violent it was. There is no burial of anybody and the only real "suggestive" part is a girl who curtsies with a saying look on her face and her dress a little high. and well...that was about it. and as for violence, there isnt much seeing that the player is encouraged not to fight unless nessesary. like many have said, it is a game that focuses on telling a bizarre yet beautiful story rather than blood sex and gore. and i really love the game and i'm 17. so it kept my interest very well with the amazing story. it shouldnt be banned. ive seen much, MUCH worse games.