Gears of War 4 Japanese Release Officially Confirmed
Publisher Microsoft Studios have confirmed that Gears of War 4 will finally see the light of day in Japan. While the previous games in the franchise were censored, this one won’t be. The game releases in Japan on May 25th, 2017, with pre-orders already up for grabs.
Gears of War 4 is now almost six months old. However, it never got released in Japan, due to problems with censorship. The previous installments all came out in Japan, but they had to be heavily censored due to the rules of the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization. Originally, this was the plan with GoW 4 as well. However, the game needed to be re-cut so heavily that, in the end, it wasn’t worth it. And that was the end of that.
That is, until Xbox Japan released a cinematic trailer, called “Tomorrow”, on their YouTube channel. Check it out below.
The trailer does contain some slight story spoilers, though, to be fair, you probably know everything about it by now. The video shows our protagonist J.D. Fenix, son of famous Marcus Fenix. He’s running away from “the Swarm”, and accidentally comes across his old family home. The chase scene is intercut with his childhood memories of his mother and father during the brief time of peace. Makes for an excellent trailer. How well it represents the actual atmosphere in the game is up for debate.
Either way, Japanese fans of the Gears of War franchise will finally be able to play the fourth game. As an added bonus, the game they get will be completely uncensored for the first time. Of course, it will still bear the CERO Z-rating (equal to the ESRB AO-rating). The release is scheduled for May 25th, 2017, and you can already pre-order.
Originally, Gears of War 4 came out on October 11th, 2016. It’s a Microsoft exclusive, so it’s only available through the Windows Store and the Xbox Store.
