"Rule of Rose" Ruled Out in U.K.

At least it was the publishers choice to drop it but still, thats a bad sign for us poor old europeans. I don't think it would have mattered to the UK audience if it had been released as its only really Italy and Germany throwing a wobbly but still...disappointing and potentialy terrible for future releases.

Wow, they refused to publish a game that had been supported by Atlus? That group hasn't published a lot of really racey games. That should be a clue that the game might not be as bad as implied by some...

On a side-note, Atlus did also publish Steambot Chronicles in North America, which does parody Hot Coffee at one point...

...any word from the publishers as to the rest of Europe?

/b

"To the best of my knowlege 505 were publishing it for the whole of europe - which means it will have been canned everywhere right?"

While they do have the rights for all of Europe, evidence seems to suggest that the UK is the only place they've pulled it (thus far anyway). I've had a look on some French and Italian sites which reckon they have the PAL version in stock and available (and not at an inflated price, unlike our dear friend eBay).

On a slighly related note:

X-Play has recently reviewed the game, and gave it a two out of five. Normally I don't watch their show much, but they had footage of gameplay, and boy, did it look bad. The graphics looked like something Resident Evil 3 threw up, you get a load screen every time you go through a door, and the game just doens't seem that scary. So if you plan to buy the game because of the controversy, it might be better not to. This one looks like a stinker.

If this game sucks, then maybe it would be best no to buy it, but there is a much bigger issue here. These games are being attacked across the globe. It has to stop. When will the madness stop?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even begin to word my anger. Mass hysteria is amusing, until it starts to actually affect what you do and don't get access to.

What makes this even more bizarre is that 505 themselves published arthouse developer Grasshopper Manufacture's Michigan in Europe. This is a game in which you are actually scored for the amount of time you spend staring at a woman's polygonal arse (like, *actually*, literally), as well as giving you moral decisions between saving lives or filming brutal deaths for a news scoop (likely inspiring Dead Rising in the process, but I digress). Would they have canned this if the Daily Mail had caught wind?

I used to respect 505 for their willing to bring over games that no other publishers believe there is a European market for, but this has just inverted my opinion of them. As soon as I read they they chickened out on no less than the street date I went and ordered myself a Canadian import.

Stick it to the man!

Paracelsus -

You say you've seen some French and Italian sites selling the PAL version of the game - could you let me know which ones please?

Thanks, Hazel