Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony has been rejected by South Korea’s Game Rating and Administration Committee, effectively banning it from being sold in the country and demonstrating one of the core challenges of game localization in the process.
According to a translation obtained by Kotaku, the committee rejected the game based on a law that forbids the release of games that could cause “societal disruption due to amplified portrayal of crime, violence, sex, and etc which in turn would incite criminal behavior or copycat crimes.”
Following the committee’s refusal to allow the game’s release, Danganronpa V3 publisher Sony Computer Entertainment Korea has seven days to respond to the decision.
Previous entries in the Japanese seres have seen South Korean release, though those games did so under an adults only rating. Though not officially responsible for the ban, Kotaku notes that a recent violent crime commited by a teenager against a child could be partly to blame for the board’s decision since Danganronpa V3 is thematically similar to that crime.
“The decision was based on the game’s content,” a committee spokesperson told the South Korean publication This is Game. “We did raise concern about copy cat crime and whatnot, but the rating was not denied just because of that. We determined that the game had crossed the line where it was difficult to allow this in society.”
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