Striking Distance would rather cancel the release than make the required changes.

If you have seen anything concerning The Callisto Protocol over these past several months, you know that it's going to be a very gory and very violent game. The problem with games being too gory is that they sometimes won't pass regional ratings boards in various parts of the world.

That is precisely what happened in Japan. The country's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) took issue with some of the content in The Callisto Protocol and denied its approval for release. While most companies would relent and make the changes necessary for release, developer Striking Distance Studios won't do so.

Instead, the company says that they simply won't release the game in Japan. The Japanese Twitter account for The Callisto Protocol put up an explanation earlier today briefly explaining the situation. A rough translation of the message was provided by PC Gamer. It reads, "The Callisto Protocol's Japanese version has been discontinued. At present, it cannot pass the CERO rating." It continues on to say that the team decided that making the changes requested by CERO would "not provide the experience players expect."

Japanese players who pre-ordered the game are now being issued refunds. While a specific reason for the ratings denial was not provided by either CERO or Striking Distance Studios, it wouldn't be surprising if it had anything to do with the excessive gore.

For those not in Japan, The Callisto Protocol is still set to be released on December 2.