Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Japanese Release Cancelled

It's well known that the Xbox brand has failed to gain traction in Japan, but it's always had an extremely hardcore, if niche, fanbase of gamers who love precisely the combination of sports, shooters, shmups and visual novels the Xbox synonymous with. Today they'll be disappointed to learn that Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, an Xbox One remake of the original 2006 Xbox 360 release Gears of War, has had its release plans dashed indefinitely.

The Official Japanese Xbox Blog had a press release on the matter which has been translated below:

After conducting a development investigation into all the necessary changes that would have to be made in order to get all the content in Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, including new content [to this remake] to pass ethical conformity standards we have concluded that the task would be insurmountable. As such, we have made the choice to forgo a domestic [Japanese] release for the game. We apologise to our all our Xbox fans who were awaiting the release of this game with baited breath for this disappointing announcement.

Later this year we have many anticipated exclusive software releases including Halo 5: Guardians, Forza Motorsport 6, Fable Legends as well as Rise of the Tomb Raider and more planned for the year's end. We will continue to provide all our consumers with experiences they've never had on before on Xbox.

Games in Japan are rated under CERO, which certifies the letters A, B, C, D and Z to releases. A being the mildest classification and the Z rating being the strongest, only reserved for a handful of games (The Yakuza and Resident Evil series, for example, typically net a CERO D).

The Gears of War games have an interesting run in with classification in the past, with Gears of War, Gears of War 3 and Gears of War: Judgement all earning the CERO Z distinction. However Gears of War 2 went through controversial period where a Japanese release looked entirely unlikely before finally releasing with a CERO Z rating. 

Credit: Automaton Japan