Japanese Xbox users are feeling a bit left out as publisher TEAM17 has confirmed that the action-platformer series Blasphemous will not be released on Xbox in Japan. This news comes despite the successful release of both Blasphemous and Blasphemous 2 on PlayStation in Japan, both receiving the IARC16 rating. It’s pretty fishy when you look deeper.
In a Twitter thread, TEAM17 Help cited “local legislation” as the reason for the exclusion of Xbox users. However, they provided no further details about this legislation, confusing many fans. The game is offered on other platforms in Japan, so the legislation only affects one console. It’s strange to think about, and others were perplexed as well.
When another user pointed out how weird it was, TEAM17 Help simply reiterated their previous statement, offering no further explanation or hope for the future release of Blasphemous 1 and 2 on Xbox in Japan. This sounds less like local legislation and more like a contract to keep the game exclusive for PlayStation.
It’s all right if Sony paid money to keep a game exclusive; that’s how it works in this industry. If that were the case, though, it would feel like the publisher is lying to the fans by handing off the blame to a region. If this is based on Sony paying to keep the game exclusive, it would be like Team17 pockets the money from the deal but doesn’t want any of the anger that could come from that. However, that’s a lot of ‘ifs’ to keep track of.
We don’t know what “local legislation” means, so we must take their word for it. Hopefully, TEAM17 will shed more light on this decision in the future, providing a clearer understanding of the “local legislation” they claim to be hindering the release of Blasphemous on Xbox in Japan. Luckily, PlayStation is more popular than Xbox in Japan, so it likely isn’t a big hit to console owners.
