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| Company type | Nonprofit organization |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video game content rating system |
| Founded | June 2002; 23 years ago (2002-06) |
| Headquarters | Chiyoda, Tokyo,Japan |
Area served | Japan |
Key people | Kazuya Watanabe |
| Website | www.cero.gr.jp |
TheComputer Entertainment Rating Organization (Japanese:特定非営利活動法人コンピュータエンターテインメントレーティング機構,Hepburn:Tokutei Hieiri Katsudō Hōjin Konpyūta Entāteinmento Rētingu Kikō) (CERO (セロ,Sero)) is a Japaneseentertainment rating organization based in Tokyo that ratesvideo game content inconsole games with levels of ratings that inform the customer of the nature of the product and what age group it is suitable for. It was established in June 2002 as a branch ofComputer Entertainment Supplier's Association, and became an officially recognizednonprofit organization underJapanese law in December 2003.
On March 1, 2006, CERO implemented the latest revision of its rating system. The symbols that CERO uses are stylizedLatin letters, named afteracademic grading, except "F" is replaced with "Z".[citation needed] Each is meant to convey a game's suitability for minors. "CERO rating marks" are grouped broadly into "age classification marks" and "other marks". Age classification marks include the following five marks. One of the marks is indicated on the left bottom of the game box front, and a correspondingcolor bar is also shown on the box spine. (Bar colors: black for "A"; green for "B"; blue for "C"; orange for "D"; red for "Z")
| Mark | Rating | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | All Ages (全年齢対象,Zen nenrei taishō) | Expressions and content subjected to age-specific limitation are not included in the game, thereby being suitable for all ages. All games that used to be ratedAll go into this category. |
 | Ages 12 and up (12才以上対象,Jūnisai ijō taishō) | Expression and content suitable only to 12-year-olds and above are included in the game. All games that used to be rated12 go into this category. |
 | Ages 15 and up (15才以上対象,Jūgosai ijō taishō) | Expression and content suitable only to 15-year-olds and above are included in the game. All games that used to be rated15 go into this category. |
 | Ages 17 and up (17才以上対象,Jūnanasai ijō taishō) | Contains adult material. Expression and content suitable only to 17-year-olds and above are included in the game. Some games that used to be rated18 go into this category. |
 | Ages 18 and up only (18才以上のみ対象,Jūhassai ijō nomi taishō) | Contains strong adult material. It is illegal for anyone under 18 to buy video games with this rating. Expression and content suitable only to 18-year-olds and above are included in the game. Some games that used to be rated18 go into this category. |
 | Educational/Database (教育・データベース,Kyouiku Deetabeesu) | A special rating applied only to non-game, educational/utility software (e.g.books) released on consoles aimed to older audiences (games like this aimed to children are rated A instead). Despite having education in its name, it can still feature expressions and content that might not be suitable for minors. |
 | CERO Regulations-Compatible (規定適合,Kitei tekigō) | Applied only to trial versions of games. Titles with this rating do not have all of the expressions and content featured in the full game. |
 | Rating Scheduled (審査予定,Shinsa yotei) | The game has not been assigned its final rating. Used in trailers and advertisements for games that have not been assigned their final rating from CERO.[1] |
In April 2004, CERO defined the following "content icons". Content icons represent that the age classification decision has been made based on the expressions belonging to one (or more) of the content icons. They are grouped into nine categories. These icons are displayed on the back of all game boxes except on those rated "A" or "Educational/Database".
| Content Icon | Description |
|---|---|
| Love | Contains expressions of romance or love. (Possibly includes kissing, hugging, dating, and other expressions of romantic desire or relations.) |
 Sexual Content | Contains expressions of sexual relations and/or sexual activity. (Possibly includes swimwear or suggestive outfits, exposure of underwear, partial nudity, suggestive behavior, immoral thoughts, prostitution, sexual contact and/or activities, and other sexual content.) |
| Violence | Contains violent activity. (Possibly includes fighting, bodily harm and wounding, killing, dismemberment, depiction of corpses, blood and gore, and other violent content.) |
| Horror | Contains frightful or horror elements. (Possibly includes traditional horror characters such as ghosts, zombies, vampires, or other elements of the occult, as well as moments designed to frighten. Usually used to designate games that may scare children, the Horror icon might not be found on frightening games outside of lower age ratings, even in games that fall into the horror genre.) |
| Drinking/Smoking | Contains depictions or references to the consumption of alcohol and/or cigarette or cigar smoking. |
| Gambling | Contains illegal gambling activities, either by depiction or in interactive form. |
| Crime | Contains criminal activity, either by depiction or in interactive form. (Possibly includes illegal activity, dangerous and unlawful behavior, abusive behavior, rape, organized crime, and other criminal acts.) |
| Drugs | Contains depictions or references to the use of drugs and illegal narcotics. |
 Language | Contains profane, derogatory, or bigoted language. |
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According to Kazuya Watanabe, CERO's senior director, the group of assessors is composed of five regular people unaffiliated with the game industry. They are trained by rating past games. The rating process is determined by 30 different expressions, each with an upper limit. The expressions that exceed the upper limit are designated as "banned expressions". In addition, six expressions are not allowed and are also considered to be banned expressions. The expressions are categorized into four different types: "Sex-related expression type" (Love, Sexual Content), "Violence expression type" (Violence, Horror), "Antisocial act expression type" (Drinking/Smoking, Gambling, Crime, Drugs), and "Language and ideology-related expression type" (Language). Each expression is rated using the A to Z scale that the rating marks use. After the group evaluates the game, the results are sent to CERO's main office where the final rating attempts to use the majority of the evaluators' ratings.
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One month after the initial release ofAtelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland, shipments of it were halted due to it having been misrated.[2] It was re-released a few days later with a B rating from CERO.[3] Its A (All Ages) rating was revoked and it was given a B (Ages 12+) rating instead, due to somesuggestive themes featured in the game. The game was originally rated for all ages due toGust allegedly not providing them with the complete content of the game for them to review.
CERO has been criticized for being stricter on content in games when compared to other video game rating boards, a 2020 example beingThe Last of Us Part II. Despite receiving a Z (Ages 18+ only) rating, which is the maximum rating a game could receive from CERO, it was still censored with an example being the game's sexual content, where a sex scene that is featured in the game was censored.[4] In the Japanese version, the scene cuts out just a short time after both characters begin kissing, removing the nudity seen in other versions of the game. The game also received heavy censorship of its violence, as most of the gore and dismemberment seen in the game was removed in the Japanese version.[5]
The Callisto Protocol's Japanese release was canceled when the game did not receive a CERO rating due to the game's violent content, and the developer refused to make any necessary changes.[6]
In a 2015 compilation of columns that he wrote forFamitsu magazine, video game developer andSuper Smash Bros. series creatorMasahiro Sakurai criticized CERO for having stricter standards on sexual content than violence, citing conflicts that he had with the board over the character models for Palutena and Wonder Pink inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. According to Sakurai, the game was nearly delayed due to the developers needing to constantly revise the characters' models, which CERO considered "sexually provocative" due to the possibility that players could takeupskirt shots with them. Sakurai claimed that these designs were never intended to betitillating, deriding CERO's demands as "ridiculous and frankly quite juvenile."[7][8]
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