Gearheads of War

I really don't think that this is a misprint from MS at all.  Now that the 360 is starting to gain some momentum in the land of the Rising Sun, perhaps MS doesn't want an extreme rating (NC-17 or whatever Asia's rating system's equivalence is).  Everyone knows that 'Adults Only'-ratings are essentially the "kiss of death."  The last thing that MS needs right now is negative publicity linked to their console and their newly published hit of this holiday season- Gears of War 2.

Here's another take that may be a reason why I think the Japanese Games ratings board might be keeping Gears 2 out of Japan; it's the fact that XBL is not all that friendly of a gaming environment.  The first Gears was localized for Asia.  There was no doubt that a lot of Japanese players that owned the 360 jumped onto XBL to grab a few games.  Back when I used to hop into a ranked game once in a great while, you could cut the racism and prejudice against "foreigners" and gamers alike with a knife.  I hate generalizations, but anyone hopping onto an XBL-game can attest that these aberrations exist on a regular basis.  Perhaps the Japanese games industry wants to keep that kind of element out of Japan?  Take that garbage elsewhere.  I doubt that it's the extreme graphical content that's left what will be one of the biggest games this holiday season from Japan's 360 catalog.  Have you seen trailers of the upcoming Wii game, Madworld?  That's very graphic, but no more than the content in Gears 2!  Another example is the upcoming Capcom game, Resident Evil 5, is that content milder than Gears 2?  Hmmm, I smell a rat...