Cyberfront To Publish Chinatown Wars In Japan With CERO Z Rating

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will see a release in Japan this fall. While Capcom's published GTA titles in Japan in the past, Cyberfront, publisher of GTA IV's PC edition, will handle the critically-acclaimed DS title this time. Like past GTA titles, the game will receive a CERO Z rating, the equivalent of an ESRB "AO," or adults-only. Notably, though, Chinatown Wars becomes the first DS title to receive this rating in Japan, according to Siliconera, who also notes that Grasshopper Manufacture's Killer7 for GameCube is the only other Nintendo-platform title ever to be rated CERO Z. Chinatown Wars' M-rated Western release came under close scrutiny as the most high-profile experiment to date in launching mature content on the family-friendly DS, and it's likely the industry will pay similarly close attention to how CERO Z content does on DS in the Japanese market. Here in the States, analysts criticized the highly-rated game's initial 86,000 unit sales, but the title has continued to sell steadily in the months following its launch. Rockstar also recently announced it is developing a version of the game "specially built" for the PlayStation Portable.