The hammer falls on eroge makers and their customers this October, if leaked fax notices are to be believed. According to info leaked from notices sent to various developers and retailers, the new judgment criteria as listed earlier by the Ethics Organization for Computer Software (EOCS) will be applied starting sometime this coming October. The selling of rape games is to stop entirely, be they in downloadable or physical form.
Between now and September 1st, a gradual adjustment period will be in place, that will allow rape games "to a certain extent" to pass through the standard evaluation process, presumably to allow some current projects and upcoming releases to be finished rather than simply abandoned. A similar organization, the Computer Software Association (CSA) is expected to release its own criteria and plans later next week.
Hit the jump for some more details.
[Via Canned Dogs]
As a bit of background information, the EOCS is an industry self-regulating body, and wields a level of authority roughly on the level of America's Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). Unlike the ESRB, however, the EOCS doesn't have a ratings spectrum, evaluating its members' products on a simple pass-fail basis. Since most retailers refuse to stock games that fail evaluation, developers regard a negative judgment as a kiss of death, similar to what can happen to a game that gains an AO (Adults Only) rating from the ESRB.
Some of the words from the list of restricted content revealed earlier on managed to escape the net, among them "Student Council" and "Shoujo (girl)." As such most "lighter" eroge may get away unscathed. That said, there are many developers that actually specialize in catering to hardcore fetishists, such as Black Lilith (makers of Taimanin Asagi).
Reactions have been varied, with some studios wondering whether they should simply drop out of the EOCS (and maybe the CSA) distributing their content unhindered. Japanese fans' reactions have also been varied, ranging from xenophobic ranting to arguments that the whole affair was a result of political opportunism by Japan's Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito, both of which had longstanding interest in expanding restrictions on pornography.
As the fight continues, it seems that the impact of the EOCS caving to political pressure is soon to be felt. Japan's eroge developers are indeed right to question the point of the body's existence, if it would refuse to fight on its own industry's behalf.
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