The gaming industry is about to feel another impact as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Japanese video game ratings board, the Computer Entertainment Rating Agency (CERO), has announced that it will be undergoing a temporary suspension of business, due to the state of emergency declaration in Tokyo. This means that any upcoming games that require an age rating to be released in Japan may not receive one, as the agency has stated that their workers are unable to do their job from home. The closure is set to last one month, starting on April 8th and ending on May 6th. Japanese publishers mention that while this won't impact games immediately, it may affect titles that are scheduled for release in 2-3 months, as companies usually apply for a CERO rating for their game a couple of months prior to release.

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[DarkCoffe64]

their workers are unable to do their job from home.

While I generally support the decision, I'm still wondering why the process is impossible to do from home.

I think some of you are forgetting that they use devkits or testkits to test the games. You are not allowed to move these devkits outside the office.So you just can't simply take the devkit home. The companies are very protective of their hardware.
So yeah, the reason they can't do it from home is simply because they can't take the hardware home and therefore not play the games at home.

Like, do they actually play the games, unlike Pegi that just watchs some footage sent by the devs then gives a rating based on that, afaik?

 

[duwen]

Like, do they actually play the games, unlike Pegi that just watchs some footage sent by the devs then gives a rating based on that, afaik?

Yeah, if this is the case it makes a lot more sense, as it would generally involve the 'rater' visiting the development studio to see the game in action.

 

[DJPlace]

has long has trail's of mana comes out i'm set....

 

[pikpol]

Like, do they actually play the games, unlike Pegi that just watchs some footage sent by the devs then gives a rating based on that, afaik?

Good point. Now that I think about it, I did a Cero rating for a game at the end of last year. They indeed only needed footage of the game.
Though still, I think a lot of people can just do their work from home on their own computers.
But you are not always allowed as a developer to access things like developer portals from any other network than your company network. So that could be what's happening here. I think their reason is still legit and they want to keep all the games they are rating as secret and safe as possible.
You don't want to leak all the games that would be coming out this year. Then there would be no surprises anymore

 

[The Catboy]

I am only guessing the reason they can't do it from home is just to make sure the employees don't leak, steal, or alter the games and that's something they can only prevent under a controlled environment. That's just a guess on my end though.