On October 4, 2022, Nexon announced that their gacha RPG Blue Archive will be divided into two versions. Each version will have a different age rating, with one version having some of its artwork “censored” and another with the artwork as it is. To be more precise, they would be “version with adjusted resources” and “version R-18”. The R-18 version of the game will have a higher age rating. [Thanks, Automaton!]
Blue Archive Producer Kim Yong-ha explains the situation in an October 4 post. According to Kim, the Korean Game Rating and Regulatory Commission contacted the group in September 2022. The committee gave them an ultimatum: Adjust art or adjust age ratings. Kim says that while changing the art would be the simplest option, the team considered the adjustments they’ve made to the global (English) edition of the show. Blue Archivewhen in December 2021 it artwork adapted for Arisu’s character story segments. This happened despite previous promises from October 2021 that the team would not change artwork for the global version. In the light of blowback from that incident of Blue Archive Kim worries that repeated changes will negatively impact players. As a result, the decision was made to increase the age rating of the current game and produce a second, “all ages” version of the app with “resources tweaked”.
The version with adjusted resources will “undergo scrutiny” to preserve the “visual personality” of the characters. It also won’t affect player accounts, so you can play either version without losing progress. Blue Archive will become an R-18 game in Korea. Meanwhile, the tweaked version will be out some time in the future.
This isn’t the first time a game studio has had to make artwork changes due to government intervention. In China, HoYoVerse changed the default costumes of the characters Jean, Amber, Rosaria and Mona In The Genshin effect to cover more skin. The global versions receive tweaked versions as optional cosmetics. Blue Archive Nor is it the first game to have a “censored” version with a separate age rating. Some Titles of DMM Games same thing, and many adult-only games are sold on store homepages like Steam as their all-ages incarnation, with patches or optional DLC to unlock more compelling content. But it’s rare for a studio to choose to split a game in such a way after launch.
Blue Archive available on mobile devices.
