Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has been forced to pull one of its TV ads after a slew of complaints from parents claiming that their children had been terrified by what they’d seen.
The commercial was for Siren, the incredible-looking horror game built in-house exclusively for PlayStation 2, though rumoured as a PSP launch title. According to Japanese reports surfacing today, the televised piece was deemed too much by Sony following the feedback.
Interestingly, it would seem that a lot of the horror to be enjoyed (?) in Siren is subtly implied. For instance, all screens taken from the game rely on psychologically implied threat of something evil, as opposed to simply throwing buckets of digital blood over the scenery, a summation backed up by the relatively low CERO (the Japanese games age-rating body) rating of 15.
We’ll keep a close eye on all things Siren in the coming weeks.