Disaster Report franchise put on hold indefinitely

Words can barely describe the unspeakable tragedy that befell Japan on the 11th of March; thousands dead, thousands more unaccounted for, a potential nuclear disaster in the works and entire communities obliterated all at the hands of the earthquake induced tsunami. The game industry didn’t escape harm either, development of many Japanese titles has been delayed or obstructed due to Japan’s damaged infrastructure and the ongoing power outages around Tokyo.

However in some cases it’s less of a distribution or power issue and more one of bad taste that’s causing the problem. The desolate disaster ravaged cites of the soon to be released Motorstorm: Apocalypse and Yakuza of the End for instance were a little too topical for the moment and have understandably been pushed back to an undefined date, but will likely still see release when things have calmed down a little.

A fate that’s sadly not going to be shared with Irem’s PS3 title Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4 (unofficially known as Disaster Report 4 in the west) where the player was to be tasked with staying alive and rescuing survivors in a derelict Japanese city that’s been stricken by a serise deadly earthquakes. Before it got delayed to Spring time Disaster Report 4 was originally planed to hit retail on March 10th, only one day before the the Tohoku earthquake took place. Yikes.

As you can probably imagine, that sort of subject matter is going to hit WAY too close to home for a good few years yet, so unsurprisingly the game got outright canned within days of the incident despite having a considerable fan following that’s only got larger since the quake. Unfortunately word has now reached us that this was not going to be a one-off incident; as of now the entire Disaster Report franchise has been completely grounded, perhaps permanently. This includes new titles currently in development as well as the re-printing and distribution of the widely popular PSP and PS2 iterations.

It’s hard not too see this as a somewhat knee-jerk reaction, especially considering how the Disaster Report games champion hope and survival in the wake of a natural disaster; something you’d think everyone in Japan could get behind right about now. Still, I can see how from an uninformed perspective it could end up looking as though Irem were attempting to profit from the buzz surrounding the quake, so perhaps it’s for the best that this all ended before Fox News got wind of it eh?

If you’re a UK resident interested in paying your respects to the franchise or just seeing what the fuss was all about, the first two Disaster Report games did see a VERY limited release over here under the names SOS:The Final Escape and Raw Danger! both of which were for the PS2. Let’s all hope Disaster Report will be the earthquake’s final victim, virtual or otherwise.

If you want to help out with the Japanese Tsunami relief effort, Red Cross is always a good place to start. Alternatively PlayStation users can donate directly through the PSN.