The developers behind BrownDust2 have walked back their plans for global censorship changes in the wake of a massive fan outcry.

Originally, multiple characters and even a mini-game were set to be removed or altered from the popular gacha game in order to comply with regional laws. However the global audience for the game loudly rejected the censorship, leading BrownDust2 to take a more nuanced approach.

In a recent Developer Note update, project director Jun-hee Lee explains his thought process behind the initial censorship plans as part of an apology to fans.

Since BrownDust2 operates with the approval of each country’s stores, platforms, and rating agencies, suspension in one country could easily lead to reports and additional reviews by others.
Right now, monitoring and regulations are becoming stricter worldwide, and BrownDust2 has remained under continued scrutiny from multiple agencies.
Even if we offered country-specific versions, as long as the original content exists, service suspensions could happen again at any time. I thought that separating service by country would not be a fundamental solution.

Frankly, I was deeply concerned that cascading service suspensions could make regular service impossible.

For the country in question, we are discussing possible solutions with the relevant regulatory bodies, such as hiding content only in that country, suspending local service, or operating a modified build according to country-specific policy.
Since these talks are ongoing, I cannot specify the country at this time, but we will inform you officially as soon as an agreement is reached.
We are not trying to ignore any country’s regulations.

From now on, our one clear principle will be to provide country-specific service, not modify content.

If, due to specific country or platform requirements, it becomes impossible to maintain service without requiring changes, we will not alter character designs.
Instead, our service policy will be to apply country-specific restrictions, suspend service, or provide an adapted build as needed for that country.

Even if this causes inconvenience, we will not make decisions that harm the experience or rights of users enjoying the original content.
If providing the original build through all major stores becomes difficult, we will seek alternative means so that users can continue to enjoy the original version.

It appears that one country in particular was creating issues for BrownDust2 and that led to this entire debacle. While Jun-hee Lee doesn’t expressly name the country, we have some ideas of our own for who the culprit could be *COUGH* Australia *COUGH* though we’ll probably know for certain when we see which regions get a different version.

This isn’t the first time BrownDust2 has had issue with censorship policies. Just last month the Steam release of the game was canceled due to similar concerns. Fellow gacha game Blue Archive also had a similar experience, forcing themselves to separate the game into two clients.

Brown Dust II is available globally for iOS (via the App Store) and Android (via Google Play).