We’ve heard some unfortunate news for any fans hoping Marvelous’ upcoming music/rhythm game, IA/VT Colorful, is coming west at some point in the future.

The denial of the game coming west comes from game creator Kenichiro Takaki (also the series creator of Senran Kagura), who revealed to Siliconera that a western release would be very difficult.

“If it were possible, I’d love to bring it over, but there are a lot of difficulties involved in that process. Now, that said, there’s no reason why you can’t import it,” Takaki said in an interview with Siliconera. He elaborated a bit:

“Since it’s a music title, and since music is arguably one of the most protected media types artists have, that just means more doors to knock on and more approvals to get. It’s far more difficult than a Senran Kagura title.”

Takaki-san was pressed a little bit, and was posed a follow-up question: does this mean fans outside of Japan would have to import the game? To which Takaki agreed in saying “Yes, I believe that that’s the case.”

So while this isn’t a definitive “No, the game isn’t coming west,” it’s certainly not looking good. We’ll keep you guys posted.

IA/VT Colorful is launching in Japan on July 30th, exclusively on PS Vita.