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[Elfstar]

Is it cute when that thread since yesterday only generated 3 pages while something against their political agenda can generate much higher traffic.
Also worth to note that majority of the poster also still in the fence about this issue: "more variety and detailed study required" while something like sexist can be banned outright. Lol at that hypocryte Yankee.
They all reminded me to Far Cry 5 antagonist craziness behaviour.

Even Old Gaf started to rebel against their goddess Anita when she started to talk against Doom and violent videogames...

 

[petran79]

Ok i will bite, what is the message this film wanted to send when they showed a newborn baby getting raped?
And dont tell me the message is to tell people how fucked up this world is, we already knew that .

I think this example will also hurt what we are doing here, SJWs will point at this thread and say: "hey look at these anti-censorship people defending a film about children being raped, sick people!"

So can we please just talk about video games censorship and focus on what is important here.

Baby was a doll, not real. As mentioned, the illusion of film editing made it look real. Films belong to the world of art too. Art is supposed to stir people
De Sades Salo has even worse scenes and is even more nauseating to the reader and it can be read in libraries too.As many other similar books. I guess you are not new to Japanese animation and manga to see what is available there.

Those kind of works belong to the genre that combine erotic with political allegory. It may not be to everyone's taste but it exists and has its own advocates and adversaries. Certainly not those SJW you describe.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet announced for PS4, Switch - Gematsu

Be interesting to see how much this game will be censored due to Sony's shenanigans and if Nintendo will make a statement in response to that.

 

[The Chairman]

Baby was a doll, not real. As mentioned, the illusion of film editing made it look real. Films belong to the world of art too. Art is supposed to stir people
De Sades Salo has even worse scenes and is even more nauseating to the reader and it can be read in libraries too.As many other similar books. I guess you are not new to Japanese animation and manga to see what is available there.

Those kind of works belong to the genre that combine erotic with political allegory. It may not be to everyone's taste but it exists and has its own advocates and adversaries. Certainly not those SJW you describe.

Im just saying that we should choose our battles. Sony and the SJWs at Resetera are trying to demonize us and they call us perverts, pedophiles, sexists just because we want to see a busty girl in a bikini uncensored, and now we are giving them ammo by defending fake snuf and child raping and torture films, also this thread is about games getting censored so why are we talking about the morality of censoring obscure east European fake baby raping films ?

 

[Ladioss]

Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet announced for PS4, Switch - Gematsu

Be interesting to see how much this game will be censored due to Sony's shenanigans and if Nintendo will make a statement in response to that.

Probably won't be censored. I expect censorshop to be applied preferably on small actors; bigger entities have the means to negotiate compromises.
I hope Nintendo don't adress that question. We have everything to lose if they do.

Sony and the SJWs at Resetera are trying to demonize us and they call us perverts, pedophiles, sexists

Proof that they are of bad faith as it's hard to top male feminists on those grounds.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

Probably won't be censored. I expect censorshop to be applied preferably on small actors; bigger entities have the means to negotiate compromises.
I hope Nintendo don't adress that question. We have everything to lose if they do.

Well, we've seen smaller Japanese developers and publishers expressing their frustration with Sony and praise for Nintendo. I think if Nintendo does make a statement, they will side with the niche Japanese developers since the market will be Nintendo's for the taking.

 

[Ladioss]

Well, we've seen smaller Japanese developers and publishers expressing their frustration with Sony and praise for Nintendo. I think if Nintendo does make a statement, they will side with the niche Japanese developers since the market will be Nintendo's for the taking.

Playing devil advocate here of course, but I'm not sure it's a market big enough for Nintendo to be willingly associated with it.

 

[Zenaku]

Probably won't be censored. I expect censorshop to be applied preferably on small actors; bigger entities have the means to negotiate compromises.
I hope Nintendo don't adress that question. We have everything to lose if they do.

Seems DoAX is confirmed as censored on PS4. Certain items that were in the original PS4 version and that will be in the Switch version won't be available in the new PS4 release. Items that let you blow gusts of wind at girls to knock their skirts up or skew their swimsuits, and items that let you change the firmness of the girls skin to make them bounce more or less.

Either Sony doesn't see KT as a large publisher, or they really don't give a shit who the developer is. I'm glad developers are keeping things in the Nintendo releases, instead of removing them for parity.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

You can look up the differences between both versions of DoAX here.

 

[Ladioss]

Seems DoAX is confirmed as censored on PS4. Certain items that were in the original PS4 version and that will be in the Switch version won't be available in the new PS4 release. Items that let you blow gusts of wind at girls to knock their skirts up or skew their swimsuits, and items that let you change the firmness of the girls skin to make them bounce more or less.

Either Sony doesn't see KT as a large publisher, or they really don't give a shit who the developer is. I'm glad developers are keeping things in the Nintendo releases, instead of removing them for parity.

I stand corrected then. Thanks you for this information.

 

[Senhua]

Lol, even the ResetEra of harcore Japanese games fans (which I admit, more in number than Gaf here) start to consider to pass on PS5 altogether.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

Lol, even the ResetEra of harcore Japanese games fans (which I admit, more in number than Gaf here) start to consider to pass on PS5 altogether.

Well that's surprising, considering how the folks at ERA are quick to defend video game censorship of Japanese games.

 

[JordanN]

People talk about Nintendo and Sony, but what is Microsoft up to?

Xbox was actually the first console to have the Xtreme series and none of them are censored. Wouldn't this be an opportunity for Microsoft to get them back or does Phil Spencer chug down Soy drinks?

 

[Serenade_King]

Well that's surprising, considering how the folks at ERA are quick to defend video game censorship of Japanese games.

Yeah, it seems that a lot of people act like anime character = underage characters. It was pretty bad when a steam game picture was shown of these 4 big breasted woman and people where saying it should be censored because they looked too young (they didn't).

It's this type of people that also try to pass a law that women with small breast shouldn't appear in porn movies.

 

[CatCouch]

Sony censoring DOAX3... Well at least the Switch version has the content. My biggest fear is that Sony will want some kind of parity contract so no version of a game can have more content that the Sony version. It doesn't appear that is happening so far. Weird that Sony is okay with their platform getting inferior versions, though.

I'm also surprised that Sony doesn't seem to care they are getting a reputation for censoring games which seems to be resulting in tons of hostile, if not unreadable comment sections anytime their name is mentioned.

At least there's a chance that DOAX3 can make it to the west on the Switch!

 

[Endless Fluff]

So, PS4 owner should skip Scarlet and buy DoAX Fortune instead and wait for the characters to pop up as DLC (which seems to happen at a later date).
Now the question is if they're gonna censor Fortune with a patch down the line.

 

[kunonabi]

So, PS4 owner should skip Scarlet and buy DoAX Fortune instead and wait for the characters to pop up as DLC (which seems to happen at a later date).
Now the question is if they're gonna censor Fortune with a patch down the line.

That's my big concern. I could totally see them doing it.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

That's my big concern. I could totally see them doing it.

Sony did it with the Chinese version of Mary Skelter 2.

 

[Dunki]

This is getting ridicuous. I really wonder what did happen here.......

 

[JordanN]

I saw this image floating around. It seems to confirm the timeline of Sony going SJW.

Only one exception is the Orochi game. The physics is caused by a bug tied to frame rate (i.e 30fps it jiggles but at 60fps it's broken).

So much for Playstation being "For The Players".

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Absolutely hilarious, it didn't take long for the confirmation.

Koei Tecmo's damage control attempts about the PS4 version (has VR, 1080p/60 FPS) stand out in particular. There goes the claims that mid-sized Japanese developers are "safe".
Considering Sony cut previously a particular scene in Trails in the Sky 3rd, repeatedly (on PSP, then PSP, then a PS Vita enhanced remake by an entirely different publisher, and in all three cases the CERO wasn't involved and the assets were already made but discarded and the publishers went out of their way to provide them in other versions, like a book) entirely because it's too "uncomfortable" for them and not because it has any graphic content... and that was when they were more lax than now, I am not particularly sure Western developers are that safe either. Horror is targeted as well. It's only a matter of time.

Now the question is if they're gonna censor Fortune with a patch down the line.

It seems Koei Tecmo plans really to port some of the content from the new version (the new characters) to Fortune, so there is a patch coming indeed. I can totally see Sony trying to force them to include censorship for the already released base game content in the same patch.

People talk about Nintendo and Sony, but what is Microsoft up to?

Back when Sony was blocking Japanese games (in Japan on the PS3, after it used to be a PS1/PS2 US exclusive policy) for being too weak graphically, some small third-party publishers doing mainly shumps and lower budget games that were being rejected on the PS3.
Microsoft quickly made it clear to Japanese publishers they are not okay with games with fanservice. The main game that suffered from this was Gal*Gun, originally an Xbox 360 exclusive but delayed following an initial rejection by Microsoft (and some cut content during that) then after the game released, further cuts were mandated through patches.

In the original Xbox 360 version, the player could control the camera below the hemline of the girl during Doki Doki Mode. However Microsoft ordered the game publisher, Alchemist to eliminate this feature by releasing "Panties Protect Patch"[sic] update on March 18, 2011.

It's a moot point either way, since even very safe visual novel publishers bombed legendarily on the Xbox ecosystem there, and Microsoft wasn't willing to relax its minimum print-run policies which made the platform pure cancer for Japanese developers hoping to achieve any semblance of profit (to the point games with existing Xbox -all three generations- ports targeting Western markets skipped the platform in Japan).

I am looking forward for Catherine's handling. Expecting last minute delays, missing scenes, and port announcements at this point.

Well that's surprising, considering how the folks at ERA are quick to defend video game censorship of Japanese games.

I saw some saying they didn't go far enough, and should have cut Marie Rose (specifically saying that petite women are problematic) or banned the game altogether. As long as Dream Daddy is safe, who cares.

 

[Dunki]

I saw some saying they didn't go far enough, and should have cut Marie Rose (specifically saying that petite women are problematic) or banned the game altogether. As long as Dream Daddy is safe, who cares.

Reminds me of Australia in which porn with very petite and women with very small breasts is basically forbidden.....

 

[JordanN]

Back when Sony was blocking Japanese games (in Japan on the PS3, after it used to be a PS1/PS2 US exclusive policy) for being too weak graphically, some small third-party publishers doing mainly shumps and lower budget games that were being rejected on the PS3.
Microsoft quickly made it clear to Japanese publishers they are not okay with games with fanservice. The main game that suffered from this was Gal*Gun, originally an Xbox 360 exclusive but delayed following an initial rejection by Microsoft (and some cut content during that) then after the game released, further cuts were mandated through patches.

Yikes, look like the console market is screwed for Japanese developers.

It's really nuts we're having to deal with censorship again in 2018. It was terrible in the 90s. It was terrible in the 00's. And it's just as bad today.

 

[Zenaku]

So, PS4 owner should skip Scarlet and buy DoAX Fortune instead and wait for the characters to pop up as DLC (which seems to happen at a later date).
Now the question is if they're gonna censor Fortune with a patch down the line.

I could see them being forced to update the free to play version from Fortune to Scarlet, but I'll need to recheck my full copy later. I'm fairly sure you can use the dlc tickets to buy skincare products, so if Sony forced them to remove the content from the existing versions people would lose items they've paid money for, and lose a feature they've spent money to use.

It would be a true clusterfuck.

 

[petran79]

Im just saying that we should choose our battles. Sony and the SJWs at Resetera are trying to demonize us and they call us perverts, pedophiles, sexists just because we want to see a busty girl in a bikini uncensored, and now we are giving them ammo by defending fake snuf and child raping and torture films, also this thread is about games getting censored so why are we talking about the morality of censoring obscure east European fake baby raping films ?

Let any scaremongers weed out their own pedophiles, perverts and sexists first and leave the rest alone.
Since video games are art and are influenced by cinema they can opt for this route too. Do you remember Harvester by any chance?
You simply do not reply at all in such cases because it gives them worth.

 

[Senhua]

Well that's surprising, considering how the folks at ERA are quick to defend video game censorship of Japanese games.

Ah do not misunderstand me, of course there are bunch who still defend censorship but at least no 100% echo chamber like before. And the mod not freely banned the one who voiced their dissatisfaction like before. I wonder something must be changed from their moderation policy.

 

[Doczu]

Ah do not misunderstand me, of course there are bunch who still defend censorship but at least no 100% echo chamber like before. And the mod not freely banned the one who voiced their dissatisfaction like before. I wonder something must be changed from their moderation policy.

They are not so quick to ban people as the stakes are getting higher with bigger and more prominent games.
A game like DoA will get the attention of media, sooner or later. As will Catherine once word gets out it is censored (i just feel it will).
There are more people against the censorship in the DoA thread than in the earlier ones, as here it's not about ouright loli or "suggestive underage" content.

 

[JunkerWoland]

As I said in the related game thread, I'm glad Koei Tecmo is at least being upfront about the differences in Xtreme3 Scarlet, outside some rumors of the PS4 version also having different/missing/altered costumes (we'll see, I guess).

I'm not surprised the content in Xtreme3 Scarlet isn't coming through unscathed on PS4. While a certain amount of circumstantial evidence pointed to Sony attacking games where cartoon visuals may have suggested the female characters were significantly underage, I've been worried the actual issue is notions of sexual (or sexualized) impropriety towards women. The clothes stripping mechanics in the game seemed right in line with what Sony appears to no longer want on its system, possibly regardless of character age or design aesthetic. I actually kinda wonder if the game was green lighted on the platform some time ago and is maybe the only reason it's still even being allowed on the system.

 

[The Chairman]

Another video talking about this.

 

[Enygger_Tzu]

That is good, the more people talk about this, the better, we need to bring more exposure to that matter.

If all Sony loyalists leave her to MS/NN/Valve who are going to stay for them, the ND fanboys and dudebros, and the latter, as proven by the PS360 generation, do not stay loyal to a console.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Hm. Curious to see when this starts hurting their bottom line. Microsoft has been making a ton of moves to have a killer next gen, but Sony is just failing hard. Nintendo is doing what Nintendo usually does, but even they aren't being so horrendous with censorship this gen.

 

[Aurelian]

Hm. Curious to see when this starts hurting their bottom line. Microsoft has been making a ton of moves to have a killer next gen, but Sony is just failing hard. Nintendo is doing what Nintendo usually does, but even they aren't being so horrendous with censorship this gen.

It probably won't hurt their bottom line at all. Not at all.

Think about it: even when Nintendo was demanding heavy censorship for games in the early 1990s, that didn't stop the SNES from outselling the Genesis (and yes, Sega even leaned on the "you can see blood in our games" shtick). Why would Sony even flinch at considerably milder restrictions, especially ones that affect games that were never going to be huge commercial hits in the first place?

We need to give up this notion that forums like NeoGAF are indicative of how the larger gaming market will fare. They absolutely aren't. Most gamers won't even know that a game like DoAX3 exists, let alone care that Sony had the developer dial down the creepiness.

 

[Enygger_Tzu]

It probably won't hurt their bottom line at all. Not at all.

Ι think you mean that the PS4 is not going to be affected, which I agree, but the PS5 is more than likely to be affected by Sony's poor decisions.
Especially now that Japan is not a lock for them anymore.

 

[Blam]

Lol, even the ResetEra of harcore Japanese games fans (which I admit, more in number than Gaf here) start to consider to pass on PS5 altogether.

The face of anyone in Japan right now thinking sony could censor their games and get away with it.

It probably won't hurt their bottom line at all. Not at all.

Think about it: even when Nintendo was demanding heavy censorship for games in the early 1990s, that didn't stop the SNES from outselling the Genesis (and yes, Sega even leaned on the "you can see blood in our games" shtick). Why would Sony even flinch at considerably milder restrictions, especially ones that affect games that were never going to be huge commercial hits in the first place?

We need to give up this notion that forums like NeoGAF are indicative of how the larger gaming market will fare. They absolutely aren't. Most gamers won't even know that a game like DoAX3 exists, let alone care that Sony had the developer dial down the creepiness.

Actually no that bottom line helps you provide the top line, once that bottom line is gone you're going out of pocket to push games out and at a point this will become bad for them and that will be soon as more devs will back out and swap to Xbox or Switch for their shit since Sony wants to push stuff on them.

 

[Aurelian]

Actually no that bottom line helps you provide the top line, once that bottom line is gone you're going out of pocket to push games out and at a point this will become bad for them and that will be soon as more devs will back out and swap to Xbox or Switch for their shit since Sony wants to push stuff on them.

You missed the point, I'm afraid.

You think this will hurt Sony at some point, that developers will flock to the Xbox and Switch because of fewer restrictions and the PlayStation will be left struggling. Er, no. Sony's restrictions aren't heavy enough for this to make a significant dent in its catalog; it's not going to lose any of the blockbuster games (or mid-tier games, for that matter) that drive people to its platform. If you boycott Sony, it's just going to laugh while it continues to rack up massive sales from the much, much much larger group of people who don't care about this level of content screening.

 

[s_mirage]

It probably won't hurt their bottom line at all. Not at all.

Think about it: even when Nintendo was demanding heavy censorship for games in the early 1990s, that didn't stop the SNES from outselling the Genesis (and yes, Sega even leaned on the "you can see blood in our games" shtick). Why would Sony even flinch at considerably milder restrictions, especially ones that affect games that were never going to be huge commercial hits in the first place?

We need to give up this notion that forums like NeoGAF are indicative of how the larger gaming market will fare. They absolutely aren't. Most gamers won't even know that a game like DoAX3 exists, let alone care that Sony had the developer dial down the creepiness.

IIRC, the SNES didn't start outselling the Mega Drive/Genesis outside of Japan until late in the 16-bit generation, by which time the Playstation and Saturn had launched and Nintendo's "family policy" had been dropped. Nintendo didn't change course on their censorship policies for no reason: they were hurting their image and sales.

EDIT: IMO, the games censored at the moment probably don't have the mainstream appeal to hurt Sony significantly yet outside of Japan, but there is potential there if this nebulous policy starts getting applied to major releases too, especially western ones. Given that Koei Tecmo, a major publisher, doesn't seem to be exempt, I don't see any reason why works from other major publishers should expect to avoid censorship either. On the other hand, if western releases are not subject to the same strictness, Sony's going to have to answer some awkward questions about discrimination.

 

[Barakov]

IIRC, the SNES didn't start outselling the Mega Drive/Genesis outside of Japan until late in the 16-bit generation, by which time the Playstation and Saturn had launched and Nintendo's "family policy" had been dropped. Nintendo didn't change course on their censorship policies for no reason: they were hurting their image and sales.

EDIT: IMO, the games censored at the moment probably don't have the mainstream appeal to hurt Sony significantly yet outside of Japan, but there is potential there if this nebulous policy starts getting applied to major releases too, especially western ones. Given that Koei Tecmo, a major publisher, doesn't seem to be exempt, I don't see any reason why works from other major publishers should expect to avoid censorship either. On the other hand, if western releases are not subject to the same strictness, Sony's going to have to answer some awkward questions about discrimination.

The biggest problem with these things is when they start to snowball. First it starts with one thing that only a small amount of people care about and then it starts to spread everything.

I expect Sony to change their tune once it starts to hurt their bottom line. Their financials are far more important than whatever brownie points they might get from their censoring this or that.

 

[Blam]

You missed the point, I'm afraid.

You think this will hurt Sony at some point, that developers will flock to the Xbox and Switch because of fewer restrictions and the PlayStation will be left struggling. Er, no. Sony's restrictions aren't heavy enough for this to make a significant dent in its catalog; it's not going to lose any of the blockbuster games (or mid-tier games, for that matter) that drive people to its platform. If you boycott Sony, it's just going to laugh while it continues to rack up massive sales from the much, much much larger group of people who don't care about this level of content screening.

I mean it isn't going to be instant, but it will happen if not at the end of this generation then at the beginning of the next one. It only takes one, or in this case multiple, and really it's the more and more they censor it slowly becomes a bigger problem. It will hurt the bottom line just not instantly,

Sure obviously with IP like spiderman no shit sony is gonna sell stacks no matter what. I can see that being a system seller all the way till Q3 2019.

I expect Sony to change their tune once it starts to hurt their bottom line. Their financials are far more important than whatever brownie points they might get from their censoring this or that.

Yes this too, everyone forgets the only reason nobody bought Sony/Playstation was because of the PS4 launch. It's success literally saved them from bankruptcy. Before their launch, their insurance was failing, the TVs, Phones, Cameras.

All their revenue sources ran them dry and Playstation was their saving grace.

 

[Aurelian]

I mean it isn't going to be instant, but it will happen if not at the end of this generation then at the beginning of the next one. It only takes one, or in this case multiple, and really it's the more and more they censor it slowly becomes a bigger problem. It will hurt the bottom line just not instantly,

Sure obviously with IP like spiderman no shit sony is gonna sell stacks no matter what. I can see that being a system seller all the way till Q3 2019.

You still don't understand: it's not going to make a dent at all.

As I noted earlier, people on forums like this tend to have an outsized belief in how much they represent the market. You think the hue and cry here is indicative of a serious backlash that will leave Sony reeling; the reality is that this doesn't even show up on Sony's radar. The company really, really isn't concerned by a bunch of entitled guys complaining that they can't masturbate to virtual girls as effectively as they'd like.

 

[Blam]

You still don't understand: it's not going to make a dent at all.

As I noted earlier, people on forums like this tend to have an outsized belief in how much they represent the market. You think the hue and cry here is indicative of a serious backlash that will leave Sony reeling; the reality is that this doesn't even show up on Sony's radar. The company really, really isn't concerned by a bunch of entitled guys complaining that they can't masturbate to virtual girls as effectively as they'd like.

I never said the hue and cry here was indicative of loss of sales and loss of users. I said the Japanese gamers have publicly come out on their Japanese news site comments, and also on weibo (japanese twitter). It's not a small group of users that are backlashing this, I could care less about how GAF/ERA represents gaming they barely count for anything.

As much as you don't care about it in Japan weebs matter a lot they buy a metric fuckload of games and account for a large portion of game sales and console sales. Whatever happens in Japan usually is also a sign of what is going to come here.

 

[Aurelian]

I never said the hue and cry here was indicative of loss of sales and loss of users. I said the Japanese gamers have publicly come out on their Japanese news site comments, and also on weibo (japanese twitter). It's not a small group of users that are backlashing this, I could care less about how GAF/ERA represents gaming they barely count for anything.

As much as you don't care about it in Japan weebs matter a lot they buy a metric fuckload of games and account for a large portion of game sales and console sales. Whatever happens in Japan usually is also a sign of what is going to come here.

Weibo is actually a Chinese social network, but never mind that.

You say it's not a small group, but people kvetching in news comments and on social networks don't necessarily represent a large, influential demographic, either. You'd have to quantify it, and I'm not sure you can. Remember, overly entitled gamers are very loud, but there's rarely a bite to back up the bark.

Besides, do you really think they're going to boycott the PlayStation, the clearly dominant TV console in Japan? Or that somewhat smaller sales for a few non-blockbusters are going to make Sony rethink its policy? Now, the near-universal backlash against the company's restrictions on cross-platform play, that generated results; I don't expect Sony to even bother acknowledging the issue in this case.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Besides, do you really think they're going to boycott the PlayStation, the clearly dominant TV console in Japan?

It's really not the case anymore.

The PS4's performance in Japan was disastrous compared to other Sony consoles, the only reason it wasn't more blatant was that it had for competition the Wii U (selling similar numbers as the PS4 in Japan, 10k weekly and some niche games sell more than that, just think about that for a moment) and the Xbox One selling in the single digits. And now the Switch is actually successful.

As for the PS Vita while still doing better than the West, it still can't hold a candle to the 3DS's performance and a far cry from the PSP (which had troubled beginnings but was propelled by Capcom's Monster Hunter series). Sony's faith in the Japanese market is so weak they cancelled most first party projects for the Vita and moved them to mobile phones instead, then announced the Vita is discontinued with no real successor.
The PS VR was mainly propped by the same developers as the Vita, and weak Sony support, and there have been launch period shortages despite the relatively small demand, because Sony produced for other regions than Japan instead.

What will do in Sony more than anything else is the hostility to all third party developers (not just the fanservice developers are affected by the removal of the existing Japanese lot check process because respect, or having to pay for multiple rating systems as a Japan special treatment, and deal with an unpredictable approval process) which isn't really making the console that has lukewarm sales more appealing since the Japanese market never cared about graphics above all else that much (hence the success of the PS2, or mobile phones) and there are alternate platforms without those negatives and artificial hurdles (Steam, Switch, 3DS, mobile) that still provide equivalent market growth potential in Japan.
Capcom gave up on the PlayStation ecosystem because of approval sheninagans and couldn't care less about the wasted market potential, and only came back because Sony bankrolled World. But can Sony fix all of its screwups in the future just bankrolling games? It worked so well for Microsoft in the X360 era.

 

[iconmaster]

You still don't understand: it's not going to make a dent at all.

As I noted earlier, people on forums like this tend to have an outsized belief in how much they represent the market.

For sure, yet... all the "hue and cry" over Fortnite cross-progression did result in a big Sony policy shift. As far as I know, sales were never in question -- there was no substantial movement to stop buying the PS4 over it. It was purely noise... yet it worked.

So who knows.

 

[Blam]

Weibo is actually a Chinese social network, but never mind that.

You say it's not a small group, but people kvetching in news comments and on social networks don't necessarily represent a large, influential demographic, either. You'd have to quantify it, and I'm not sure you can. Remember, overly entitled gamers are very loud, but there's rarely a bite to back up the bark.

Besides, do you really think they're going to boycott the PlayStation, the clearly dominant TV console in Japan? Or that somewhat smaller sales for a few non-blockbusters are going to make Sony rethink its policy? Now, the near-universal backlash against the company's restrictions on cross-platform play, that generated results; I don't expect Sony to even bother acknowledging the issue in this case.

Yes I can easily see them dropping the Playstation. The Switch is going up hard and it hasn't slowed down. Those smaller sales will rack up once it starts being more then just censored asian games and western games get censored as well. What if CP 2077 gets censored?

It's not a small group of people like ERA or GAF I'd wager a coupled hundred thousand people and that's a couple million dollars even if you count one sale per person. You know what else? Sony's losing sales in Japan and Nintendo hasn't slowed down.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Rainbow Six Siege was to be censored in all versions of the game citing the need to change it in China, despite that regional versions are already separate and different SKUs making the global censorship not "needed" at all.
After the community spoke out, the active player numbers plummeted, the game slammed with negative reviews, and a radio silence by Ubisoft and gaming journalism either ignoring or defending this practice... Ubisoft backtracked on the changes.

It's however unclear what the Asian and/or Chinese release will be like, whether that means the only reason the censorship was dropped was the censors not deeming it a priority rather than keeping censorship regional, what this means for future entries, and whether Tencent having bought shares from Ubisoft to save them from Vivendi's takeover has anything to do with this.

It is a small win for whoever cares anymore for this game and was upset by the changes.

On November 2nd, we shared an article detailing the Aesthetic Changes coming with Operation Wind Bastion. Since then, our community and players have raised concerns.
We have spent the last week working on solutions and have decided that we will be reverting all aesthetic changes.

When are these changes being reverted in the international version?
We will begin reverting these changes alongside the launch of Wind Bastion so no player is impacted; we ask you to be patient if some elements remain. We will carefully remove them all to the best of our ability considering the short timeframe and with the lowest impact on the season’s launch date and our build stability.

Is there any impact on the next season?
Our intentions are to keep any impact to a minimum, though such changes may lead to a season delay and/or some instability as our testing and debug times are shortened. We will monitor our tests closely and keep you updated on any new development on the matter via our Rainbow Six Twitter.

Why are you changing strategy now?
We have been following the conversation with our community closely over the past couple of weeks, alongside regular discussions with our internal Ubisoft team, and we want to ensure that the experience for all our players, especially those that have been with us from the beginning, remains as true to the original artistic intent as possible.

What can I expect as a current player based in Asia?
Current players in Asian territories can continue enjoying the same game as the other players.

 

[Thiagosc777]

Rainbow Six Siege was to be censored in all versions of the game citing the need to change it in China, despite that regional versions are already separate and different SKUs making the global censorship not "needed" at all.
After the community spoke out, the active player numbers plummeted, the game slammed with negative reviews, and a radio silence by Ubisoft and gaming journalism either ignoring or defending this practice... Ubisoft backtracked on the changes.

It's however unclear what the Asian and/or Chinese release will be like, whether that means the only reason the censorship was dropped was the censors not deeming it a priority rather than keeping censorship regional, what this means for future entries, and whether Tencent having bought shares from Ubisoft to save them from Vivendi's takeover has anything to do with this.

It is a small win for whoever cares anymore for this game and was upset by the changes.

They probably noticed a drop in player count after they announced the censorship.

 

[JunkerWoland]

Sony can rightfully act as a moral gatekeeper for its platform, but making things more difficult for developers to release products on their system and alienating a group of existing customers has the long-term potential to do more harm than good. Sony may never address the issue, but consumers actively voicing their concerns, spreading awareness of the situation, and exercising their purchasing power accordingly will tell developers in what form, and from what outlets, they want to see games like Senran Kagura, DoA: Xtreme, and even console-edited versions of visual novels.

 

[Aurelian]

Yes I can easily see them dropping the Playstation. The Switch is going up hard and it hasn't slowed down. Those smaller sales will rack up once it starts being more then just censored asian games and western games get censored as well. What if CP 2077 gets censored?

It's not a small group of people like ERA or GAF I'd wager a coupled hundred thousand people and that's a couple million dollars even if you count one sale per person. You know what else? Sony's losing sales in Japan and Nintendo hasn't slowed down.

So if we take that figure at face value, doesn't that make me right?

For reference: Sony's PlayStation division generated $4.9 billion in sales last quarter with a profit of $800 million. It actually raised its forecasts based on how optimistic things look, with the PlayStation group taking a crucial role in that. In other words, Sony executives probably have bathroom breaks that lose more worth than those people. And yeah, the Switch is rapidly catching up in Japan, but that was happening well before this whole censorship non-issue flared up. That's a reflection of Nintendo having a great system with great games at a more accessible price, not because Nintendo is a stalwart opponent to censorship (it isn't).

Also, please don't deal in hypotheticals., especially ones that have no real supporting evidence. It's highly unlikely that a game like Cyberpunk 2077 will be censored, and if it is, we can address it then, not now. You're basically making a slippery slope argument that assumes the worst outcome despite no indications it's headed that way.

 

[CatCouch]

My best guess here is Sony doesn't see Japan as a market worth dealing with. The PS4 didn't sell that well in Japan from the last numbers I saw. I think it was like 7-8 million? The Switch is around 5 million already. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I think it's a mistake to burn bridges with Japanese developers like this but Sony probably doesn't want the games anyway, they bring negative attention due to our gaming press. A similar thing happened with Nintendo being accused of sexualizing children with Xenoblade Chronicles X. I don't know if this will last as Nintendo seems to have stopped the censorship of their games in the west but Sony isn't Nintendo.

This also makes me wonder what counts as a slippery slope. From my perspective this is the middle of a slippery slope. The first point things started to slide for me was when I heard Super Seducer was blocked from release back in February. Since then multiple games I was going to buy have been edited, some delayed for edits, or straight up blocked from release. It's progressively gotten worse so I see no reason to believe it will get better, especially with no statement from Sony.

With Nintnedo's recent censorship issues it went the same way. First it was a few outfit changes in Xenoblade and Fatal Frame (and some other games like Bravely Default) but it kept escalating up to things like removing the head petting mode from Fire Emblem Fates and changing the story around in Tokyo Mirage Sessions. The amount of changes in those games are hard to follow since there's so many. It ruined them for me. Sony has already surpassed Nintendo's censorship by blocking games. The slipery slope is already in effect for me, the results of Sony's policies have been disastrous for the games I buy. I don't trust Sony and have pulled my support.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Wargroove, an Advance Wars clone, had complaints in conventions and by some twitter users about the dog units in the game... dying (recoiling backwards in their stunned frame then vanishing in a white poof of smoke). Which is unthinkable in a war simulator. So it was changed to the dogs running away unharmed. Some very lively "conversations" took place at the company leading to this change.

Some traditional advocates for game censorship are celebrating this change as well.



The old animation is the sort of "death animation" Disney would order developers to put in the NES days for licensed games, but in this day and age even that sort of thing is too violent for current year. This new incident comes just in time for the renewed interest in discussing the danger of violent videogames and how they are problematic (that's totally not the same discussion as the nineties media scare)

It also brings back the debate of games as art. What did those at the company who wanted this animation to remain wanted? How did they feel about the worth of their artistic vision versus twitter outrage? How much worth does it have in the grand scheme of things compared to games as a commercial product?
Or does "games as art" only stop when defending barely interactive narrative-focused experiences all about an abstract "artistic" message often with a very obvious political goal, as what should be the new, then only allowed standard of the video gaming medium going forward? When forcing artists in corners like these to "sanitize" their art for commercial appeal, can it be called art anymore?