Sony forces Japanese developers to censor sexual content - For Japanese audiences too.

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BrokenWokenBespoken said:
Given how Catherine went through unscathed, I think Atlus actually has an understanding of what Sony sees as acceptable and unacceptable. But for smaller devs, they don't have the benefit of the doubt or the kind of influence that has Sony look the other way. The big issue always have been for Japan that so long as they obey the spirit of the law with CERO, they let you get away with everything from tramp tattoos on their wombs to totally not sex minigames with a lot of doublespeak.

Sony pretty much flat out said no to these as it made the console look immature and low brow. They can cope with the tough social issues involving sex but anything that in their eyes is the kind of immature fanservice is having Sony clamp down like a bunch of idiots who after one incident makes that hard resolution to go "never again"

Of course Japan, not believing or knowing subtlety decided to go full hammer on what they believed is problematic. Unable to abandon the PS4 given how once you cut off the business relationship it is hard to mend it.
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I think Atlus just gets a pass because of how successful they are.
 
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BrokenWokenBespoken said:
Given how Catherine went through unscathed, I think Atlus actually has an understanding of what Sony sees as acceptable and unacceptable. But for smaller devs, they don't have the benefit of the doubt or the kind of influence that has Sony look the other way. The big issue always have been for Japan that so long as they obey the spirit of the law with CERO, they let you get away with everything from tramp tattoos on their wombs to totally not sex minigames with a lot of doublespeak.

Sony pretty much flat out said no to these as it made the console look immature and low brow. They can cope with the tough social issues involving sex but anything that in their eyes is the kind of immature fanservice is having Sony clamp down like a bunch of idiots who after one incident makes that hard resolution to go "never again"

Of course Japan, not believing or knowing subtlety decided to go full hammer on what they believed is problematic. Unable to abandon the PS4 given how once you cut off the business relationship it is hard to mend it.
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It may be low-brow, but I find Sony's actions to be more immature than the content they're trying to stop -- never mind asking Japanese devs to contest in English. If it's fun it really shouldn't matter its content. These are toys, they aren't manifestos or things to be taken seriously as a statement or indictment of our society. The idea Sony wants to be the "mature" one while Nintendo so far has embraced a hands off approach to lewd themes is hilarious to me.

Short of violating any laws Sony shouldn't be too concerned and Sony's sense of standard screams a child wanting to be taken seriously more than the weebs who enjoy these games. Sure you got idiots like KiA and such, but there's a powerhouse corporation making efforts to take away what they enjoy. Of course they could always just be part of the PC Master Race, but that too is expensive and seems silly to not at least attempt a voice of concern before such a leap.

You're always gonna have people that enjoy fan service, I myself get a laugh but otherwise would just download an H-Game if I wanted to jerk off. You might as well make money off them, the platform is large enough and otherwise the groups tend to overlap more than remain separate. You're just gonna lose sales than make more.

Given the types of censorship China is pushing, Sony already separates their market place. The problem is region locking and the lack thereof. China still has to worry a disc might come into port, the compromise is to deny discs for problematic games so China need not fret. Some Chinese might make extra country accounts, but I imagine the solution to that is easier than trying to stop discs being smuggled.
 
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SiccDicc said:
It may be low-brow, but I find Sony's actions to be more immature than the content they're trying to stop -- never mind asking Japanese devs to contest in English. If it's fun it really shouldn't matter its content. These are toys, they aren't manifestos or things to be taken seriously as a statement or indictment of our society. The idea Sony wants to be the "mature" one while Nintendo so far has embraced a hands off approach to lewd themes is hilarious to me.

Short of violating any laws Sony shouldn't be too concerned and Sony's sense of standard screams a child wanting to be taken seriously more than the weebs who enjoy these games. Sure you got idiots like KiA and such, but there's a powerhouse corporation making efforts to take away what they enjoy. Of course they could always just be part of the PC Master Race, but that too is expensive and seems silly to not at least attempt a voice of concern before such a leap.

You're always gonna have people that enjoy fan service, I myself get a laugh but otherwise would just download an H-Game if I wanted to jerk off. You might as well make money off them, the platform is large enough and otherwise the groups tend to overlap more than remain separate. You're just gonna lose sales than make more.

Given the types of censorship China is pushing, Sony already separates their market place. The problem is region locking and the lack thereof. China still has to worry a disc might come into port, the compromise is to deny discs for problematic games so China need not fret. Some Chinese might make extra country accounts, but I imagine the solution to that is easier than trying to stop discs being smuggled.
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Switch has a healthy enough first party that Nintendo kind of stopped caring about what is hurting their consoles since their franchises are doing better than ever and now that they are in the mobile market where pandering is a MUST, they decided to follow the money.

But Sony doesn't have that benefit of the doubt, their PS3/PSV pre-Gio Corsi localization efforts for Japanese was notoriously weak, being mostly localizations of really bad games who's main gimmick is the fanservice and how to deliver it. it gave us wonderful hits like Neptunia and Vahalla knights 3, it was also the last couple of times that big journalists bothered to review these niche Japanese Games but the damage was well damn done.

And as for the PC market, you can't market the PS4 Limited edition with collectible Cheesecake Cards to sell to these weebs
 
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SiccDicc said:
It may be low-brow, but I find Sony's actions to be more immature than the content they're trying to stop -- never mind asking Japanese devs to contest in English. If it's fun it really shouldn't matter its content. These are toys, they aren't manifestos or things to be taken seriously as a statement or indictment of our society. The idea Sony wants to be the "mature" one while Nintendo so far has embraced a hands off approach to lewd themes is hilarious to me.

Short of violating any laws Sony shouldn't be too concerned and Sony's sense of standard screams a child wanting to be taken seriously more than the weebs who enjoy these games. Sure you got idiots like KiA and such, but there's a powerhouse corporation making efforts to take away what they enjoy. Of course they could always just be part of the PC Master Race, but that too is expensive and seems silly to not at least attempt a voice of concern before such a leap.

You're always gonna have people that enjoy fan service, I myself get a laugh but otherwise would just download an H-Game if I wanted to jerk off. You might as well make money off them, the platform is large enough and otherwise the groups tend to overlap more than remain separate. You're just gonna lose sales than make more.

Given the types of censorship China is pushing, Sony already separates their market place. The problem is region locking and the lack thereof. China still has to worry a disc might come into port, the compromise is to deny discs for problematic games so China need not fret. Some Chinese might make extra country accounts, but I imagine the solution to that is easier than trying to stop discs being smuggled.
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My best guess is Sony is trying to kill like 8000 birds with a single stone, they probably want to be taken "more seriously", appease CERO, make SJW peepees stiff, and widen their reach in places like Saudi and China all at the same time, regardless of how many faces they need to step on to make that happen.
 
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BrokenWokenBespoken said:
Switch has a healthy enough first party that Nintendo kind of stopped caring about what is hurting their consoles since their franchises are doing better than ever and now that they are in the mobile market where pandering is a MUST, they decided to follow the money.

But Sony doesn't have that benefit of the doubt, their PS3/PSV pre-Gio Corsi localization efforts for Japanese was notoriously weak, being mostly localizations of really bad games who's main gimmick is the fanservice and how to deliver it. it gave us wonderful hits like Neptunia and Vahalla knights 3, it was also the last couple of times that big journalists bothered to review these niche Japanese Games but the damage was well damn done.

And as for the PC market, you can't market the PS4 Limited edition with collectible Cheesecake Cards to sell to these weebs
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No, no cheesecake, but you can collect digital cards and badges. Even backgrounds. Then you can offer a digital artbook you can carry with you wherever - like the bathroom - 3D printing schematics, soundtracks, bloopers, dakimakura images to print at whatever onlines they got, etc.

Maybe they prefer physical cards, but seems more convenient going PC. I dunno, I'm not much of a weeb.

And as for journalists... Nobody gives a shit about them anymore. If corporate still believes they're relevant then a crash is inevitable.

Also, I actually liked Valhalla Knights 3. Just wish Marvelous waited for their definitive version to localize it. It was a fun dungeon romp for me.
purpleboy said:
My best guess is Sony is trying to kill like 8000 birds with a single stone, they probably want to be taken "more seriously", appease CERO, make SJW peepees stiff, and widen their reach in places like Saudi and China all at the same time, regardless of how many faces they need to step on to make that happen.
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Unless something has changed, CERO has a... I guess healthier idea of sexuality, it's blood and gore that they're freaked out about. China is basically ESRB and CERO combined, no sexy, no gore, also no insult dear leader.

I can understand wanting to reach China, but Saudi Arabia seems bizarre... If only because of population difference.

It just seems funny given they embraced "fun first" as the PS4 launched against Xbox One - even meming on Microsoft - and this shift in attitude more matches up with their change in HQ location which comes with its own culture shift. However, producers and creators have admitted China is a big problem now that they've opened up their markets.
 
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SiccDicc said:
Unless something has changed, CERO has a... I guess healthier idea of sexuality, it's blood and gore that they're freaked out about. China is basically ESRB and CERO combined, no sexy, no gore, also no insult dear leader.

I can understand wanting to reach China, but Saudi Arabia seems bizarre... If only because of population difference.

It just seems funny given they embraced "fun first" as the PS4 launched against Xbox One - even meming on Microsoft - and this shift in attitude more matches up with their change in HQ location which comes with its own culture shift. However, producers and creators have admitted China is a big problem now that they've opened up their markets.
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I just used Saudi as an example since they're not nearly as big as China, but still quite big and banned/heavily restricted the sale of several games, but yeah, China and western prudes are probably the most likely reasons, I made a bit of a false equivalence there
 
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purpleboy said:
I just used Saudi as an example since they're not nearly as big as China, but still quite big and banned/heavily restricted the sale of several games, but yeah, China and western prudes are probably the most likely reasons, I made a bit of a false equivalence there
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I wouldn't say it was false equivalency, Saudi Arabia is a force, I just don't know enough about their average spending power compared to the US and China.

That said I imagine Saudi Arabia is easier to please than China.
 
SiccDicc said:
I wouldn't say it was false equivalency, Saudi Arabia is a force, I just don't know enough about their average spending power compared to the US and China.

That said I imagine Saudi Arabia is easier to please than China.
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Probably because Saudi is fucking afraid of the US. Also, importing is probably easier in Saudi than in China, because piracy is less monitored and because Egypt and Jordan, their slightly more liberal allies are right there with ports presumably more open than mainland China's.
 
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God, This just makes me hope the Wii60 generation will come back next gen. If only Xbox will step it up more next gen.
 
Looks like Spike chuunsoft is the latest victim of Sony's policy like all the other devs who took advantage of the Vitabux

gematsu.com

Zanki Zero: Last Beginning details content additions and changes for western release - Gematsu

Spike Chunsoft has detailed content additions and changes for the western release of Zanki Zero: Last Beginning, its “non-stop survival RPG” developed by Lancarse. Here are the details: Content Additions The following additions are included in the localized release: Japanese Swimsuit DLC...
gematsu.com gematsu.com

As always you can count on the audience to scream in fury about how their precious fanservice is editted out and the press being silent while secretly smirking
 
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This is kind of a classic, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" thing. You already have an ESRB, and there haven't really been any complaints, so there's no real need to touch the policies.
 
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