Sony censorship policy making Japanese devs censor themselves even in Japan - Sensationalist Headlines

https://nichegamer.com/2018/10/27/new-sony-censorship-policy-is-forcing-even-japanese-developers-to-censor-themselves-in-japan/ A new policy from Sony Interactive Entertainment is forcing Japanese developers to censor games in not only western regions but now even in their home country. Japanese developer light recently held a live broadcast (via Hachima) where they confirmed Sony’s new and aggressive policy against sexual themes in seemingly only Japanese-made games is actually preventing them from releasing their latest visual novel. The game, Silverio Trinity (pictured), is their latest visual novel opus – and it has sexual themes in it. Developer light noted that Sony is getting strict with their approval process, especially regarding sexual themes. The developer noted they were hoping to release the game for PlayStation 4 soon after New Year’s as development on the game is complete, however, Sony has been reluctant to approve the game. Furthermore, Sony is confusingly asking Japanese developers to plead their approval only in English, making the process even more difficult for developers whose staff only speak or write in Japanese. The developer noted if they were to release the game for Windows PC (via Steam) they could release it next week. While the western releases of Japanese games with sexual content have been censored for decades, this is the first time we’re hearing of a platform holder forcing Japanese developers to censor their game for release in their home country. This new policy from Sony forced publisher PQube to cancel the western release for Omega Labyrinth Z, as well as Marvelous to remove a reoccurring feature in their latest Senran Kagura game, Senran Kagura Re:Newal. Other Japanese games have been censored for release in Japan as well, like the PlayStation 4 version of another adult visual novel. Nora, Princess, and Stray Cat. While the PC, PS Vita, and Switch versions were released entirely uncensored, while the PlayStation 4 version has giant white censor streaks over the anime girls’ naughty bits. Western made games with gratuitous sexual themes, like Red Dead Redemption or Sony’s various David Cage games, seemingly remain outside this new policy.

These fools don't realize that VNs and porn games are the only reason the PSP and PSV even sold.

incase your curious about how bad the censorship is getting on the ps4 actual shot https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/2246/f9a012ff-f2f7-4131-a008-bcd44f70cc9a/image.png

Sony is confusingly asking Japanese developers to plead their approval only in English, making the process even more difficult for developers whose staff only speak or write in Japanese. Am I misremembering SIE relocated their corporate headquarters to the US? That's the only explanation I have for this.

Sounds like someone from a Western branch that is against this sort of stuff spontaneously seized a high control position in Japan to try to "attack the problem at the root". Hilariously, this means that Nintendo has less censorship than Sony now.

For reference, here is an comparison of the same game on PS4/Switch/PC: https://twitter.com/uitachibana/status/1055308002520117253 Yes, the post-apocalyptic one is the PS4 version. Looks like Sony only wants AAA Hollywood productions on their console.

They censored the fucking navel what year is it

To go off tangent a bit, I'll never quite understand why Japanese people have such difficulties with English, and yet decide to use English words in absolutely every possible context.

Their English classes in Japanese schools are pretty much a joke from what I gather. Basically 'Memorize these things, but don't learn how it works.'. It's a bit like learning a bunch of words in Japanese, but not knowing how to assemble them into something coherent.

They think it sounds cool

Basically the same thing that every language does to every other language, but seen from the other side.

Games that we know that were affected so far: -Omega Labyrinth Z (Cancelled) -Senran Kagura Re:Newal (Delayed and censored) -Nora, Princess, and Stray Cat (Censored) -Silverio Trinity (Censored) -Nekopara Vol.1 (Delayed, rumored to be affected by this) There are rumors that the recent Warriors Orochi 4 was affected as well, but looks that was a simple bug/mistake.

I mean, if they didn't make trash anime games then maybe nobody would give a fuck, but since they can make them so easily and so quickly, just fucking censor them or stop letting them spew them out so much.

I wonder where this leaves Catherine: Full Body. It's only coming out for PS4 and Vita.

I personally don't think that Sony gonna risk to affect an Atlus title, they aren't a small company like the others.

Ironically, the hypercensored version seems like it's hiding an actual naked body, like the bubbling collage photos So thanks for letting that to the imagination

It's amazing how Nintendo has been pretty lax with things normally disassociated with their past like enabling multiplatform and sexual and other potentially offensive themes while Sony has been doing the complete opposite. The Switch has already been giving the PS4 a run for it's money in Japan, and taking even more of what the consumer wants away from them ain't fucking helping.

Did Sony corporate get taken over by the "all anime is gross pedophile shit" faction Cause that's the only reason I can see for letting edgy shit through with western games but shitting all over even the more tame representations of the female body in these Japanese titles. This is fucking terrible for Japanese devs too since Sony basically owns the entirety of the console market in the region and PC gaming isn't nearly as popular.

American Imperialism strikes again!

We truly live in the worst timeline

Ah, but PC gaming has been very much on the rise in Japan lately. Good timing as well.

I can see the strap of the bikini string, and it really is ruining my immersion. I think it needs to be more censored so it's easier to pretend she's in the buff.

Keep in mind that so far this move also seems to strictly be against sexual content in Japanese games. Never the gory content, and for some reason no western devs have been complaining about anything like this or the like. It might literally be a corporate attack on niche Japanese titles.

Who is this censorship for? The people who buy vns are going to be disappointed and it's not like it's benefiting the kids since there's plenty of violence uncensored

Oh, just the same way that people who don't know a lick of French say "touche" in response to a rebuttal, "faux pas" to describe mistakes, and so on. The use of foreign language does not necessitate thorough knowledge of the source language. Here's a list that gets into several foreign words as used in Japanese.

I just don't understand the motive behind Sony screwing over the people that have supported and kept them in the games business for so long

I just wonder, how much English media does the average Japanese kid/teen consume? Didn't mean to offend anyone I really didn't like English classes, and I couldn't speak english at all during primary school because I didn't want to, but like so many others I learnt through media and games.

You do realize that just because you dislike something it doesn't mean everybody else does. Also your logic doesn't make any sense. How does the quality of something determine if it gets to be censored or not? Also why the scare quotes around "game"? This is a genre of interactive media that is consumed by a very niche population that knows perfectly well what's going on, there is nobody getting scammed.

... The first one look even more sexual. Have these people never heard of bubbling? A photo editing technique which uses clever positioning of transparent circles in an opaque color layer to trick the mind into thinking a person in a photo is naked when they really aren't.

This is my guess. After all, we've seen these same kinds of people who've been having all these - ahem - "grievances" over sexual content in video games the past few years manage to weasel their way into influential positions in the industry (after all, if you can con your way to an audience with the United Nations over your petty video game slapfight, then infiltrating the unscrupulous, shareholder-beholden game industry itself is child's play), and it seems that someone has now taken it upon themselves to abuse that power to force their own value systems onto other cultures. Really, I don't care one way or the other about sexual stuff in video games - not my bag - but all this move will do is piss people off. Japan's always been pretty lax about this stuff and it really isn't hurting anybody by letting people have their fanservice. I've seen men and women both enjoy this stuff equally and even share their enjoyment with each other. No one who isn't acting irrationally should have a problem with this so long as everyone involved are responsible adults. I hate to say this because it's sounds callous and like something you'd find on 4chan or the sketchier subreddits out there, but this kind of material is so utterly harmless that I actually agree that the only people who find this stuff "problematic" are either ladies with a history of envy towards women they see as more attractive and have decided to take that jealousy out on "nerd media" since it's an easy target, or men who see this lashing out and figure that by kissing up to this behavior, they can woo those ladies themselves. Again, I don't even have a horse in this race (and even if I did, there are easier ways to find fanservice than obscure video games), but this should be such a non-issue and "live and let live" situation that there's really no other motive besides someone being jealous of others enjoying themselves. For the Japanese audience, this must just seem completely out of the blue: "Who do these Americans think they are to suddenly come to our country and try to boss us around over our own media for our own consumption, why do they even have an issue with it in the first place, and why now when we've been doing this for decades?" And yeah, it's ironic that Sony of all people are the ones who've fallen victim to this since pretty much every PlayStation system - console and especially handheld - has been a haven for these kinds of games up until now. Then again, for me this is just more evidence that PlayStation shouldn't have obtained nearly as much of the control that it did this generation. So much for the "good guy" console, huh, guys? Take this back to E3 2013 and show it around and tell people that #GreatnessAwaits.