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Sony New Censorship Of Everything


Dark_blade64

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10 hours ago, alpacaman said:

Sony executives probably wouldn't have made this choice if they didn't think it would benefit the company financially in the long term.

Nah, I'd stake my hat that they are simply silly jerks. There's literally no sense in censoring japanese-only games because of China, it doesn't work like that.

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15 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

This is so untrue though. All kinds of media outlets are traditionally involved in the "video games promote violence" fallacy. It's a cyclical source of sensationalist bullshit that has little to do with any kind of ideology, unless it involves scapegoating video games to detract from discussing actual societal issues. It's tabloid journalism above anything else. 

The pornography and sexual content in media are a prime topic for various consevative lobbies, like the one that celebrated Valve's move against anime games. They don't focus solely on games, but are also very consistent in their demands for censorship (unlike those "SJWs" - stances on pornography are extremely varied within the feminist movenent and its most harsh opponents are a bit of a dying breed). You'll find religious extremists at the frontline of every fight against sexual content and it's sadly that kind of mentality that drives the policies of many companies, especially in the US. Obviously, the left wing critique of female representation is also a factor, but it's not the feminists that dictated the puritanic approach to public representations of sexuality that is still so prevalent in the US. Some of them contribute to the problem, but not with the same consistency social conservatives do. 

Historically, it's true that conservative media and politicians have complained about sexual content and violence, but I haven't really noticed the sexual content complaints from them, since Mass Effect. On the other hand there's tons of people involved in the video game industry talking about how sexist Japan is on an ongoing basis. I find it hard to believe that Sony is going to change their policies for a couple church mom's or conservatives that don't play video games anyway, but when they're getting bad press within the industry itself, maybe.

As a PlayStation Vita owner I've been putting up with having the games I like being labeled sexist or creepy and getting bad press for years now. I could give you guys some examples if you like.

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And let's not forget how hypocritical the game industry can get in regards to sexual content too.  Sexual content in western-made games (The Witcher 3, Mass Effect ect.) is deemed ok, while sexual content in Japanese-made games immediately sets off alarm bells and the push for censorship.  Just what exactly is the logical mindset for this anyway?  It's like the west is just looking for an excuse to bash on Japanese media, creators and publishers.

Edited by Clockwork Loli
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1 hour ago, Clockwork Loli said:

And let's not forget how hypocritical the game industry can get in regards to sexual content too.  Sexual content in western-made games (The Witcher 3, Mass Effect ect.) is deemed ok, while sexual content in Japanese-made games immediately sets off alarm bells and the push for censorship.  Just what exactly is the logical mindset for this anyway?  It's like the west is just looking for an excuse to bash on Japanese media, creators and publishers.

Sony is just kinda doubling down on the violence too. What I've seen of what they're pushing as their biggest game is easily one of the most graphically violent ever made.

 

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3 hours ago, ciel_yuri said:

I find it hard to believe that Sony is going to change their policies for a couple church mom's or conservatives that don't play video games anyway, but when they're getting bad press within the industry itself, maybe.

This.

Conservative sectors have been putting pressure on the videogame industry for decades, blaming the sexual and violent content for all the school shootings, rape cases and pretty much any criminal act committed by young people. The industry never gave a fuck about it, and they just kept on releasing even more extreme content. Why should they care? Conservatives are nowadays mostly on the older side of the demographic spectrum, and those people are not their primary clients anyway. 

It's when they receive flak from that considerable fraction of the youth that are oversensitive about sexism and gender ideology, that they start to care. After all, most left extremist are very young and belong to fairly accomodated families: exactly the part of the population that is likely to buy console games. This reasoning would also explain why they get away with any violent content, but sexual content or slight nudity is a no no, wouldn't it? 

And don't freaking tell me that these people don't exist or don't have that big an impact. Everyday in my day to day life  I hear complaints of people with persecution complex about how everything around us objectifies women, about how any nudity or skimpy getup in movies should be banned, and even that the most wholesome romance novels and movies out there are sexist. 

Heck, this last month we even had all the controversy about this new a anime series, Goblin Slayer, where rape is depicted as a despicable and atrocious act and people in social media STILL went wild. I still recall cases like this, when the UN tried to ban hentai content, and how essentially Japan told them to mind their own business and care for the rights of actual real women (gosh that reply was so satisfying :isla:), or this other issue that pisses me off, as it lead to minori's website to be closed off to non japanese people and the company refusing to export their products for a long while, and even today, 9 years later, the website stays like that. 

 

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11 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

And don't freaking tell me that these people don't exist or don't have that big an impact. Everyday in my day to day life  I hear complaints of people with persecution complex about how everything around us objectifies women, about how any nudity or skimpy getup in movies should be banned, and even that the most wholesome romance novels and movies out there are sexist. 

Just ignore them.  They can influence the media, yes, but they don't have actual power to directly control the media themselves.  All they want is attention.

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4 minutes ago, Clockwork Loli said:

Just ignore them.  They can influence the media, yes, but they don't have actual power to directly control the media themselves.  All they want is attention.

Yeah.... I wouldn't be so sure. I'm an ardent supporter of democracy as a form of government, but for all its virtues, it's not without its flaws. When this ideology gets to infiltrate into the head politic parties and even the freaking UN, I wouldn't say they are that powerless. Sure, they supposedly cannot control the media, or at least the media that they don't own, but having control over most of it and the most prestigious ones, and most importantly, public education, is good enough to get a complete hold on the masses, as the history of any totalitarian government would tell you. 

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https://www.sankakucomplex.com/2018/11/01/nekopara-ps4-pussy-censorship-goes-too-far/

Well another example of Sony's censorship.

Guess I am not going to pick it up to see the replacement scenes then or I will just pick it up once I buy a switch, anyways sony just lost a sale.

Edited by bakauchuujin
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As for politic and religion, well let's try to avoid that kind of talk like mod Dergonu said. No comment in regard of minori site blocking other than in the end they decided to expand overseas after they almost bankrupt because of Supipara, and one of those comment did say 'I'm sure these websites will flourish now that it just alienated 90% of its fan base' which surely wouldn't lead to localization if the websites were flourished in the first place - there's a lot of issue that I want to say, but I figure better not (And I really mean it).

Back to topic, as for PS4 further censor in Nekopara, well whatever. If anything else at least the customer could change to either Switch or PC version if they really want to play Nekopara.

Edited by littleshogun
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14 hours ago, SaintOfVoid said:

steam´s current success, and even more so after its new "everything goes" policy, is what massively ticks chinese government officals off. Heard from many sources there, that this can´t and won´t go on any much longer. Makes you curious though how much a super-regulated/censored plattform will affect sales, especially those of western publishers who went/ are planning to go tri-language mode

Steam is launching "Steam China" as an almost separate software, kinda like how Battlenet has a special version just for china.

A chinese company by the name of Perfect World will be responsible for making sure the chinese steam remains PRC compliant.

So these news wont affect Western Steam.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/11/17451484/steam-china-announced-valve-perfect-world

PS: i hate the verge, but this article explains it very succinctly.

Edited by br4zil
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1 hour ago, br4zil said:

Steam is launching "Steam China" as an almost separate software, kinda like how Battlenet has a special version just for china.

A chinese company by the name of Perfect World will be responsible for making sure the chinese steam remains PRC compliant.

So these news wont affect Western Steam.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/11/17451484/steam-china-announced-valve-perfect-world

PS: i hate the verge, but this article explains it very succinctly.

that´s basically what i meant though. perfect world´s regulated steam version instead of the more openminded current one.  In a sense it will affect western publishers as many are starting to rely on those additional sales, excluding chinese speaking ones who live outside PRC. Even if publishers were to compile with [insert demanded changes], it´s quite likely a good amount of customers is going to feel cucked, eg. them reverting back to piracy. 

edit: don´t believe a possibly bad reputation is what they should fear though., like 99% of western customers do give a huge shit about a chinese version (sold in china) getting censored or not.

Edited by SaintOfVoid
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On 10/29/2018 at 6:15 AM, ShinRaikdou said:

Nintendo only censor their own games. Like Fire Emblem IF on 3ds and WiiU, Xenoblade (X and 2) and etc.

I'm not sure Xenoblade 2 was considered censored. All the fanservice stuff like breasts and butts are still there. Only the English translations was slighlty altered during some scenes. But if you play the game with the Japanese voices, then it wouldn't matter.

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Appearently Sony is getting even worse now (I haven't found an official statement from Sony, so there's a small probability of a bad translation or a mistake but the news seem legit):

-All communications and submissions between game companies and Sony are now filtered through their California branch, in English -- not just the censorship, any complaints about the censorship now have to go through the team performing the censorship.

-Visual Novel porting to Playstation is now prohibited outright, those that were already in production before the policy change happened will be allowed, but must be heavily censored.

-Sony has ended the policy of allowing publishers to use the "local rating system" but instead must use the full "Western Standard." In other words, instead of allowing Japanese published games in Japan to use the CERO rating system, all games on Playstation must adhere to ESRB, no matter where they're published.

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I guess I can say good job to Sony for making themselves meme material, and gathered some potentially angry gamer from their own homeland (Japan). Then again, even with this controversial news they probably wouldn't think about it too much and just keep going with their policy.

Edited by littleshogun
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1 hour ago, Stormwolf said:

Well, people will keep buying anyway, so it doesnt matter for them. Same as people bough vns on steam when it had its nazi regime.

While there were still people buying VNs from steam when they started trying to ban mildly sexual VNs, the backlash was quite large and made them reconsider and as such open up steam for actual sexual content. I am not saying that the same will happen with Sony, but I think using the steam suituation to say that backlash from people doesn't matter to the people running the platform seems odd.

Edited by bakauchuujin
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31 minutes ago, bakauchuujin said:

While there were still people buying VNs from steam when they started trying to ban mildly sexual VNs, the backlash was quite large and made them reconsider and as such open up steam for actual sexual content. I am not saying that the same will happen with Sony, but I think using the steam suituation to say that backlash from people doesn't matter to the people running the platform seems odd.

The minority complains while the majority silently purchases. 

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Just now, Stormwolf said:

The minority complains while the majority silently purchases. 

Ye but even a small amount of people screaming at the top of their lungs about something that the majority of gamers agree with them on isn't really good PR. Getting negative coverage can actually damage future sales, for instance Activision Blizzard has had massive stock drops after their last Blizzcon due to investors losing faith in their future due to all the negative PR they got for Diablo Imortal. Even if Diablo Imortal gets much more money that what is used to make it they might lose customers for other games because the negative press related to it and how it showcase how out of touch they are. For instance some people that maybe resub to WoW every once in a while to see if the game gets better, might see this as a red flag showing that they are too out of touch to actually make the game they want to play. If we bring this back to Sony, if people see Sony as someone who is unstable with censorship and may potentially start attacking AAA titles next, then people are likely going to go to their competetors the next console generation either in protest against censorship or to avoid potential problems of censorship, so ye what Sony are doing atm is just poor PR, the sales of the VNs might not hurt them, but the community backlash might.

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5 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Likely some feminist shit about objectifying women.

Is there actual evidence for this? If there is, please link the source. Otherwise, it's just a baseless accusation.

But yeah, Sony is definitely going too far with this. It is just borderline absurd, and it makes even their primary competitor Nintendo seem tame by comparison.

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