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

[UE 558]

Sucks that I’m kinda stuck with my PS4 as my sole 8th gen console, since I’m too broke to build a PC or get a Switch with my nonexistant engineering undergrad income. At least I can promise that I’m not getting PS5 or basically any SIE game after Death Stranding and Nioh 2 if Sony doesn’t stop their bullshit

 

[Marissa Moira]

Sucks that I’m kinda stuck with my PS4 as my sole 8th gen console, since I’m too broke to build a PC or get a Switch with my nonexistant engineering undergrad income. At least I can promise that I’m not getting PS5 or basically any SIE game after Death Stranding and Nioh 2 if Sony doesn’t stop their bullshit

None of the censored games require anything powerful to play.

You could buy the cheapest of cheap walmart pre-built gaming PCs and they would be able to run all the censored games at max settings.

Hell a good number of these games are on IOS.

 

[UE 558]

None of the censored games require anything powerful to play.

You could buy the cheapest of cheap walmart pre-built gaming PCs and they would be able to run all the censored games at max settings.

Hell a good number of these games are on IOS.

I’m not into Senran or VNs, it’s just Sony’s scumminess that bothers me. And like I’ve said over 9000 times, it especially bothers me since I still like Uncharted, Spidey, Bloodborne, Horizon, Last Guardian, Grav Rush, SOTC HD, etc and want to support the devs who made these fantastic products

 

[Marissa Moira]

I’m not into Senran or VNs, it’s just Sony’s scumminess that bothers me. And like I’ve said over 9000 times, it especially bothers me since I still like Uncharted, Spidey, Bloodborne, Horizon, Last Guardian, Grav Rush, SOTC HD, etc and want to support the devs who made these fantastic products

Honestly I would not be all that concerned. There's clearly some pushback on the policy inside of Sony because it has not touched any of the golden geese and if it was leftist dangerhairs they would be gunning for shit like Persona and Final Fantasy. if it's true that it's just one or two low/mid level employees pushing this policy, I would give it a few months. Sony tends to shuffle many people around like Disney does, they're always hiring and they're always firing too. if they're not Kathleen Kennedy levels of being a face of the company this is all going to blow over because they're not entrenched.

The China deal should be happening before the PS5 launches and might be as soon as this quarter. It's going to take 8-12 months to manufacture and assemble the components for all the playstation 5s.

Early when the Weeb Wars began, I mentioned that there was murmurings that this may be tied to Sony's seemingly-increasing censorship of the PS4 console. This didn't turn out to be the case (thank Godjesus Bearchrist), but there's been a few developments on that front that have been, if anything, even more Autistic, so courage.

Spoiler: A Primer For Newfags

For the uninitiated, Sony's gotten increasingly draconian with censorship of cleavage and fanservice of any kind on the PS4, to the point of forcing even Japanese-only games with no intended western release to submit their games for review to Sony of America's review board - in English, and during American business hours - to get approval on Sony's platform.

The end result of this has been a host of games that had no problem making it onto the PS4 in the past (such as the Senran Kagura series) now being completely unable to without blanket censorship, with weeb games being targetted specifically, seemingly in an effort to do an end-run around Japanese devs who wouldn't bend the knee to the shrieking mob.

More recently, it's been getting worse and worse, with Atlus bitching about it Sony's policies openly and suggesting they're going to move to the PC and Switch, and Senran Kagura's series creator getting so pissed that he's elected to leave Marvelous and take Senran Kagura with him.

About five days ago, Sony finally deigned to put out a press-release, and specifically admitting that they were cracking down on anything remotely sexual due to #MeToo. I won't link to the WSJ for reasons obvious (namely the fact that their site runs like candy-coated shit and won't allow archiving), but there was another party they blamed in the press release that immediately set off about 40 red flags for me, and presumably everyone else with two functioning neurons still firing: they blamed Gamergate.

View attachment 739170

There is exactly two reasons GG is brought up anywhere these days: as a point of historical relevance, or by asshole culture warriors who insist it's still a thing four years after the campaign ended. Seeing GG get mentioned in a press release is pretty much an international powerleveling symbol. Unless you're doing it to establish context, you're doing it as part of a virtue signal, and the implications of that pretty much speak for themselves. After all, if ever there was a reason to fire up the Internet Autism Machine and see if there was more going on with Sony, it was this.

While there's been nothing concrete so far, what we have gotten is a number of anonymous leaks setting up some pretty outstanding allegations that seem to be backed by several outside of Sony who have stated that it seems legit. So as ever, take this with the fact that until actual evidence drops, we're operating firmly within the realm of hearsay. That said, what did drop was some pretty outrageous shit:

The first allegation is that this shit began at Sony in 2016 soonafter its headquartering its American branch in California. Because apparently that state has supplanted Florida as the land from which all evil flows or at least for a period of time takes residence. The second allegation is directly connected to the first, which is that all of these policies you're seeing now are being put forward by two specific employees at Sony's standards and practices office. I'm still trying to get names to potentially confirm on that one.

The third allegation is that the policy being cited to censor games does not actually exist in written form. There are no written guidelines on what is and is not covered under the policy, and ergo, no actual listings of what a game dev might do or not do under said policy. If that sounds familiar to you, that's exactly what's done by several major social media companies so they can be openly biased in their policy enforcement. This functionally means that games are being denied certification based on qualifications that Sony's standards and practices office is refusing to detail.

The final allegation is that Sony is not alone in this shit, and they're being enabled by certain publishers and localizing departments stateside. Unlike the other allegations on this list, this one we can confirm to a degree: We know the latter is true due to the clusterfuck that was Treehouse and the Alison Rapp scandal, and we can infer that the latter is also true due to things like SK's series creator leaving Marvelous because they were trying to clean up SK so as to release PS-exclusive titles.

You know what I have an idea. This whole censorship deal reeks of a brainchild born of nepotism that someone is also using as a cover to appease fucking Chairman Winnie the Pooh. it's too inept a policy to target actual games because all they're targeting is trash it's almost like it's something that someone gave little suzie something to do because her mom is department manager and suzie wants to feel important.

If you're searching for candidates who are the guilty party check to see how many people have their offspring working in the same fucking building and what departments they're under. Game censorship in the past always went after the big name titles like right away, yet this policy isn't doing that it's targeting garbage which is fucking strange to begin with. Infact it's so stupid that I'm 100% convinced it's a literal bone throw for someone's brain damaged child who got a high paying job with no experience. Oh yes little crotch spawn gets to feel important because they get to have fucking input and tell the actual experienced employees why games hurt their fucking fee fees.

Meanwhile someone with Actual business savy is going Oh yes Commander Ching Chong we very much respect your strict communist ways and want to do business in your fucking shithole of a country. yes yes Mr. Chairman Ching Chong we don't like Taiwan look look we make strict rules to appease you, my fucking braindead department manager thought them up while she was getting her hair dyed blue and she's letting her daughter carry them out. Oh yes yes we think China #1.

 

[Medicated]

Early when the Weeb Wars began, I mentioned that there was murmurings that this may be tied to Sony's seemingly-increasing censorship of the PS4 console. This didn't turn out to be the case (thank Godjesus Bearchrist), but there's been a few developments on that front that have been, if anything, even more Autistic, so courage.

Spoiler: A Primer For Newfags

For the uninitiated, Sony's gotten increasingly draconian with censorship of cleavage and fanservice of any kind on the PS4, to the point of forcing even Japanese-only games with no intended western release to submit their games for review to Sony of America's review board - in English, and during American business hours - to get approval on Sony's platform.

The end result of this has been a host of games that had no problem making it onto the PS4 in the past (such as the Senran Kagura series) now being completely unable to without blanket censorship, with weeb games being targetted specifically, seemingly in an effort to do an end-run around Japanese devs who wouldn't bend the knee to the shrieking mob.

More recently, it's been getting worse and worse, with Atlus bitching about it Sony's policies openly and suggesting they're going to move to the PC and Switch, and Senran Kagura's series creator getting so pissed that he's elected to leave Marvelous and take Senran Kagura with him.

About five days ago, Sony finally deigned to put out a press-release, and specifically admitting that they were cracking down on anything remotely sexual due to #MeToo. I won't link to the WSJ for reasons obvious (namely the fact that their site runs like candy-coated shit and won't allow archiving), but there was another party they blamed in the press release that immediately set off about 40 red flags for me, and presumably everyone else with two functioning neurons still firing: they blamed Gamergate.

View attachment 739170

There is exactly two reasons GG is brought up anywhere these days: as a point of historical relevance, or by asshole culture warriors who insist it's still a thing four years after the campaign ended. Seeing GG get mentioned in a press release is pretty much an international powerleveling symbol. Unless you're doing it to establish context, you're doing it as part of a virtue signal, and the implications of that pretty much speak for themselves. After all, if ever there was a reason to fire up the Internet Autism Machine and see if there was more going on with Sony, it was this.

While there's been nothing concrete so far, what we have gotten is a number of anonymous leaks setting up some pretty outstanding allegations that seem to be backed by several outside of Sony who have stated that it seems legit. So as ever, take this with the fact that until actual evidence drops, we're operating firmly within the realm of hearsay. That said, what did drop was some pretty outrageous shit:

The first allegation is that this shit began at Sony in 2016 soonafter its headquartering its American branch in California. Because apparently that state has supplanted Florida as the land from which all evil flows or at least for a period of time takes residence. The second allegation is directly connected to the first, which is that all of these policies you're seeing now are being put forward by two specific employees at Sony's standards and practices office. I'm still trying to get names to potentially confirm on that one.

The third allegation is that the policy being cited to censor games does not actually exist in written form. There are no written guidelines on what is and is not covered under the policy, and ergo, no actual listings of what a game dev might do or not do under said policy. If that sounds familiar to you, that's exactly what's done by several major social media companies so they can be openly biased in their policy enforcement. This functionally means that games are being denied certification based on qualifications that Sony's standards and practices office is refusing to detail.

The final allegation is that Sony is not alone in this shit, and they're being enabled by certain publishers and localizing departments stateside. Unlike the other allegations on this list, this one we can confirm to a degree: We know the latter is true due to the clusterfuck that was Treehouse and the Alison Rapp scandal, and we can infer that the latter is also true due to things like SK's series creator leaving Marvelous because they were trying to clean up SK so as to release PS-exclusive titles.

This is a trend I've been noticing across the tech/games field in the last few years, especially leading up to the Japan Olympics. California is making a concerted push to influence Japans gaming industry. Not only through it's offices being moved there, but also through other areas like the DiGRAJapan, this years GDC in Japan, and websites like the JapanTimes who are often filled with idealogues and their allies.

Quite ironic that they often disparage invalidating others culture and identity, and hate the idea of white colonialism, but they are essentially doing the same thing here, a bunch of white people trying to alter another countries culture. If white people are so bad, how are they supposed to tell other races whats good for them? They are the very people they have been complaining about.

 

[Cod of War]

Spoiler: NSFW

https://www.sankakucomplex.com/2019/05/06/blade-arcus-rebellion-from-shining-covers-thighs-censored/

Blade Arcus Rebellion From Shining Cover’s Thighs Censored
8 hours ago
60 Comments
by Rift



Those unconvinced of Sony’s agenda against alluring thighs as demonstrated by the censoring of Atelier: Lulua’s cover may now realize the truth as the thighs on the cover of Blade Arcus Rebellion From Shining have also been cropped out of view.

Initially released in Japan on PS4 and Switch back on March 14th, it has only now come to attention that the covers for both versions of the game are drastically different, as revealed by an official Twitter message from Sega:



The Blade Arcus Rebellion From Shining PS4 cover conceals the maiden’s legs and even her navel – much like the matter regarding Atelier: Lulua’s cover(Japanese on top, with the Western version below):





Fans curious about the Atelier: Lulua box art questioned Koei Tecmo, who responded saying the cropping was because the title has to be at the top of the box at Western retailers:



Also reinforcing the censorship theory is the fact that the PS4 version of Blade Arcus Rebellion from Shining comes with a reversible cover containing the cover art in its entirety:

I guess this isn't anything new but that post about the PS4 logo. Could they not lie better than that?

 

[Marissa Moira]

The cover art is really really stretching the whole censorship thing. Neither of those games content was changed. Are we going to consider persona 5 a censored game now because due to the US layout having covered a set of Boobs with Morgana's head?

The Atelier cover looks weird because the art they used was far too large and really wasn't suited for a cover, that's not a house in the background that's a whole horse and carriage, they cut the horse out and tried to reframe the image so it could be a cover because they literally had no other art.

PS4 and Switch have different cover size ratios, there's also always been a difference between US and japan when it comes to what's considered and attractive layout since the 8-bit era. The Switch's cover size is shorter and thinner than a PSP's case size but the switch is still a more vertical cover while the PS4's is more square shaped. Covers are not one size fits all and need to be altered.

If you were to put the full body shot on the PS4's case it's going to look smaller since you'll have a lot of dead space due to the case's size, on the Switch is works because the ratio size makes the case look longer so a full body shot fills it out more.

I dunno how many people are familiar with the old Playstation and Saturn Longboxes but many shared releases and Sony eventually switched to a standard CD case jewel size and resized the cover art in much the same way for the re-releases of older games like Darkstalkers. Japanese Saturn games were always CD and did much the same while also having a gold border to take into account of the cover layout.

 

[CheezzyMach]

The cover art is really really stretching the whole censorship thing. Neither of those games content was changed. Are we going to consider persona 5 a censored game now because due to the US layout having covered a set of Boobs with Morgana's head?

The Atelier cover looks weird because the art they used was far too large and really wasn't suited for a cover, that's not a house in the background that's a whole horse and carriage, they cut the horse out and tried to reframe the image so it could be a cover because they literally had no other art.

PS4 and Switch have different cover size ratios there's also always been a difference between US and japan when it comes to what's considered and attractive layout since the 8-bit era. The Switch's cover size is shorter and thinner than a PSP's case size but the switch is still a more vertical cover while the PS4's is more square shaped. Covers are not one size fits all and need to be altered.

If you were to put the full body shot on the PS4's case it's going to look smaller since you'll have a lot of dead space due to the case's size, on the Switch is works because the ratio size makes the case look longer so a full body shot fills it out more.

I dunno how many people are familiar with the old Playstation and Saturn Longboxes but many shared releases and Sony eventually switched to a standard CD case jewel size and resized the cover art in much the same way for the re-releases of older games like Darkstalkers. Japanese Saturn games were always CD and did much the same while also having a gold border to take into account of the cover layout.

It isn't new ether Soul Calibur IV a decade ago cropped Ivy's underboob on the cover in the US version.

 

[UE 558]

It isn't new ether Soul Calibur IV a decade ago cropped Ivy's underboob on the cover in the US version.

A more drastic change would be the art MS and Nintendo got for the SNK anniversary collection vs. the one Sony got (art itself is still good mind you)

Spoiler

 

[Marissa Moira]

Here's the original Atelier image. It's a fucking Dutch angle with everything too slanted and no real place to put a logo so it can clearly be seen, the horses are way too busy and would obscure or distract from the logo. If you put a white blinder behind the logo it's going to look like a floating horse head is above it.

It's a very poor image choice to use as a cover.

A more drastic change would be the art MS and Nintendo got for the SNK anniversary collection vs. the one Sony got (art itself is still good mind you)

Spoiler

View attachment 748920View attachment 748921

No the SNK art with the covered Athena is on the switch's box I have it. Again the media is being dishonest.

 

[UE 558]

No the SNK art with the cover Athena is on the switch's box I have it

...

Spoiler

 

[Marissa Moira]

I got the special edition, it comes with art cards, soudntrack and an art book. The Covered Athena image exists in the special edition stuff. The PS4 edition comes with the same extras as the switch you still get the same outer box and the bikini image exists.

There's also a special realistic cover variant

 

[CheezzyMach]

Isn't that SNK cover a reversible one?

 

[Marissa Moira]

Isn't that SNK cover a reversible one?

For the switch no, it has a white interior with legal stuff.

I also want to mention the switch version doesn't have all the games on the cart they had to be patched in while the PS4 version comes with all games on the disc.

I wound up purchasing both.

 

[UE 558]

For the switch no, it has a white interior with legal stuff.

I also want to mention the switch version doesn't have all the games on the cart they had to be patched in while the PS4 version comes with all games on the disc.

I wound up purchasing both.

Is the PS4 one reversible?

 

[Marissa Moira]

Is the PS4 one reversible?

Actually I don't know if the inner box's cover is reversible mine is still sealed, the outer box is the same as the switch and it comes with all the same extras. NISA mass produces all the extra materials the same and when you order a PS4 or a Switch version it will just have a Red Sticker that says Portable Device or a Blue Sticker that Says Home Device.

But the PS4's special edition came with the bikini art on the art cards and music CDs. As well as having the limited Japanese cover art in the extras well. Art cards can also be used to replace the front cover IIRC they're about the same size as a bluray format.

I don't have the game with me at the moment but I'll open it when i get back and can check.

The art on the PS4 was used for Japanese advertisements IIRC, it wasn't something that was made specifically for sony. There was also a Japanese limited edition that was like the Japanese release of Capcom Beatem'up Bundle/Belt Action Bundle Where it came with the special cover in a replica arcade board case and was very limited.

 

[CheezzyMach]

Is the PS4 one reversible?

Just checked on Youtube; nope.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Just checked on Youtube; nope.

I still don't think having a different cover is a form of censorship especially when she's wearing the armor she gets in the game. Like if it was traced over it would be understandable, but it's an entirely different image they used for the whole cover. That's kinda really stretching it, because now you're getting into creative choice and freedom.

 

[UE 558]

I still don't think having a different cover is a form of censorship especially when she's wearing the armor she gets in the game. Like if it was traced over it would be understandable, but it's an entirely different image they used for the whole cover. That's kinda really stretching it, because now you're getting into creative choice and freedom.

Never said it was a bad armor or a bad cover, but I wouldn’t be shocked if SNK had two covers prepped in advance for both Sony as well as prudish countries like China

 

[Slap47]

Why is Sony waging a war on thighs? What an odd choice.