The Video Game Industry

@omega2900: The biggest irony is that Nintendo leaves the third party games that both they and Sony get uncensored while Sony censors them (This is why the Nintendo Switch has so many Adult Visual Novels only on their platform as far as console ports go, because Sony's odd rules have burned so much will with smaller Japanese third parties that they lost almost all of them not named Spike Chunsoft or Type Moon)

Sony lost smaller Japanese third party developers?? I thought they had a lot developing games for their console.

Its primarily a lot of the more niche developers that need more overseas support due to not having international branches. They've been leaning towards Nintendo and Steam more.

wait, switch has straight up adults only visual novels on eshop? Really?

They’re M rated. I just hate how many get thrown on there every week.

I swear there’s a 70% chance of finding at least three if you look at recent releases.

Edited by omega2900 on May 14th 2024 at 4:17:27 AM

With Sony getting prudish, they gave Nintendo a market.

Which is heavily ironic. The OG PlayStation's lax stance on censorship contributed to its success and helped establish Sony in the industry.

Also gave Nintendo the last push to finally loosen their own standards from the N64 onward.

Edited by Karxrida on May 14th 2024 at 2:57:20 AM

I'd like to remind everyone that known T&A franchise Senran Kagura got its start on the 3DS. Granted the first game wasn't as over the top with it as later titles but still.

Edited by omega2900 on May 14th 2024 at 6:05:14 AM

I dont even know where this censorship of Japanese titles policies came from. Disagea was literally sort of broken of Playstation cause of this. If I remember correctly, Sony's official statement was paraphrase "consider the MeToo movement" whose application and relationship does not make sense.

Weird that when I brought this up in certain places including here before years ago, I usually get scoffed at. The replies I get being "look at those whiny loser weebs" or maybe something more xenophobic along those lines. I dont get why that apathy was supported then.

Edited by M1gamiTensei on May 14th 2024 at 5:52:05 AM

If I were a 4chan conspiracy theorist, maybe Sony thought the pro-ESG crowd hate anything sex related because it encourages misogny and sex-related crimes?

Who cares what 4chan conspiracy nuts think?

Anti-sex being a motivation for Sony kinda sucks when you get a sex scene in the Last of Us Part II. But then again, a big criticism on Sony is how this policy has affected Eastern hemisphere-developed games the most if not exclusively

I say that when Phantom Pain keeps Quiet. Make that what you will.

Edited by M1gamiTensei on May 14th 2024 at 7:03:48 AM

Kojima gets away with it because Prestige, really.

Quiet was a talking point, yes, but almost 10 years later, most people don't really bat an eye at her.

Same thing with Neil and the Last of Us II, though the hypocrisy was also noted at the time.

I think we have discussed this before, that Sony seems to have an odd relationship with eastern made games.

I'll say, if, and this is a big if, we assume that the alleged concerns about Values Dissonance are real and not an excuse, that sounds more like Sony self-censors eastern made games to avoid any criticism to the products and their creators rather than any general anti-sex ban.

I would have said “But that also goes against Sony not applying the this stance universally” though I think last week proved whatever guides Sony leadership has a few screws off its rocker. Do so much that has a negative impact and has very little benefit. Cant tell if thats bowing to rampant shareholders

I am starting to feel that the monopolistic mindset of Sony is becoming clear and this is relatively old issue is a symptom of it. Current gen console market (yeah Im not counting Switch here) is clearly theirs and for most of the last gen too. They can do things like jack up their consoles prices in specific regions (like Japan), jack up their intertner prices for no tangible reason with little resistance, force Playstation accounts as requirements even on PC to their game not buyable, and censor games of a specific region to the point some are bugged out.

It can be argued them kicking of new standardized prices of games is part of that monopolistic mindset. 70 bucks has a defense here and back but undoubtedly Sony took the initiative because they are in a borderline unquestionable position to. I’ve seen seen so many passes given to Sony for all the above examples, that enforces how impressive they held this brand loyalty

Edited by M1gamiTensei on May 14th 2024 at 8:48:49 AM

And it's the Big N that takes a ton of heat from the gaming fandom because "Think of the Emus!". All that aside, I think a lot of it is due to what demongodofchaos said about prestige. Sony isn't just making games, they're making ART and ART costs money dammit!/s*

• Too lazy to do the whole trope search and link thing.

Brand loyalty can only do so much though. If Sony wants people to buy P S5s, give them a reason to.

Speaking of Sony and censorship, the whole thing about Stellar Blade costumes being redesigned was intentional and NOT because of Sony. Interpret this as you will.

Edited by omega2900 on May 14th 2024 at 10:56:17 AM

Don't underestimate the impact of optics, I still remember when NieR: Automata and Mass Effect: Andromeda came out back in the day and one of the devs of the latter game tried to shame people in not buying NieR: Automata simply by mocking 2B's design. Even if NieR: Automata proved to be the superior game, the fact that a dev could feel free to make that unneeded comment speaks already of the base expectations of the general audience of what a japanese game might contain.

Basically this, J. Steff Sterling and Yahtzee noted years ago that game companies have been trying to copy Hollywood in terms of presentation as if they were embarrassed that they are making games instead of cinematic productions.

Edited by raziel365 on May 14th 2024 at 8:58:46 AM

Yeah, certain devs like David Cage come off as being ashamed that they are game developers and wanted to direct movies.

Heck, Hideo Kojima couldn't get into movie directing because his scripts were too massive. Just look at what his creator breakdown made Metal Gear Solid 4 into.

Nintendo's censorship of third-party games in the 80s and 90s, and Sony's censorship of third-party games in recent years are both essentially from the same source. Wanting to avoid any controversy from people acting offended. The big difference is that the main groups they're most afraid of offending (and who they think would give them the most controversy) is different.

Nintendo had policies about what could be shown in games in America and Europe because they feared controversy from parents and news media (which the parents would watch), which could cause parents to not buy games and consoles for their kids. Nintendo started off marketing themselves as a family-friendly toy company (which sticks to a lesser extent to this day) and they didn't want anyone getting offended by a "kid's game" having gore in it or whatever and blaming Nintendo for it.

As time went on the audience and culture shifted such that it became more common knowledge that games could have any level of adult content in them and that parents should pay attention to what they buy their kids instead of assuming videos games are all child-friendly, groups of the ESRB formed to help in that. So the fear of backlash from those above sorts of groups faded and console manufacturers generally lifted any restrictions they had outside of not putting outright porn on their consoles.

But now Sony is acting heavy-handed towards third-parties, particularly smaller Japanese games, and it slowly started after 2016 when PlayStation's HQ moved to California and the management was changed up. The clear impression I get is that PlayStation's management is worried about the opinions of terminally online Twitter weirdos. You know, the kind who hate anime and especially anime fanservice of female characters, will claim anyone attracted to big-eyed anime girls is a pedophile, will act like anyone concerned with censorship of Japanese media is a right-wing chud, get really upset over "gooners" and say anyone wanting to see sexy stuff should just watch porn, the sorts of game journalists who will review games like Senran Kagura or DoA Xtreme Beach Volleyball and spend half of it being performatively disgusted by the blatant horniness of it and imply (or outright say) it's sexist.

Perhaps part of this is because of the Vita and how it got the reputation as being a console purely for weebs who want to play the ultra weeby and fanservice-y types of the games. The "Underage Panty Quest XVII" types of games, as the old meme images used to have. And likely part of this is the management wanting PlayStation to have a serious, respected image, with a focus on Hollywood-wannabe cinematic games. They don't want people associating their brand with anime titty games or having people post on Twitter about how offended they are over some game on PS4 about ogling naked teenage anime girls, and they're worried about the sort of audience they want leaving if such things blow up.

And so there's no hypocrisy from Sony's perspective in only applying their rules to small anime games, because that's the point. Sex and nudity in Western AAA games or respected AAA games from companies like Capcom mostly get a pass because those sorts of games don't get controversy or snark from anyone over having sex and nudity in them. But visual novels and games like Senran Kagura or Omega Labyrinth (dungeon crawler where the girls breasts get bigger as they power up) that used have a home on the Vita are harrassed or straight up refused because those are games enjoyed by the "wrong" type of people and they may upset the "right" type of people.

If you want to dig deeper, you could also interpret this as part of the general disdain Japanese culture has for "otaku".

Why do people think that Twitter randos have any influence on game companies? Serious question.

Because the game companies listen to them more often than they should. Twitter has a way of amplifying stupidity, for one thing.

People think that the internet weirdos represent a bigger part of the population than they really do. It goes in many ways.

Edited by Blueace on May 14th 2024 at 1:10:29 PM

Because it's where they spend all their time, despite constantly going on about how much they hate it there. They're so engrossed in Twitter bullshit that they think that's all there is. They can't see that nobody outside of that website gives a fraction of a fraction of a damn about [current video game controversy].

Alternatively, Youtube outrage merchants tell them as much and they eat it up like so much fast food.

Edited by PhysicalStamina on May 14th 2024 at 10:28:06 AM