UPDATED: Japanese devs now have to get permission from Sony of America's censorship team in English to release titles in Japan

[matrix07012]

Japanese devs now have to get permission from Sony of America's censorship team in English to release titles in Japan

 

UPDATE: Here's an English article:

Quote

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.

 

 

 

Well, I can't speak Japanese so here's a tweet and Google translated article.

 

Quote

Chairperson "Is there a model coming?" Does not it have to be touched? " 
Representative of the light "Can you say the model?" 
Moderator "I do not know, but I can not say that?" 
light Representative "I said that at last week's event, we are applying for a place called Sony, so I have already mastered up . 
But, I have not yet passed through applying to Sony. " 

light Representative "Now, Sony seems to be in a direction where it is not possible to transplant 18 monopoly globally.This game is also pretty 18 incompetent, so it is being examined very severely, and various questions come somewhat. I'd like to write everything . 
So in the midst of answering all of them now, I do not yet know if the authorization number will come out or not. Horrible ... But I am mastering it up. 
There is a trophy function which is completed internally and can not be done unless it connects to Sony 's server at the end, but when you can do trophies at everyone in the company you do it inside. 
He is in charge of sending it to Sony while translating English alone, so you will want to say something like something you do not understand Japanese though. For now I believe that if Sony's judgment goes through, it can be released at the new year, I think ... 
If Sony is already useless, you should do it somewhere. " 

Moderator "pending review" 
light Representative "So wait for review by Sony, if you put it out separately like Steam you can sell it from next week. 
But, I have promised with Sony for now. It is awful waiting to be appeared although it is issued as promised ~ "

Original:

Spoiler

司会進行「機種は？って(コメントが)来てますね。あっ触れちゃいけないの？」
light代表「き、機種？言っていいの？」
司会進行「いや、知らないけど。言っちゃだめなの？」
light代表「先週イベントでは言ったからいいかな、我々はソニーさんというところに申請を出してます。で、もうマスターアップはしました。とっくに。
でもね、ソニーさんに申請を出しておりましてまだ通っておりません。」

light代表「今ね、ソニーさんは18禁モノの移植は世界的にできない方向になったらしくて。このゲームも一応18禁モノだから大変厳しい審査をされていて、なんかね色んな質問が来る。英語で全部書いて下さいみたいな。
で、今全部お答えをしている最中で、さぁはたして認可番号が出るのか、出ないのか、まだわからない。恐ろしい・・・でもマスターアップはしている。
内部では完成していて、最後にソニーのサーバーに繋がないとできないトロフィー機能とかがあるけど、みんなでいつトロフィー機能できるの～って社内でやってる。
そこにいる彼がひたすら英語訳しながらソニーに送る担当になっているんだけど、お前らは日本語もわからんのか、みたいなことを言いたくなるので。今の所ソニーさんの審査が通ったら年明けに発売できるんじゃないかなぁと、思っており・・・
もうソニーさんが駄目だったらどっかで出せばいいや、と」

司会「審査待ち」
light代表「そうソニーの審査待ち。別にSteamとかで出せば来週からでも売れるからね。
でも、いまちょっとソニーさんとのお約束で出してるものなんで・・・。約束で出してるのに審査待ちって酷いよね～」
 

 

This would explain why the even the Japanese PS4 version of Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart is censored and the trend of Sony censoring games (Super Seducer, Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal, Omega Labyrinth Z, Warriors Orochi 4, Silverio Trinity), but allowing some to slip.

Ironically Nintendo is now less censorious that Sony.

 

Sauce:

http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/9212646.html / http://archive.fo/DAnAT

https://nichegamer.com/2018/10/27/new-sony-censorship-policy-is-forcing-even-japanese-developers-to-censor-themselves-in-japan/ / http://archive.fo/UeJNK

Edited October 28, 2018 by matrix07012
Added English article

[Sakkura]

Censoring is one thing, but in a different language? So you're trying to check some Google translated word salad?

[D13H4RD]

One thing I don't get. 

 

Why does Sony of America have to be involved in stuff made for the Japanese market? 

 

Plus, Sony is a Japanese corporation... 

[Arika]

If Sony keeps doing stupid shit, Devs are going to stop supporting them.

[williamcll]

How is President Abe going to keep the birthrate up with policies like these?

[D13H4RD]

45 minutes ago, Arika S said:

If Sony keeps doing stupid shit, Devs are going to stop supporting them.

The irony is that the Nintendo Switch has those same games without those censorship measures applied. 

[TetraSky]

1 hour ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

One thing I don't get. 

 

Why does Sony of America have to be involved in stuff made for the Japanese market? 

 

Plus, Sony is a Japanese corporation... 

Because Americans love to get involved in the matters of other countries and get extremely offended when they see something from a different culture that doesn't match their own? (Remember that one Japan exclusive "game" about sexually assaulting women? Had it never been in the news here, after someone got offended that such a thing existed, nobody would've known it existed)

To me, this is just Japan(Sony) giving up and instead of seeing extremely offended foreigners on the internet for every little thing (like "objectifying" women, little girls that are "18 years old" and what not) they just outsourced the "politically correct" culture out to them, so if something is "bad" and offend someone(even in Japanese exclusive games), they can point the finger to America and be blame free.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

43 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

The irony is that the Nintendo Switch has those same games without those censorship measures applied. 

Yeah but then you're stuck with a Switch

[hobobobo]

3 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Yeah but then you're stuck with a Switch

Far from the worst thing to be stuck with, at least you get glorious first party games

[Taf the Ghost]

1 hour ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

One thing I don't get. 

 

Why does Sony of America have to be involved in stuff made for the Japanese market? 

 

Plus, Sony is a Japanese corporation... 

Sony of America is based in Southern California. 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Just now, hobobobo said:

Far from the worst thing to be stuck with, at least you get glorious first party games

I'd rather a PS4 than a switch, at least you get a real fucking controller

[D13H4RD]

9 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Yeah but then you're stuck with a Switch

I don't mind that at all. 

 

I'd rather have something that I can take with me when I'm going out instead of constantly being tethered to a TV. 

 

It having great first party titles and a growing game library is a nice bonus 

[Drak3]

10 minutes ago, hobobobo said:

at least you get glorious first party games

4 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

It having great first party titles

Good joke.
 

5 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

growing game library

Of which most games are either shit or are a shitty experience on the Switch.

[Trik'Stari]

39 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Because Americans love to get involved in the matters of other countries and get extremely offended when they see something from a different culture that doesn't match their own? (Remember that one Japan exclusive "game" about sexually assaulting women? Had it never been in the news here, after someone got offended that such a thing existed, nobody would've known it existed)

To me, this is just Japan(Sony) giving up and instead of seeing extremely offended foreigners on the internet for every little thing (like "objectifying" women, little girls that are "18 years old" and what not) they just outsourced the "politically correct" culture out to them, so if something is "bad" and offend someone(even in Japanese exclusive games), they can point the finger to America and be blame free.

Spoiler

Remind me again why consoles still exist?

 

I hope these Dev's leave Sony en masse for Steam or just releasing on Windows. Plenty of options out there besides the consoles, considering that the PC game market is larger than all the console markets combined (or was, last I checked, in total $ of sales.)

[hobobobo]

22 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

I'd rather a PS4 than a switch, at least you get a real fucking controller

You do know that you can use both dualshock and xbox controller with switch if its really bothering you. Or just the pro controller

 

13 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Good joke.
 

Of which most games are either shit or are a shitty experience on the Switch.

Well, first party ones are great, which is the main reason to get switch. For the rest - xbone or ps4 are also shite, ps4 exclusives nonwithstanding, get a pc

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

1 minute ago, hobobobo said:

You do know that you can use both dualshock and xbox controller with switch if its really bothering you. Or just the pro controller

 

Well, first party ones are great, which is the main reason to get switch. For the rest - xbone or ps4 are also shite, ps4 exclusives nonwithstanding, get a pc

+1 on the thing. Also what great first party titles? I don't see any of those.

[Commodus]

I'm of mixed thoughts.  It's silly to make Japan-only games go through an American content screening, but at the same time... I suspect Sony as a whole realizes that it looks bad when a JRPG sexualizes clearly underage girls.  Wasn't there at least one game in recent years where they changed the age of the characters for the North American/European releases so that gamers wouldn't be jerking it to teen girls?  I want to say Dragon's Crown, but I don't think that's it.

[Drak3]

3 minutes ago, hobobobo said:

first party ones are great

Again, good joke. Nintendo's games have sucked the past few years.

[hobobobo]

4 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

+1 on the thing. Also what great first party titles? I don't see any of those.

Zelda, mario, bayonetta (borrowed a switch to complete it), metroid, fireblade chronicles, splatoon, xenoblade, smash is fun. There are tons and tons of great exclusive games. Switch is more of a fun party games thingy with a few hardcore titles sprinkled in.

 

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

Again, good joke. Nintendo's games have sucked the past few years.

 well, the ones i played were great, as in zelda, bayonetta, mario world, splatoon and smash

[Taf the Ghost]

22 minutes ago, Commodus said:

I'm of mixed thoughts.  It's silly to make Japan-only games go through an American content screening, but at the same time... I suspect Sony as a whole realizes that it looks bad when a JRPG sexualizes clearly underage girls.  Wasn't there at least one game in recent years where they changed the age of the characters for the North American/European releases so that gamers wouldn't be jerking it to teen girls?  I want to say Dragon's Crown, but I don't think that's it.

Interior games shouldn't matter to exterior cultures, minus issues that are clearly going to cause International Incidents. Though, for the Japanese, that'll be around China & Korea, not really anything Westerners will normally catch. Which points to the core issue: the Censors, a proper role for any platform maintainer, will be done by those that lack the cultural understanding to maintain the rules of the platform properly. This is just bad practice in general, unless the point is cultural imperialism.

 

Which also means this likely does become something of an international issue. The Japanese hardliners are going to, somewhat correctly, beat the drums about American Cultural Imperialism against their wonderful Nihon. I give it a week before Sony HQ has to make a hard reversal. It's not about the anime titties, it's the fact that it's being done by someone that isn't Japanese.

 

Granted, since we're talking about a tech company in CA, I expect after 2ch doxxes everyone involved, we'll find out most of the staff dealing with the censoring is neither American nor Japanese. If there's a Chinese national on that staff, yeah, Sony is going to have a brutal problem.

[DrMacintosh]

Sony....cut the crap

 

Japan....cut the crap

 

Stop censoring! T.T 

[Commodus]

24 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Interior games shouldn't matter to exterior cultures, minus issues that are clearly going to cause International Incidents. Though, for the Japanese, that'll be around China & Korea, not really anything Westerners will normally catch. Which points to the core issue: the Censors, a proper role for any platform maintainer, will be done by those that lack the cultural understanding to maintain the rules of the platform properly. This is just bad practice in general, unless the point is cultural imperialism.

 

Which also means this likely does become something of an international issue. The Japanese hardliners are going to, somewhat correctly, beat the drums about American Cultural Imperialism against their wonderful Nihon. I give it a week before Sony HQ has to make a hard reversal. It's not about the anime titties, it's the fact that it's being done by someone that isn't Japanese.

 

Granted, since we're talking about a tech company in CA, I expect after 2ch doxxes everyone involved, we'll find out most of the staff dealing with the censoring is neither American nor Japanese. If there's a Chinese national on that staff, yeah, Sony is going to have a brutal problem.

Well, that's the thing, a number of these issues could cause international incidents.  The last thing Sony likely wants is for someone to import a Japanese PS4 game and post a video showing that it sexualizes 14-year-olds, or worse.

 

With that said, I do think Sony Japan needs to tackle this sort of thing domestically, because it looks bad to have the American office dictating what a Japanese game is allowed to include.  If you're going to establish a baseline across the globe, the foreign divisions should really be supplements that point out harder-to-grasp cultural differences.

[Taf the Ghost]

2 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Well, that's the thing, a number of these issues could cause international incidents.  The last thing Sony likely wants is for someone to import a Japanese PS4 game and post a video showing that it sexualizes 14-year-olds, or worse.

 

With that said, I do think Sony Japan needs to tackle this sort of thing domestically, because it looks bad to have the American office dictating what a Japanese game is allowed to include.  If you're going to establish a baseline across the globe, the foreign divisions should really be supplements that point out harder-to-grasp cultural differences.

Sony has handled this without any issue since at least the PS1, especially given the region locking to their Online System practically exists to prevent issues from cropping up. (And keep sale prices defended against currency arbitrage.) Moving it to Southern Cal is either a case of corporate stupidity or someone setting up a corporate fief. 

 

And, thinking about it a tad more, there's one specific type of person that would rapidly vault this to an international issue: a female Korean employee is the one that implemented and runs it. Whether she was associated with some of the insanity in South Korea or not, the Japanese Internet communities wouldn't likely accept denials.

 

Yeah, Sony, please end this practice. This could spiral out of control really, really fast.

[Amazonsucks]

3 hours ago, Arika S said:

If Sony keeps doing stupid shit, Devs are going to stop supporting them.

Sony hasnt made anything good since PS3. They are hardly even a real Japanese company anymore. 

[suicidalfranco]

NPCs assimilating another corporation 

 

How long before the NPCs of the US start to define what is allowed to be represented in Japan's dark fantasy sub culture?