Sony UK To Speak With Petition Maker About PS4 Censorship Policies

Back in late October of 2018 a development partner for the Japanese and European branch of Marvelous Entertainment who works for Igrasil Studio, named Yagyu, started a petition in hopes of getting Sony to recognize that the censorship policies that they had in place for the PS4 were disruptive. On December 2, the petitioner stated on a Change.org update that he will talk with Sony UK next week to explain why Sony's censorship policy is a bad one.

[CrimsonWing69]

Look, it's simple, just don't censor the game and slap it with an M rating. Let the angry parents get upset with themselves for not regulating what their kid plays or get upset with how said kid retrieved the game.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

COMMON SENSE?! WHAT THE FUCK?! WE AIN'T DOIN THAT AROUND THESE PARTS!!!

I agree 100%.

[CrimsonWing69]

Lol, but yea I just don’t get how there can’t be games for all types of gamers. Nothing about these games are explicit so it’s not unreasonable content. Getting so tired of selfish groups of individuals that every kind of media content needs to cater to their preferences.

Just make games for everyone. Don’t like it, don’t play it. Here’s the other thing, censoring these games will not make it to where people who are offended by the content will just up and suddenly play the game. It’s still catered and directed to the same audience, you just now pissed them off by removing things.

[rainslacker]

I wish it were simple. but this is probably more them looking after their interests than it is about protecting the children. They don't want the negativity that sometimes comes along with these kinds of games. Criminal Girls invite got a lot of it back in the day from social media, and some media outlets deciding to make a cause about how it proved men were misogynistic pigs.

Ironically, those things tended to die down after a week or two, and didn't affect Sony, or the consumers at large in the least. But now if they back down, they'll probably invite even more hate from the kinds of people who complained about that content before.

On the plus side though, they'll keep their actual customers happy.

Me, i'd prefer to know the scope of the policy, and what exactly it allows or prohibits. Think of the children, and vague "global standards" is pretty meaningless, since the content that gets banned seems rather regional to Japanese games, many of which don't make it westward, and some which really don't push the line that much. It also seems that the current standard can be implemented at will by Sony, and I have no doubt that many games will be given the go ahead because Sony doesn't want the heat from censoring a big name game...say like GTA.

I doubt this little talk they're having is going to go anywhere. I did sign the petition though. Maybe if there is enough push back, Sony will change its policy, but given the way things go nowadays, I'd assume they're just going to wait for it to blow over. Best we may be able to hope for is that individual devs will keep making mention of it to keep the topic alive for the long term.....but even that I think isn't really going to happen.

[blackblades]

Yeah I wanna see the full scope of the policy as well and also think that talking to them would not change anything. Its a 1st start though but we need more devs and players taking a stand to show them we dont like the policy. Complaining in the comment section of sites not gonna help.

[rainslacker]

I've complained on Sony's forums as well. I'll buy the games on the Switch if they're censored on PS, and for each one I do, I'll go on Sony's forums and say that I would have preferred to buy it on PS.

[blackblades]

Damn well just heard tumblr banning content as well, I wonder whose next.

[Dark_Overlord]

@rainslacker
I'm going to buy a Switch if Sony keeps this regressive policy and post them a copy of the receipt for every 'lost sale' it results in :)

[Aura7541]

The problem is that like any big corporation who holds massive share of a market, they tend to exert even more control. Sony has this misguided notion that us, the consumers, are lost lambs that must be shepherded by Big Brother. The principles of artistic freedom and letting the consumer make his/her own decisions are thrown out the window. Who cares about principles if you make tons of money?

[MoonConquistador]

Very succinctly put and great points

[JackBNimble]

Just playing devil's advocate....
Has anyone stopped to think for a minute that the ps4 and psn is Sony's platform?
That being said, doesn't Sony have the right to allow what ever content that they feel is appropriate?

I am not advocating censorship by any means but it really is Sony's platform to choose what is or is not available to consumers.

[annoyedgamer]

They wont know better, the journalists and "firms" are part of the propaganda machine that make sure our voices are not heard. Anyone who speaks out is labeled an extremist or pedophile.

[Veneno]

I think you actually don't understand the reasoning behind this.

[Gamist2dot0]

But but but irresponsible parents don't want to be held accountable. Just like those parents who brought their kids to watch the R rated movie Ted. OMFG.

[Godmars290]

@CrimsonWing69:
Not seeing how parents are so poorly informed about game ratings or how game companies can't just put rating/age gates on their games.

Hell, at this point you'd think they could make an app that alerts a parent's phone or email when a kid tries to access a game they shouldn't be playing.

[gamer7804]

I know, its really quite simple, don't censor, put M rating go about your business and focus on making games or attending or creating conferences. The amount of time this policy has wasted for developers and Sony staff is probably mind boggling. what a waste of manpower and money, only to end up losing sales of games...

[whothedog]

I like Valves approach, f trying to censor everything.

[Dark_Overlord]

Valve aren't innocent, there is a least one employee who has a vendetta against Visual Novels. I can't remember the name of the game, but despite it being rated 'All Ages' it has been removed twice from steam now for bullshit reasons.

[whothedog]

Was this before or after June cause that is when Valve started taking this approach " we've decided that the right approach is to allow everything onto the Steam Store, except for things that we decide are illegal, or straight up trolling"

I am not a VN kind of person but I know they seemed to be hit most by the censorship and now I see a lot more on the store, just wondering if it is still happening at least to some degree.

Link just for stuff https://steamcommunity.com/...

[annoyedgamer]

You're expecting big babies, ahem I mean parents discipline children? What kind of extremist are you?

/s

[Inzo]

I agree that parents should be checking what they buy their kids but I can assure you that for the most part it is not the parents that are complaining. Feminists like Anita Sarkeesian and activist groups like Polygon and Kotaku have been very vocal about this. Unfortunately Sony seems to be bending the knee to this vocal minority but thats ok because we will make ourselves heard by withholding our money.

[Veneno]

I don't believe this is as simple as dealing with angry parents or protecting kids. Sony never gave a lick about that and still don't.

It's about maintaining image. They don't want to have so much adults only content easily accessible on their platform because they don't want to be known as the platform for perverts.

They are the platform holder so they have the prerogative to control their image.

Unfortunately they don't see much reward for taking the risk of allowing adults only content on the platform.

[DaDrunkenJester]

I don't typically care for the type of games that are getting censored anyway. They border on pedophilia with all the touching, groping, and sexual innuendos with school children and such...

That being said, I don't agree with censorship in the slightest so let these people ship the game they created. I don't believe that Sony or anyone else besides the child's parents needs to be the one "worrying about the children". Same goes for MT's/Lootboxes. "But what about the children" is such a cop out to ban things that you don't like.

Parents, understand the games your kid is playing. Do a 10 second Google search on it. Set parental locks on accounts so they can't buy these games or MT's/Lootboxes... Do your damn job as a parent.

[UltraDSA]

Perfectly said! That's what the rating system is for!

[pinkcrocodile75]

Fun fact on this.

Growing up my family weren't well off financially so we were usually late to the party technology wise.

This was at the time before blockbuster video and my youngest brother wanted to pick a video to rent (we had one each) and he pick one with a robot on the front, he was only 6. Me mam took a look and saw a robot and paid for it.

It turned out to be Robocop and she didn't know that an 18 was a thing this was in the 80's.

Suffice to say, me mam came while were watching it and saw the scene where the guy's head exploded on the bonnet of the car (post immersion in toxic waste).

She was about to turn it off but saw we were quietly eating popcorn, so she decided to leave us quiet.

On Topic: It's down to the parents and if they are too stupid to do their own job they shouldn't surprised if their child gets groomed

[Hitman0769]

AO Label needs to stop being a death sentence. That;s what actually needs to happen.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Just slap M OR A+ rating and parents get mad

[JackBNimble]

What do you know about parenting anyway?

[XiNatsuDragnel]

True my dad was a dragon so.... my parenting was complicated

[NapalmSanctuary]

@XiNatsuDragnel I feel ya. My dad was a space beast.

[THC CELL]

Parants let kids play gta n cod without care in UK all the social media political correctness warriors kids will be playing em too 18+ or not

[mcstorm]

It's not just the UK but I do think people take things to far. Also why should some games be for everyone films are not.

Look at films like Ted or team America for an example which people could mistake as a kids film but they are far from it. Would they let there kids watch a porn film? All common sense but we live in a pc world now where people jump all over things just because they can.

[AspiringProGenji]

It's PS Japan doing all this censoring, and people here are blaming PS HQ in Cal.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

Sony workers at California are forcing Japanese developers to censor their games. They can now do that because Sony headquarters is in California now.

Please investigate these things before commenting.

Japan is not the one doing the censoring, it's US forcing them to.

[whothedog]

Sony is in the wrong, when Nintendo isn't censoring but Sony is, there is something wrong.

Still find it funny that violence is ok but show some boobage, watch out!

[Majinzo]

California is a nazi farm. Self entitled people being taught to hate everything and question nothing.

I live in California for 28 years and it has gone down hill in the last few years.

Update: Just let me play my games lol

[annoyedgamer]

Is the US influence, trust me, I live here. Every word I hear screams US influence. Sony is sensing Japan is moving away from consoles so they want to grasp the US market. Unfortunately CA is full of lunatics and is whispering lies in their ears telling them we all want censored propaganda.

[gangsta_red]

Sony, please save my anime boobs!

[PapaBop]

I can see it now:

Sony UK: Will someone please think of the children

Petition Maker: Really? Because children can commit genocide and become drug dealers with a focused emphasis on building their drug empire, they can do all this but can't look at breasts while doing so.

Sony UK: Well umm ahh..

I can't believe Sony here. They've build the PS4 reputation by not only being the gamer's choice but by ensuring they are the first choice in the large majority of genres. This decision is not only hurting certain fans personally but also seeing them lose unnecessary goodwill from people who have no intention of buying the games in question but speaking out because of their hatred of censorship. Whoever made this decision clearly doesn't get gamers and that's very sad and this decision just proves it.. there is no need to talk to the petition owner because they should understand precisely why this petition started.

[ginganinja]

Or Sony UK : hey. petition maker, why don't you go bother the politicians who are arguing for more stricter censorship rather than us who are just trying to get devs to stay ahead of the game so they don't need to alter their games and spend a fortune re-submitting them for classification.

[Pantz]

The funny thing is, the games are still rated Mature after being censored. Sony is almost suggesting that it's ok for children to play these now. Children should have nothing to do with the censorship of Mature rated games.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Gamers think it's so simple to slap an M or AO rating on the box and call it a day. "If you don't like it, don't buy it." Okay. Sure.

How many games have released on Playstation, Nintendo or Xbox that have an AO rating?
How come games like Hatred, a PC video game, have not released on console?
How about all the sex games that are on PC. How come they are not on console?

Don't see gamers crying that those games haven't released on console. Don't see gamers crying that full nudity and penetration are not in any console games like GTA. That's censorship too. Choosing to jump on some things that are censored like the image above, and saying you won't be supporting playstation in the future because of it is jumping the shark.

Still see some gamers choosing to play up the irrelevant nature of these games images as being important over real issues like F2P games behind a paywall. And assume that all games willl be censored in the future because of a niche genre. Not saying censorship is great. But you're already being censored.

Still buying a PS5. Because....GAMES.

[Aura7541]

Here are the questions that should be asked:

- How come the intimacy mode is getting removed from Senran Kagura Re:Newal when it was available in Shinovi Versus and Peach Beach Splash on the PS4 without garnering widespread negative attention?
- How is Sony Japan's explanation that the censorship policy is being enforced to "protect the children" a valid reason when the games that are affected by the policy are not even geared towards children?

Your GTA example has multiple problems. Gamers are not crying that full nudity and penetration are not in games like GTA because those types of games were never meant to have those things. It is not censorship when developers such as Rockstar never wanted to put in full nudity in GTA in the first place. In addition, I would say that you are jumping the shark by assuming that only the games with nudity and sex are getting censored.

Need I remind you of the infamous holy light rays of censorship? The CG scenes that were censored had little to do with nudity or sex, if at all. In fact, the scenes that were censored were just anime girls wearing underwear. Oh, the absolute horror of the sight of a pair of bras!!

[ApocalypseShadow]

You are already being censored in most games anyway. As there are things that are not allowed or released.

But now, again, as is always the case, these issues get overblown and played up with Sony while other things get swept under the rug as if it doesn't exist.

if you think you are not already being censored in games, you're fooling yourselves. You are. And always have been on console.

[Aura7541]

Good job not addressing any portion of my arguments. Saying "You are already being censored in most games anyway" is not a valid refutation. You are just equivocating once again.

[nyu1]

"How come the intimacy mode is getting removed from Senran Kagura Re:Newal when it was available in Shinovi Versus and Peach Beach Splash on the PS4 without garnering widespread negative attention? "

So if they censored that you would be happy ?

I'm sorry everyone is so upset that you can't have characters that look like 12 year olds wearing skimpy clothing being sexually touched in a videogame.

Maybe, just maybe, these Japanese devs could stop the obsession with characters that look like little kids ? Then I'd happily support the cause.

[Aura7541]

@nyu1

Maybe, just maybe you should stop caring so much about anime fan service games when their presence in the market doesn’t affect anyone negatively. You don’t like it? Don’t buy it.

It’s the same old arguments from people like you. You inject subjectivity to a subset of video games and revolve your moral compass around that rather than revolving it around a set of principles.

[gangsta_red]

You're comment reeks of not actually knowing what the situation is or what censorship really means.

You are definitely confusing what is censorship and what is allowed by companies to be released on their consoles, especially with the far reaching examples you left.

Sex games may be released on PCs but they are not allowed on consoles which is mandatory from that platform holder as a rule. That is not censorship.

It's censorship if that game was released on console and that platform holder forced the developer to delete or cover up that scene.

"Don't see gamers crying that full nudity and penetration are not in any console games like GTA. That's censorship too"

No it's not, when did Sony or MS tell the devs for GTA to remove penetration? All we had was the whole hot coffee thing that was uncovered through some hacks but it was never suppose to be in the actual release of the game.

"...being important over real issues like F2P games behind a paywall."

How about important issues like free mp being offered for F2P only but not games you pay for? How about cloud saves being locked behind a pay wall?

Why are you so choosey with what gamers should "cry" about?

Seems all too suspect in my opinion.

In all honesty I find this all ridiculously funny. With crossplay we definitely had more support from gamers telling people that gamers don't care or it's a non issue and so on and so forth...but mess with cartoon boobs and you have people ready to burn down the house that Betamax created.

[ApocalypseShadow]

You are already being censored in games. Let's pick an old game like Mass Effect. It had sexual situations in it. Even same sex situations.But did you actually see the sex? No. Because they kept that from being on console. But we all know what sex is. At least I hope so.

I'm not worried about images like the one above being covered. Look at the image above. Does that look like an adult? Do you think it's possible in this current climate that some individual or group will make a stink and target Sony on it? If you don't think so. You're living in la la land. Even if it's not a sex game, the images are borderline pedafilic.

Sony seems to be going after it before it may become a problem. I can live with it as I don't seek out those type of images in my games. Another example is when the Twin Towers fell on 9-11.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
Companies found it inappropriate to release any games related to planes and buildings. They censored themselves. Microsoft even stopped making the excellent flight simulator at that time. They didn't stick a rating on the box and call it a day. They cancelled those games, postponed or altered the games to fit the times. I don't agree with it. But that's how it is now. But to not recognize that they already are doing this is funny to me.

you're already being censored.

[King_Noctis]

You are one of the reasons why we have censorship on the Ps4 in the first place. You would follow everytime Sony without even questioning their decisions.

[ApocalypseShadow]

https://www.oneangrygamer.n...
same website. This game was updated with an outfit on ***Nintendo's*** platform.

Now, are there articles talking about Nintendo censhorship in Smash Bros or Xenoblade Chronicles2? But we're going to continue with this huge stink when it comes to SONY. Because that's all I see. Why would Monolith Soft update their game with an outfit to cover up the character's legs and boobs? Are you going to be delusional that it's Sony's fault on a Nintendo platform?

As I said, we have already been censonsored in games. If you read any of my comments in the thread, you will see that I don't approve of censorship as long as it doesn't step over the line.

What I"m pointing out is GAMER SELECTIVE HYPOCRISY.

Do you have your pitchforks ready for Monolith and Nintendo too?

[King_Noctis]

Smash is Nintendo’s game. It is rated E, which mean Everyone in case you don’t know. They didn’t enforced their rule on any other games beside theirs, at least on the Switch. Plus, you wanna see boob? Then play Xenoblade 2, which, ironically is still a Nintendo FIRST party exclusive game.

Now Sony, on the other hand, enforced their rules on other game developers, even if those games are aimed at adult. That is where people have problem with

[gangsta_red]

Even with your two replies you still can't grasp the understanding or the meaning of the word censorship.

"Look at the image above. Does that look like an adult?"

No it doesn't and I have already spoken on this and gave a reason why Sony would censor these games. But the examples you consistently bring up as censorship is nothing of the sort. And this is my point to you.

Your Mass Effect example is just further proof of this, EA/Bioware not putting an actual scene of sex is different than having Sony/MS tell EA to remove that scene or put a blur over it. Do you understand this?

[ApocalypseShadow]

Guess you'll be posting articles now that it applies to Nintendo's platform as well. Unless you're part of the hypocrisy.

[AK91]

Good luck petition maker I honestly don't think it'll make a bit of difference.

[mastershredder]

Such a superficial outlook. Some of you have got to be waiting for your baby teeth to fall out or something.
if you want to really tackle the topic of censorship as a whole then STOP posting cutesy sexually suggestive anime girls on each new article. It's not really about that. IT IS WAY BEYOND THAT. Wow.

[ApocalypseShadow]

And, if you notice, all the articles are from "one angry gamer" website.

And, if you have ad blocker off, you can see some of the merchandise that he's pedaling on the right side of the page. Take a look
https://www.oneangrygamer.n...
https://www.oneangrygamer.n...

He has advertising for things like this on his site
https://www.amazon.com/Cart...
here's another advertising thing on his page

https://www.amazon.com/My-F...

Those girls have lots of cleavage showing and look young.So, not only is the site the one pushing the issue, but he's cashing in on the very images with product links of mostly anime girls that have questionable age. But we're not supposed to catch that.

[Aura7541]

Nice ad hominem attack. It's the usual tactic from you pro-censorship folks. Attack the person/source, but never address the actual points presented.

[rainslacker]

Yeah, because the mainstream gaming press is going to make it a crusade to call out Sony on this issue. Especially after so many years of attacking these games anyways.

Same thing happened during gamer gate. Only a few lesser known sites were willing to actually address the issue properly.

The site obviously has a reader base that will be affected by this policy, so its natural that they'd report on it. Someone has to.

And who cares what they're peddling? You know amazon won't sell stuff that is illegal right, so why post it as if its somehow wrong. It doesn't change the issue at hand. They look young? OK then. There is legal real porn out there with young looking women of legal age, and it's perfectly legal. All anime characters look young, even if they're adults. Only the very old look old. This policy is affecting games which don't have these young looking characters as well, so stop with this crap that this is some policy designed to prevent kiddie porn.

You're attributing your own personal sensibilities about what is appropriate and trying to say everyone should feel the same. It's counter to what anime fans understand and know based on the culture that the games come from. You don't want to address the censorship because it happens to line up with your own beliefs on what is prim and proper. But when this stuff affects games which don't do anything wrong, then the censorship is wrong.

You can't make a valid argument on why this censorship is OK, so you are trying to discredit the source. It's a typical tactic for people who know they're losing their argument.

[ApocalypseShadow]

the point rain is that it hurts his clicks and his business of ad revenue.

secondly, I just posted a link in one of my comments that has a game censored on nintendo's platform for possibly the same thing. But we're only targeting one company as usual. Because...rage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Games have been censored for years. It's not going away. Gamers should come together and petition to stop censorship in all games, all consoles and all regions. Instead, it's just another cross play outrage directed at Sony only. And the petition even goes off topic talking about banning players for senseless reasons. Gamers get banned on all consoles and PC. Not just Sony. How about a petition to stop banning on all consoles and PC that covers them all. It's the hypocrisy in question I'm against. And the support for images like this that are questionable
http://www.siliconera.com/w...

[rainslacker]

Again, so what if it hurts his potential revenue stream? It's a topic that will affect his site and his readers. While I make no claim on the quality of the site overall, it's a moot point used to deflect the actual topic at hand. You're saying that because he peddles these things which you don't think are appropriate, that his reporting of the actual facts involved here, with little to no editorial involved, is null and void. It's a deflection so you don't have to address the issue, and discredit the messenger.

You posted one game censored on Nintendo's platform as well. That's great. Maybe go address the various lists posted throughout the comments section here with all the games that didn't got censored for PS but not Nintendo, because this topic is about Nintendo. We're talking about console maker policies, not developer determined censorship.

All consoles do have some content restrictions involved. There are certain things which are not allowed to be shown, or can only be shown in limited amounts. Most of those are the extremes of bordering on actual pornography, not these rather tame innuendo or provocative attire things that are getting censored now. Hell, one game got censored, and it doesn't even really have any fan service.

The censorship has gone too far, and if Nintendo takes it too far, I'll complain about them as well. I've been complaining about localized censorship from the developer themselves for years now. I'll continue to do so. If those articles make it here, I'll complain about it. Just because you don't see a slew of articles about it being from Nintendo, doesn't mean that people aren't complaining. We aren't even seeing a lot of articles about it from Sony either, because these mainstream sites have spent years saying this is what they want...so how can they say Sony is wrong about this and save face? They'll make a big deal about it when it stops affecting the niche games, but that's unlikely to happen, because Sony isn't going to bring that much hate on themselves.

[X-23]

Honestly ... what boggles my mind about all this, is that these so called issues have been addressed already, way back when Mortal Kombat was hitting the Arcades and the solution they came up with was the ESRB system ...

People are saying its not up to the Developers and Publishers of these games to police the content that the consumers digest, and its true.
It's up to the parents on that front to monitor what the hell is going on with their kids in their own homes, we've had this discussion with games like GTA, however the truth is that this particular type of censorship isn't directed towards younger gamers at all, because if that was the case violence would be the blunt force of the concern and outrage, but its not.

And honestly I don't even have to say what demographic they're targeting with this nonsense, because we all know what it's about already ... MKX came out and nobody batted an eye, in fact people loved how turned up the violence was, the new Gore system in RE2: Remake that has such cool looking limb dismemberment and battle damage was something nobody ever asked for, but upon its reveal was given praise CoD, people are blowing up and body parts are flying everywhere like its Quake Arena or something... so what's the real concerns when it comes to censorship? Remember Dead or Alive: Paradise controversy?

Honestly, just look no further than the thumbnail for your answer...social politics, gender politics, ANY kind of politics in my opinion, is just becoming the bane of gaming's existence.

[inxine]

so, which games are affected by this censorship?

[ApocalypseShadow]

The ones with the girls that look underage. From a site that advertises those products and he make money by you clicking on his site and maybe buying those products.

[Majinzo]

Sony’s nazi style policies need to be confronted and corrected now!!

[Veneno]

Your undertsanding of politics and economy are all messed up.

[Tetsujin]

I signed the petition. Instead of playing parent, release what you want (within reason) and the parents need to do their job being parents. I get so sick of the whole "PG" movement when all it does is promote the public to complain even more until freedom of expression becomes more of a myth.

The whole reason why I preferred Japanese anime and games, because they had freedom to express themselves and to show content which showed actual characters and not some copy and paste garbage. I want original, unedited content; not "Edited" because a few people don't know how to ignore something they don't want to see. I do hope something for the gamers comes out of this talk.

[Knightofelemia]

I hope enough Playstation owners we all get together with pitchforks and torches and we convince Sony to drop this censoring shit. If not owners will go else where to game in peace and quiet what's next Sony says PS4 can't play used games.

[Silly gameAr]

The new Cross-Play gate. It took a minute, but we found it boys.

What games are going to be censored, btw? Anyone know what they are, and why people are so upset?

[gangsta_red]

Okay boys, time to blame everyone else!

"These clickbait articles are out to destroy Sony!"

We did it fellas.

[Silly gameAr]

Ok, boys, time to act like we don't know what this is, and pretend to be upset over something else no other console maker had to put up with, even though they censor games too.

Didn't I tell you to ignore my comments if they bug you so much?

[ApocalypseShadow]

https://www.oneangrygamer.n...

Where's the petition for Nintendo? I mean, it's not like games get censored all the time./s

https://www.gamerevolution....
https://comicbook.com/gamin...

hypocrisy. Where's the petitions for games censored on xbox one?

[Inzo]

@Apocalypse Shadow

Why petition Nintendo? they are not the ones that are doing mass censorship.

What is hypocritical is allowing a kid to play a game filled with MT's and loot boxes and being able to shoot another guys face off while concern trolling that they might damage their fragile little minds if they are exposed to a woman's jiggle breasts.

[ApocalypseShadow]

The point inzo, is that games get censored all the time. sometimes before you ever get to play it. Or, when games get ported to different regions. To single out Sony, but not anyone else is suspect. And is the new cross play/cross game chat, fortnite, etc. outrage.

What you should be doing is signing a petition that stops censorship in all games, all consoles and all regions.That's the petition you should be backing instead of the same bandwagon gamers who target Sony with a new outrage on a weekly basis. But I'm sorry if it bothers you that I don't support games with female characters that look like little girls with barely any clothing on. Games made out of Japan where a lot of the men have this fetish for young school girls and grope on buses and trains.

[gangsta_red]

@Apocalypse

Great links, now are any of those games censored because Nintendo, Sony or MS required those studios to do so?

No? Oh, okay, still not understanding what the real situation is eh? That is a real thick layer of ignorance you have there. But I suspect you actually know and this is just another desperate attempt to point the finger somewhere else instead of actually addressing whatay be some people's concern here.

[gangsta_red]

It's absolutely hilarious, doesn't bug me at all. Don't ever change.

[lucian229]

I was going to say; according to these annoying new policies, Witcher 3 would be considered AO????? It'd be insanely censored if it were released today.

[rainslacker]

No. ESRB is still independent. These are additional policies that Sony requires on top of meeting any regional rating systems. Most of these games are built to make sure they'll meet the requirements of the ratings board, but now have to be censored to meet Sony's additional policies.

[Matrix6]

Bad Sony! Bad boy!

[Elda]

Most folks buying a PS4 are not buying these types of niche games only a small minute of gamers are into them & worrying about these types of games being censored something that'll eventually blow over. Sony PS4 will still reign supreme in console sales worldwide.

[rainslacker]

If you were ever saw how the community reacts to these games being censored by the publisher, you'd know that this kind of censorship gets complained about frequently. It does affect sales of those games. There are some games from NISA or Falcom which can sell 100-250K units. Not a huge amount, but still, it adds to the overall variety of the system, and gives more people the kinds of games they may want.

If so few people play these games, why the concern from Sony that they need to protect the kids.

Most indie games don't sell anywhere near what these games sell, so maybe the console makers could just say they can't be on the system either. Why should they go through all the effort to support indie devs if its just a small group of gamers. Having to go through the process of signing up a dev, getting them a dev kit, probably having more interaction because they will have less resources on the dev end to deal with compliance standards, and having to now curate content better just seems like a hassle when any one game barely sells much.

But oh wait. Collectively, we're talking millions upon millions of software units sales for these games. From a group of users who is very much into gaming. If Sony loses that one software sale because the person decides to not buy a Sony platform because of the policy, or the censorship, then they've lost anywhere from 1-50 units of software sales a year. The people who play these games buy a lot of games. I'm one such person. I don't play all of them, but if Sony takes this policy too far, then I'm going to vote with my wallet. I'll already buy these games on switch, so that's 5-6 software units sold for them right there. If I decide to say "screw Sony" and not buy their system over it, then they'd be losing 40-50 software sales per year as I buy 3-5 games a month.

The Otaku gamer is a huge group of the user base. They tend to see this kind of censorship as bad across the board. It may only affect a small portion of people who actually buy them, but the disdain will trickle down into a huge community of very closely knit users who tend to stick together on the topic of censorship, because it's affected localized anime products for near on 40 years now.

[Elda]

I hear what you're conveying to me but it seems Sony is not worried about a small fanbase if so they probably wouldn't be doing this.Imo it's only a small base of people voicing their concerns about censorship on some of these Japan themed (little girls looking) niche titles. I would guess if the petition numbers grow in the millions they would probably more than likely reverse the censorship & I highly doubt that they'll be millions of folks complaining about the censoring of these Japan themed (little girl looking) niche games. Imo Sony will be fine,no loss for them.

[Realms]

I would be interesting to see how many people complaining actually play these kinds of games, I don't like censorship but it seems like they cater to a rather niche audience. Just import the damn game if you want the unedited version that bad that isn't ideal but hey we live in a strange time where everyone get's offended by something so it is what it is IMO Sony is just covering their six.

FYI I don't think it's about protecting the kids as much as it's protecting Sony's image world wide as well as how people perceive the Japanese culture.

[Valiar]

Go and vote guys, i already did it
https://www.change.org/p/so...

[Veneno]

Why not just vote with your wallet instead of this Saved by the Bell petition nonsense?

[patterson]

Society has a weird sense of morality... blowing a guys brains out in Red Dead 2 = ok.
Showing some panties = oh ma lawd! protect the children!

But like others have said, slap an M rating on these types of games then no need to censor.

[jznrpg]

This is the one thing that Sony has done wrong that is a big issue , they have done great in every other area . The stupid we don’t want this in your games that we don’t play people in the U.S pressuring Sony Japan and all other Japanese devs sucks. I will sign any petition and I plan to email Sony. I will still buy PS products but I won’t buy the censored games until they realize it’s hurting them and their partners in Japan. I think this will get changed eventually but it will take some time and this is a great start