Sony's Censorship is Neither Rational Nor Legitimate

VGChartz's Thomas Froehlicher: "When I heard that Sony had banned PQube from publishing Omega Labyrinth Z in the West, I sincerely hoped that it would be an isolated case. However, that hope quickly faded. My alert levels rose further when Marvelous announced that it had to delay Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal to comply with Sony's new censorship policies. Senran Kagura being much bigger than Omega Labyrinth saleswise, it quickly became clear that the issue was of significant importance."

[gangsta_red]

Sure it is.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

Of course it isn't. Are you an adult or a child who still doesn't know why censorship is bad?

[gangsta_red]

Lol, I find it strange that you're asking me if I'm an adult because I don't care if Sony censors loli , weeb, cartoon little girls with over sized anatomies getting their towels ripped off by tentacle monsters.

[frostypants]

Government censorship is bad. Business censorship is the choice of a private entity. This is so not a big deal. Speak with your wallet if not seeing cartoon boobs bothers you this much. What's the problem? "Childish" is the sense of entitlement (and outrage over not getting your cartoon boobs).

[jeki]

It isn't really censorship though. It's a private company making a decision that they feel best serves them. It's freedom.

[rainslacker]

@jeki

Technically, I guess if we want to look at it on that level, it's not that Sony is doing the censoring. They're just not allowing the game to release on the system in the form the devs make it, and if the devs want to release it on the system, they are the one's that have to censor it. The dev has the choice to not release it on the system if they so choose, or censor it so they can.

But, since it's Sony's policy making that the case, it is like Sony is virtually censoring these products.

Such an explanation is a bit wordy to have to explain every time, and I think the context of "Sony is censoring these games" is suitable given the situation. Pretty much the same as how some movies get changed to be able to release on various levels of broadcast or cable TV....except in this case, the decision is made by the company, and not general FTC mandates on what's acceptable, although some networks do apply their own rules

[jeki]

@rainslacker

"Such an explanation is a bit wordy to have to explain every time."

There is no need to explain it every time, at least not to me.

It's at the point where people are arguing over word usage. When I think of censorship I think of government prohibition, something terribe. Others think disallowing the n-word on game servers is censorship. One is awful, the other is perfectly fine. One is censorship, the other is not.

I limit the term censorship to situations where someone's right are being trampled. For example, when those guys were banned from Facebook recently their supporters screamed censorship. They don't have a right to, or are even entitled to, a Facebook page, so it was not censorship.

[HisokaTheMagician]

Sony removed part of a game's logo because the W letter looked like boobs. You are actually insane if you defend something like this.

[gamer7804]

its switch/nintendo for me next generation for third party games, sony has lost its marbles and gone full sjw, when i saw they even changed the logo and had to change the name of the game because it was so censored and different...

[gangsta_red]

Oh no! A logo!?! Well I'm definitely canceling my Sony subscription now.

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[krauley]

maybe sony is not as tacky as you are....

[jeki]

No one has to defend it. It's a choice they made and that's that.

[Maybay]

I agree with gangster red. Underage exploitation is inappropriate.

[Rachel_Alucard]

Point me where the censorship was to target underage exploitation.

[Chexs1990]

They censored Devil May Cry 5. Please do enlighten me, as to where the underage exploitation is found in that game?

[TheGamez100]

Even in games where the women are clearly over 18 are getting censored, its not just these supposed "underage exploitation" you think exists. Censorship removes content which enrages us and affects us, the consumers, and developers to create what they intended. The fanservice games have never crossed the line such as actually showing full nudity. It was completely fine even in games that have shown full nudity and even sex like witcher 3, heavy rain, and gta. The fanservice games are really only bought by such a niche audience and has been like that til now and has been completely fine. Then of course some a**hole brings it up as a policy and ruins it for us then ppl like you agree that its wrong when really it doesn't affect anyone in a bad way at all...
Its crazy ppl think murdering, guns, guts, gore, and torture with REAL-LIKE GRAPHICS are completely "appropriate/fine" but cartoony anime titties are not lol.

[dparente74]

wow 39 dislikes... so many in favor pedophilia. sick ....

[CrimsonWing69]

What the hell are you talking about!? What pedophile game is out on any console or do you usually talk out your ass?

[rainslacker]

I think most would agree with that as well.

Now that we established that, perhaps you could talk about the actual topic at hand?

I mean, I've asked the mods if this kind of discussion about underage porn or whatever is even on topic to this subject, since you can count on one hand, maybe one and a half, out of the 50 or so games that have currently been changed or not coming to the system, the number of games which include the "underage porn" that people say is the sole victim of Sony's policy.

I guess the underage porn argument works when you can't think of a better argument though, or you just want to try and shame others because you have nothing better to do. Enjoy that ego boost I guess.

[Varodor]

@gangsta_red
are you pedo?

[gangsta_red]

I'm a pedo for disagreeing with this article and saying Sony's censorship is legitimate and rational?

Or are you asking me because you're looking for like minded friends with the same interests and hobbies as you?

[Varodor]

@ gangsta_red
No need to go so defensive.
l just ask "are you are pedo?"
How can you blame this on Sony when five COUNTRIES actually didn't even want the game imported?

[gangsta_red]

Maybe your issue is your inability to actually read that's causing the confusion here. I am not blaming Sony at all. This would be the second time I've told you this.

[rainslacker]

For the record, even though you aren't asking me, I am against this policy in it's current form.
For the record, no, I'm not a pedo.

That out of the way, I have to ask,

How can you ask if he's a pedo, when what is being censored isn't defined as pedophilia, or even illegal? This same content is releasing on Steam or Switch(of all places), and yet, you don't see law enforcement arresting retailers for selling, placing injunctions of Nintendo for allowing it, game developers and publishers being put in jail for creating it, or the person buying the games being arrested and put on the sex offenders registry for possessing it.

Seriously, the people saying this is about child porn, or some level of child exploitation/porn, are seriously some of the most misinformed, misguided, and ultimately come across as some of the most idiotic on this site....and that's saying a lot.

I actually think Sony's reasoning on this is rational. It's logical in the sense that they don't want to promote this kind of stuff. I don't feel the reasoning to get to that rationale is really substantiated in the grand scheme of things because their rationale, and logic to get to that rationale, is based on a small subset of the larger market, and that subset hasn't had any real negative effect on game sales, nor has having this content been a burden to Sony, or any other console maker/store front who decides it's acceptable on their platform.

I think the policy is legitimate, because Sony can do pretty much whatever they want. It sucks, but it's the way it is, and it's the right of any platform or store front to decide what can be on said hardware/service. Whether we like it or not doesn't change that, and all we can do is express our support or disdain for those decisions, vote with our wallet if we feel it necessary, or leave it be. There may be other courses of action one can take, but outside monetary impact to the platforms in question, they aren't likely to do much in response.

[Varodor]

@ rainslacker
For the record, I did not ask you. Thank

[Varodor]

@gangsta_red
l know you are sad green troll.
Why pretending you not anti-sony. Your comment history is giving you away.

[CrimsonWing69]

No, actually it isn’t, especially in M rated games. You’re going to tell me when your competition doesn’t censor games that you do, that it’s rational? Let’s just lens flair butt cracks because god forbid there be any nudity in an R rated game but let’s rip peoples’ heads off and disembowel them because that’s better.

Get out of here if you think that way!

[gangsta_red]

You have to look at the actual games that Sony is censoring themselves.

Look at the pic in this article, does that look like it's from a M rated game?

These games that Sony are censoring all seem to be from a very niche genre that portrays it's anime women ambiguous in the age department. Not to mention in stressful situations where you the user sometimes interacts with that stress. Plus an art style that looks like a lot of children cartoons out now.

This is very different from their western game counterparts where the characters are more realistic and no question about their age, so yes, that level of violence and sexualization is 'acceptable' for Sony.

Good for the competition if they don't do it. But Sony does, get the same game on that competing system if you want.

#dealwithit

[gam3r_4_lif3]

@gangsta its past your bed time let the adults talk

[gangsta_red]

About cartoon bewbs and polygon panty hose in 900p? Yeah, I'll let you *adults* discuss that.

[MegaKooter]

damn, that downvote ratio tho.

[HisokaTheMagician]

I can't wait until Mortal Kombat 12 comes out and it's leaked that Sony asked the game's violence to be toned down, and the people who are sucking Sony's cock finally wake up.

It's only a matter of time. First it's sexual content, then it's violence. What next? Maybe Sony will not allow skeletons in their games like China.

[LOGICWINS]

I'd like this comment 10x if I could. I hope Microsoft takes a jab at Sony with regards to censorship during their E3 conference.

[chadwarden]

MS doesn't even have most of these weeb games. The fact MS has been silent about this the whole time(when they are always quick to talk smack on twitter with everything else) shows they don't want any of that smoke either. MS would basically be saying to the world media come play your high school anime tiddies on our platform....yeah not happening

[Fonso128]

MS won’t because they’re a bunch of politically correct pieces of shit just like Sony. Well at least Nintendo isn’t PC like Soynie and Microshaft. Nintendo focuses on making better AAA games than their idiot competitors ever will.

[outsider1624]

Didn't Ms refuse Heavy Rain because it had kidnapping or something like that.
They're probably gonna avoid this whole fiasco too.

[rainslacker]

MS will ignore the issue because they know those that complain about it are a small vocal minority. They know that it will have no effect on them in the bigger picture, so they don't highlight their own place in the debate to bring them unwanted attention. You notice how no one is going around being all pissy and offended towards Nintendo about this, because Nintendo isn't taking a stance, they just don't have a censorship policy, and since no one really cares about "anime tiddies", or "underage porn" or whatever else people use to shame people about this, they get no criticism at all for still allowing it.

If either Nintendo or MS made a public statement saying they were OK with these games, the opinion pieces would be on them, and how they are evil, and despite it being a vocal minority with no real influence, they'd have to deal with the social media fallout, which ultimately, is pretty pointless and wouldn't have any great affect on them.

Something Sony should have already known, and the fallout they're getting now is likely to have more affect than the results brought on by those who were offended by these apparent unsuitable things they think need to be censored now because of some random, unspecified reason that kind of came out of nowhere, from people who don't seem to play the kinds of games in question to begin with, or games at all.

[CobraKai]

Imagine. FINISH HIM. Background darkens. Blinding light. FATALITY.

[Seraphim]

well, Mortal Kombat is why we have the ESRB.

[SegaGamer]

It's a shame Sony ignores the ESRB when it comes to few jiggly boobies.

[rainslacker]

ESRB was an acceptable, and reasonable solution to the issue of violence in games. It also served to be a acceptable and reasonable solution to the issue of more provocative content in games.

[Fonso128]

Sony has the worst fanboys in gaming. Sony pours gasoline on the fire and their dumbass fanboys keep defending it. Soon games like GTA 6 will have its missions and extra content taken out because of these Sony fags.

[DarkKaine]

Remember how we used to have green blood to tone down violence on Nintendo consoles?
It seems the tables have turned! :p
Why is it that the most successful player in a console generation always has to be the biggest killjoy.

[gamer7804]

MK already self censored with their character designs, I don't see why we should stop there, tone down the violence altogether.

[jeki]

Who do you want to make those decisions, Sony or some other entity?

[JonTheGod]

The devs and ESRB/PEGI. No-one else should have a say.

[GreenFrogWarriorPepe]

People, let me explain why Sony's censorship is bad, in my opinion.

If they can censor something as harmless as girls' visible legs or game logos that look like boobs, it's obvious that they would not be beyond doing something like going to a horror game studio and saying "your game is too scary, tone it down".

I'm just worried that this will spread from boobs to other things. How could you possibly say that it won't? If I could get a 100% certain answer that no, it never will, then I wouldn't care about this as much.

[Teflon02]

Please tell the the "girls visible leg's" isn't the Lulua crap because that one specifically is reaching so damn hard it's actually so annoying because it literally shows how ridiculous ppl can be about censorship and blaming sjw agenda's for every single decision. That one was simply Case Size, in both cases they were clearly trying to get the horse out the picture and PS4's more square case had to cut a bit more of Lulua's Legs unlike the Switches long skinny case.

The other stuff is a bit of a reach too. Look where we are right now. Nintendo cut back on censoring after years upon years doing so. Sony will just give up after a bit. I'm not for or against censoring. I look at the subject at hand. I think some cases were censors that made sense. Some were dumb. Alot of it seems like they're against ridiculousness, which is understandable. I don't think a game like say Senran needs censoring because of it or anything. But I've definitely ran into my fair share of smh moments I wished were non existent in some games. I just think they need to actually have a base for what they deem a problem which is the main issue I have. Then I'd judge if they're doing evil or good. As of now, it doesn't seem to be Sony directly, but more so specific individuals as it's not consistent at all. Nep RPG is a prime example. Vert while being underage as a Highschool senior by the time she became a CPU, her of all ppl getting a censor but not Neps underwear shot while she's been a CPU at like age 13-14 and such. It's just... dumb at this point. It's like no ones actually doing anything specifically and someone plays 5 mins and just says they don't wanna see vert and such lol. I've always thought Neps one downfall is the underage suggestive and fanservice.I think it definitely needed to tone it down from the moment they actually released Neptunia U and had close break on Rom and Ram. While it wasn't extreme for them. It was really bothersome and I immediately went and got everyone unbreakable clothes in the game so I'd never see it again lol. Blanc fixed that thankfully though

[rainslacker]

I think because of the policy, every case of change is attributed to Sony's censorship policy. This is wrong in my opinion, because for most of these games, there has been some level of censorship through the localization process from NISA, Marvelous, and Atlus for well on 10 years now. It even happened before that, but wasn't due as much to vocal outcry, just general beliefs about what was acceptable. These kinds of changes still happen for these games in the Switch ports, or even the PC ones.

I do believe Sony should be called out for things that they are responsible for, but the publishers of the game shouldn't get a free pass on this issue. While it's rare they were ever censored to the extent Sony did, they aren't blameless.

[Fonso128]

For gamers concerned about Sony’s fraudulent hypothetical disingenuous censoring. I got a solution. It’s time to ditch woke Sony and join the PC MASTER RACE!

[otakuapologist]

Of course this censorship will spread, it's been spreading for years to the point we can't even engage in normal conversations anymore without triggering a dozen hate speech laws. The billionaire human traffickers who control our politics are using every avenue to spread their grid of control, so they can keep safely raking in more billions from selling humans, harvested organs, and drugs.

The world is burning and will continue to burn, because real investigative journalism has been systematically and discreetly eliminated. Julian Assange is going in jail, newspapers are being shut down, independent news are banned everywhere, search algorithms are manipulated to snuff out dissenting websites, governments decide what social medias can post (Germany and Facebook good example), Youtube, Twitter, Google, Tumblr ban every opinion they don't like, Paypal, Mastercard, and banks deny service based on political opinions.

The only politics that are allowed anymore are the ones that incur massive generations-spanning national debt, because that's how the global central banking cartel makes its profits. And the more our governments are in debt, the less they can resist the bankers' demands. The entire western world is set to collapse.

You may think what I say is unrelated, but it's not. Everything connects to the globalist agenda.

[Realms]

Nah violence isn't a concern but nudity and sexual themes are more likely to get censored in the West just based solely on the culture and what said culture will tolerate, the mainstream media won't tolerate overtly sexual themes in games because many people still believe video games are for children in the West despite this not being the case. Things get censored in different regions of the world for various reasons be it cultural, religious, etc.

[jeki]

I'm far more concerned about The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act.

Who would you rather have making decisions, Sony or the federal government?

[PhoenixUp]

Why is Sony trying to act like they’re everyone’s parents now?

[ziggurcat]

They're not.

[Blank]

Oh? They are not? Why do they have an actual committee like staff? https://www.oneangrygamer.n... the ESRB exist for a reason we don't need two separate filters.

[ginganinja]

@Blank
Every publisher out there has staff that 'censor' what is allowed to be published. Every single game would have been edited to ensure it fits the criteria for the ESRB rating the publisher wants. Devs don't just make whatever game they feel like and just accept the rating the ESRB gives them.

[PhoenixUp]

Cuz they’re not censoring content because they think they know better like a parent

[ziggurcat]

They aren't.

[ziggurcat]

@myst

"repeating the same incorrect comment doesn't make it any less incorrect."

it's not an incorrect comment. they aren't doing any of that.

"When you censor something, you're denying someone's right to CHOOSE whether they want to be exposed to that thing or not."

No.

"If the developer made a violent or sexual game, it's MY choice to decide if I want to play such a game or say no."

uh huh... except they're not censoring games that contain sexual content or violence, they're making the dissemination of child pornography, and rape simulators more difficult. the only ones crying about this are those who seem to think those two things are okay. name one main stream game that has been censored by Sony because of its violent and sexual content (devil may cry 5 is invalid as it had nothing to do with Sony unless you want to make the argument that Sony also censored the Xbox One and PC versions as well).

[Rachel_Alucard]

@ziggurcat

Do your research before you comment. I guarantee the only exposure you've gotten to any of these titles is headlines saying they were censored. You also have no idea what classifies as CP, because fictional video game girls are not CP regardless of their imposed age. Point me where any of the censored games had Rape or CP in them. You won't find either in any of these games. But you'll find underage sex in Life is Strange season 2 without so much as a mention by anyone. It's pure hypocrisy targeting Japanese titles.

[ziggurcat]

@rachel

One of the images in the article is three underage females with their breasts covered by some mist/cloud. So... whatever game that that image is from.

“fictional video game girls are not CP regardless of their imposed age”

Yes it is.

[Rachel_Alucard]

@ziggurcat

Look up the actual law please instead of relying on some emotional ground. https://puu.sh/DxnTX/cd7c47...

And that pic you pointed out was not even censored by Sony, that's actually how it looked even before the censorship started taking place in fall last year. No nudity was present even in the original design. That game (Mary Skelter 2) has now skipped the PS4 and went to switch in the west to avoid dealing with Sony's dice roll of a policy. Defending this while having no clue about what you're talking about makes you look foolish.

[yomfweeee]

@Myst.

Stop talking about rights. This is a private business. You have no rights other than whether you buy the game or not.

[rainslacker]

For the children is just their go-to PR nonsense when they don't want to tell you the real reason. in the case of cross play, assuming you don't read between the lines, it's because they couldn't/wouldn't work with MS to make it happen. With this, it's to avoid saying how they don't like the negative social media attention it brings them when one of these games happens to flare up in the media for a week or so....which is weird, because the last major one I can think of was Criminal Girls, and that was more just some reviewers downrating the game, and the fan boys coming in saying how the Vita was just a kiddie porn simulator, and that was the extent of the games it got.

Sony doesn't need to think of the children. The average age of a console gamer is well over 25 years old. The number of 18 and younger players on consoles across the board doesn't even top the 15% mark as of 2 years ago. While that is a significant number of people under 18, that number drops to less than 6% for players 13 and under. At age 14-18, anything that was already allowed on the system is probably something that most people will be exposed to through typical social interaction on facebook or school. Hell, in many cases they may be already actively searching out that kind of content, or worse.

[hellztourguide420]

Right?! It's like we are asking Sony "make me a burger" and they say "poof! You're a burger!" Sorry, I couldn't help myself. In all seriousness, Fuck censorship.

[Realms]

What? Japanese games have always been censored or changed for the Western audiences this isn't new. Odd that so many people have an issue with this considering the topic but it's not like games are the only ones that suffer from sexual themes getting hit hard and having to alter or change something in order to make them acceptable to widest demographic in the West. Import the games if it matters that much I know it isn't ideal or cost effective but if you want that type of unfiltered entertainment it's going to cost you a premium.

[rainslacker]

The policy is worldwide for Sony, and worse, SIE-America, is the one that gets to decide for the entire world. So, a game in Japan, only ever meant to release in Japan has to abide by the rules of the US Sony.

While you are right that it's far from uncommon that many of these games do get censored in the west, in particular the anime-centric type titles with rather copious fan service, this policy is affecting things that wouldn't have gotten censored, as evidenced by the fact that they're releasing without these changes, or fewer changes on other platforms.

I don't like this policy, because I've been against these changes from publishers in localizations for decades now. All the way back to Working Designs 20-30 years ago, where it wasn't even about this kind of sexual content. I've spoken out against the localization changes for Marvelous, NISA, Atlus, etc. This censorship policy from Sony allows those publishers to pass the buck, and puts all the blame on Sony, even though they still release it with censorship on other platforms.

But more so, I don't think Sony should be mandating the policy in the way it's written, because it's way too broad in interpretation, and doesn't give the publisher or developer enough information to work with on what is acceptable. It means more time spent working with compliance, rather than working with the game.

If this were just about some "kiddie porn" titles, then I'd actually understand that, and I'd actually be hard pressed to argue against it, even though I'd still not really agree personally since the content isn't actually illegal. But it's not just about that, and the number of titles which contain that kind of content statistically insignificant to the actual number of games which have been affected by this policy.