Sony - The Elephant In The Room

[RodgerDodger]

Do we actually have proof that Sony Japan has spoken out about Sony USA’s bullshit? I thought it was just external Japanese companies who do business with Sony who’ve spoken out

We have some signs. Not over here with the Funi stuff. But SONY Entertainment (USA) and SONY Japan (Evil Corporate Overlords) are starting to give different and conflicting answers to questions and issues arising in the Playstation world. This is seemingly a new thing as prior to this Japan stayed out of it. Just in the past 2-3 weeks they have started talking, and what they are saying isn't lining up with the SJW's in SONY's California offices. I think the thing that has flagged Sony Japan's attention and put the Game Studios in such open revolt that they have run to Papa in Tokyo is Sony Entertainment is refusing to give out any firm written rules and guidelines regarding permitted content in Video games. Instead there seem to be a pair of highly placed SJW's in California that are operating a scheme to control the debate, and just reject whatever they wish for spurious offences. They are deliberately avoiding codifying anything in order to maintain total personal (SJW) discretion. This is costing the Game Publishers a lot of time and money to deal with. They went to Japan. Japan has apparently gotten pissed.

 

[5t3n0g0ph3r]

There was something even smaller than that. The patches with Bulma's image and KickVic existed for less than 24 hours. Overnight the same night they appeared a DMCA killed them dead in the water. You can find small things like this constantly, but such a tiny insignificant product being gone after so incredibly fast is mind blowing.

Oh, you sweet Summer Child!

 

[MirrorNoir]

Do we actually have proof that Sony Japan has spoken out about Sony USA’s bullshit? I thought it was just external Japanese companies who do business with Sony who’ve spoken out

They don't like it, but Sony of America's SJW Mafia executives told them fuck off since Sony of Japan is pretty hands off with the US branch (since the Playstation was never a big hit in Japan, like it was in the US) and then, basically doubled down by putting the fear in the Japanese developers telling them they had to bend the knee to the SJW Mafia or never have their releases see the light of day in the US. Causing self-censorship to happen, much to the dismay of the Japanese PS fans since Sony of Japan in general, again, lets Sony of America do whatever they want and would have to get more involved than they would like, in order to actually stop the problem.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

They don't like it, but Sony of America's SJW Mafia executives told them fuck off since Sony of Japan is pretty hands off with the US branch (since the Playstation was never a big hit in Japan, like it was in the US) and then, basically doubled down by putting the fear in the Japanese developers telling them they had to bend the knee to the SJW Mafia or never have their releases see the light of day in the US. Causing self-censorship to happen, much to the dismay of the Japanese PS fans since Sony of Japan in general, again, lets Sony of America do whatever they want and would have to get more involved than they would like, in order to actually stop the problem.

And because of this, the Game division's behavior has spread to all the other media branches of the American side.

 

[UE 558]

They don't like it, but Sony of America's SJW Mafia executives told them fuck off since Sony of Japan is pretty hands off with the US branch (since the Playstation was never a big hit in Japan, like it was in the US) and then, basically doubled down by putting the fear in the Japanese developers telling them they had to bend the knee to the SJW Mafia or never have their releases see the light of day in the US. Causing self-censorship to happen, much to the dismay of the Japanese PS fans since Sony of Japan in general, again, lets Sony of America do whatever they want and would have to get more involved than they would like, in order to actually stop the problem.

Sounds extremely plausible (this is coming from a disgruntled PS fan mind you), but you got any sources to cite that shit?

 

[Doomguy246]

The idea of Sony Japan deciding to night of long knives the entire Sony US executive team for all US departments over the censorship stuff with a heaping helping of "Funi what the fuck is this shit you lost us millions of dollars for no reason" gives me a huge hard on, but I can't see it happening for at least a year (which is very optimistic) and I'd guess Vic would be a secondary factor at best.

Inertia is a hell of a drug for large corporations, and typically changes would be likely after stockholders pitch an open revolt over numerous bad earnings reports from the video game division (which IIRC is kind of keeping Sony afloat but that info may be out of date). Even then they might not identify the actual cause.

If I had to guess, we'd need a minimum of 1 year of margin impinging depressed sales from the video game division that starts within a month or two of the great burka-ing, and combine that with the Vic situation going extremely poorly for Funi and by association Sony. Vic can still win (by settlement) and have the outcome not considered to have gone "extremely poorly" at a corporate level for Sony that nighttime knife play at the US division is necessitated, depending on the level of terrible press and monetary loss for Sony (for example if Sony isn't actually financially hit due to Funi needing to pay Vic but it's not enough that Sony gets hit up for the bill, and there isn't a bunch of bad press directly impacting Sony).

My more realistic guess is any night of long knives would come after a disastrous PS5 launch, and have more to do with that being an unmitigated disaster due to their former Limited Edition and Titty Game crowd not showing up than Vic/Funi. Sony will probably sever with Funi and let them ride to oblivion solo at the first chance they get in the hopes of quietly minimizing damages.

That's just a bunch of guessing though.

Just remember that Nintendo used to be the punching bag with regards to game censorship, and note how long it took for them to reverse course.

Big N censored games from DAy 1. They never lost sales due to it.

 

[HarblMcDavid]

Big N censored games from DAy 1. They never lost sales due to it.

This is getting kind of off topic, but assuming "day 1" means "from their inception", true, but irrelevant.

With Nintendo, specific complaints of late were localization related (does not impact JP market) and I'd tend to agree that Nintendo's total damages from such idiocy were quite limited as austismos that cared probably bought the JP versions. Also it is only recently that Nintendo started to publish titty games with any regularity.

By contrast, Sony's galaxy brained plan impacts ALL markets AND screws up games which get absurdly expensive and sought after limited edition releases. This combined with Nintendo quietly not giving a shit and publishing un-censored forks of what games they can (which is something new) does not bode well as Sony specifically positioned themselves as mainstream console Titty Game HQ over the last decade or so and then almost overnight decided to go scorched earth on that market in the worst possible way if they intended that market to maintain continued purchases.

We shall see I suppose.

 

[king of pickles]

Wasn't X360 the leading platform of its generation for most of its lifetime? It was implied that Japan exclusives and genres like JRPG managed to turn it around late in the life of PS3. X360 seemed to have more games from Japan than X-Box One. And Xbone seems to be like a platform that has few exclusives which may be another explanation for its abysmal sales compared to its predecessor. Sony will definitely suffer, especially since the Playstation department is one of its most reliable moneymakers, while many of its other businesses have/had a hard time.

 

[Marissa Moira]

This is getting kind of off topic, but assuming "day 1" means "from their inception", true, but irrelevant.

With Nintendo, specific complaints of late were localization related (does not impact JP market) and I'd tend to agree that Nintendo's total damages from such idiocy were quite limited as austismos that cared probably bought the JP versions. Also it is only recently that Nintendo started to publish titty games with any regularity.

By contrast, Sony's galaxy brained plan impacts ALL markets AND screws up games which get absurdly expensive and sought after limited edition releases. This combined with Nintendo quietly not giving a shit and publishing un-censored forks of what games they can (which is something new) does not bode well as Sony specifically positioned themselves as mainstream console Titty Game HQ over the last decade or so and then almost overnight decided to go scorched earth on that market in the worst possible way if they intended that market to maintain continued purchases.

We shall see I suppose.

Sony's big deal japanese games were never titty games, ever.

Stuff like Breath of Fire, Suikoden, Final Fantasy, Shadow Hearts, .hack, Dragon Quest, Persona, Resident Evil, Koudelka, Tales of, Arc The Lad, Lunar, Dance Dance Revolution, Hatsune Miku, Point Blank, Tekken, King's Field/Souls, Metal Gear, Kingdom hearts these were the japanese games people gave a shit over.

Titty games only started appearing in the west in some form during the late PS3 era and they were primarily on The Vita.

Visual Novels were the same deal they were entirely absent from the PS1 and PS2(Policenauts and Stalker were never ported by Konami due to them seeing that the west wanted real games after Metal gear sold a shitload), got very limited releases in the west on PS3(Steins gate for PS3 only got a physical release in Europe) and some made it to the PS4 and Vita.

The games that Sony is targeting also isn't removing the boobs, but interactive petting shit. Eurogamer was what killed Omega Labyrinth Z with them proclaiming that the game was digital molestation. Now in the game you would rub the girls chests in a QTE until their bras exploded or increased in size. Senran kagura got the dressing room removed witch was one of these modes but they kept in everything else from the stripping to clothes destroying.

It's not a ban on nudity just interactive girl sim stuff.

The company that made the game with those God Rays were even able to release multiple sequels entirely unchanged on the switch and PS4 and it turned out the devs were being faggots and over reacted.

 

[HarblMcDavid]

I think you read some things into my post which I didn't claim, I don't disagree with your claim about timing (note I said "last decade", 2009 is solidly PS3 era), nor did I claim that titty games were "big deal" games in a greater sense. I'm aware of the history dating back to the PSX era, I'm staring at a wall quite literally filled with it.

My only claim in that regard is that most of those titty games get those overpriced LE Editions (which weebs such as myself buy out like locusts). More widely culturally relevant or not, they seem to be pretty predictable moneymakers if how quick they sell out is any indication.

As for what the policy specifically says, unclear if that will matter as they likely lost the PR war early in the circles it matters over here. Can't speak to Japanese circles.

To bring this full circle to the relevant part of the discussion (Sony and what if any financial pressures could impact things), in a world where Sony isn't shitting the bed in all other divisions simultaneously except the games division, I think your point is well taken. Problem is, I'm pretty sure Sony is losing money almost everywhere except games (and again, someone correct me if that is a woefully out of date perception) so a reduction that wouldn't otherwise impact the apple cart meaningfully might in a situation where that is the only healthy division being relied upon by the whole company.

I know for sure how much I won't be and currently am not paying Sony for the "big deal" non-titty games (and of course titty games) out of spite now that almost all those games I used to buy on the PS4 are being released on the Switch too. And it's pretty decent chunk of change. 4 figures a year easy.

Not sure how numerous similarly behaving scorned weebs are, and I'm pretty sure we won't know for at least a year as my earlier posts alluded to.

As I said before, we shall see.

 

[Plank]

Wasn't X360 the leading platform of its generation for most of its lifetime? It was implied that Japan exclusives and genres like JRPG managed to turn it around late in the life of PS3. X360 seemed to have more games from Japan than X-Box One. And Xbone seems to be like a platform that has few exclusives which may be another explanation for its abysmal sales compared to its predecessor. Sony will definitely suffer, especially since the Playstation department is one of its most reliable moneymakers, while many of its other businesses have/had a hard time.

What fucking planet are you posting from?

The Xbox 360 came in dead last place. It never even was the top selling console worldwide for even a single month last gen.

And how in the world can anyone be surprised that when Microsoft sold the single most defective piece of consumer electronics that resulted in tens of millions of duplicate consoles being bought that their worldwide sales would crash right back down to the first Xbox marketplace failure levels.

The first half of last gen the Wii fad had Nintendo leading sales worldwide.
Once the Wii fad died off Sony retook worldwide sales leader until the PS4 was released where it has continued to dominate the console market and has now reached 100 million worldwide.

Absolutely no one outside of forums like this one or occasional social media posts have console gamers giving a damn about random bits of censorship.

The PS4's latest exclusive is selling like mad - topping the latest UK sales charts.

This claimed 'Sony boycott' by gamers is pure fantasyland.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Sony already owns Aniplex which if Funimation fucks up will then absorb all Funimation assets

I think you read some things into my post which I didn't claim, I don't disagree with your claim about timing (note I said "last decade", 2009 is solidly PS3 era), nor did I claim that titty games were "big deal" games in a greater sense. I'm aware of the history dating back to the PSX era, I'm staring at a wall quite literally filled with it.

My only claim in that regard is that most of those titty games get those overpriced LE Editions (which weebs such as myself buy out like locusts). More widely culturally relevant or not, they seem to be pretty predictable moneymakers if how quick they sell out is any indication.

As for what the policy specifically says, unclear if that will matter as they likely lost the PR war early in the circles it matters over here. Can't speak to Japanese circles.

To bring this full circle to the relevant part of the discussion (Sony and what if any financial pressures could impact things), in a world where Sony isn't shitting the bed in all other divisions simultaneously except the games division, I think your point is well taken. Problem is, I'm pretty sure Sony is losing money almost everywhere except games (and again, someone correct me if that is a woefully out of date perception) so a reduction that wouldn't otherwise impact the apple cart meaningfully might in a situation where that is the only healthy division being relied upon by the whole company.

I know for sure how much I won't be and currently am not paying Sony for the "big deal" non-titty games (and of course titty games) out of spite now that almost all those games I used to buy on the PS4 are being released on the Switch too. And it's pretty decent chunk of change. 4 figures a year easy.

Not sure how numerous similarly behaving scorned weebs are, and I'm pretty sure we won't know for at least a year as my earlier posts alluded to.

As I said before, we shall see.

Ys 9, Cold Steel 3 and 4, Sakura Wars, and many other games are not heading to the switch or other platforms.

NISA is under contract for Falcom games and neither company wants to splurge for ports anymore since the cost of porting is more than the profits they turned the last few times they ported to switch and PC since the audience didn't show up.

The next Utawererumono games are not censored either since they were released in japan uncensored and this was while the new policy was in place

Sega isn't bringing Sakura Wars to PC since nobody on any other platform bothered to buy VC4 in any significant numbers outside of playstation

Going by how well Kingdom hearts sold and the fact that the next Persona game is a PS4 exclusive weebs aren't scorned.

Companies like Compile Heart/Idea Factory being hit is a good thing to most weebs, because they churned out nothing but suffocating trash for 25+ years and someone putting the screws to them to end their putrid waifu garbage is seen as a net positive because waifu crap has been ruining anime for a long long time. It's not the subject matter that weebs find distasteful it's the fact they pump out low effort shit for everything. The newest neptunia game still has game breaking bugs that cease the game from functioning. CH/IF is like the funko pops of anime and video games, they clog up everything with garbage. And much like Funkos they only survive due to posers buying shit for identity cred.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Sony already owns Aniplex which if Funimation fucks up will then absorb all Funimation assets

To be fair, Sony is such a huge fucking company that it's different divisions might as well be completely unrelated companies.

Different divisions have actually sued each other on more than one occasion

 

[AnOminous]

Sony already owns Aniplex which if Funimation fucks up will then absorb all Funimation assets

That's how I see it resolving if the fight ever hits the level that Toei and Sony Japan give a shit about it. Toei gets Funimation shitcanned, Sony offers to do the same shit through Aniplex, business goes on, nobody loses face (except Funimation who nobody gives a fuck about).

 

[Empty Donation Box]

To be fair, Sony is such a huge fucking company that it's different divisions might as well be completely unrelated companies.

Different divisions have actually sued each other on more than one occasion

Sony's so god damn big that even Sony doesn't know what all they make. They're losing money or pushing trash product in more verticals than anyone else out there. They're like a bizarro GE.

 

[Marissa Moira]

To be fair, Sony is such a huge fucking company that it's different divisions might as well be completely unrelated companies.

Different divisions have actually sued each other on more than one occasion

Actually different divisions suing each other isn't that uncommon

It's nothing that's out of bounds or even an act of self destruction, it's got everything to do with regular finances and book keeping. It's what resolves things like discrepancies in company resources. Nobody has the legal authority to just write check from one department to the other for these large companies, so they need their lawyers to sort them out. They need a paper trail so everything can be documented for the solution.

 

[Stoneheart]

With Nintendo, specific complaints of late were localization related (does not impact JP market) and I'd tend to agree that Nintendo's total damages from such idiocy were quite limited as austismos that cared probably bought the JP versions. Also it is only recently that Nintendo started to publish titty games with any regularity.

Nintendo did it to get a Kid friendly image in the west, and it worked realy well.

especially since the Playstation department is one of its most reliable moneymakers, while many of its other businesses have/had a hard time.

just in the ps4 era.

Sony is still not a very fit or well run company, they need alot of profits to keep the sharks at bay.

 

[Munchingonfish]

Ys 9, Cold Steel 3 and 4, Sakura Wars, and many other games are not heading to the switch or other platforms.

NISA is under contract for Falcom games and neither company wants to splurge for ports anymore since the cost of porting is more than the profits they turned the last few times they ported to switch and PC since the audience didn't show up.

The next Utawererumono games are not censored either since they were released in japan uncensored and this was while the new policy was in place

Sega isn't bringing Sakura Wars to PC since nobody on any other platform bothered to buy VC4 in any significant numbers outside of playstation

This is an old Japanese trick. They get you to buy the shitty version on console and then release it again, but this time it's portable or in 4K. Look at how Ys 8 was released. It's a business model that works.

 

[Marissa Moira]

This is an old Japanese trick. They get you to buy the shitty version on console and then release it again, but this time it's portable or in 4K. Look at how Ys 8 was released. It's a business model that works.

They released the best version of Ys8 in the holiday bundle which was a PS4 exclusive.

 

[Munchingonfish]

They released the best version of Ys8 in the holiday bundle which was a PS4 exclusive.

That's because NISA is an asstacular company that doesn't know what it's doing. In most cases, the PC version would be better. It's still true they trickled out platforms for that game to milk their speds. Bandai is doing that a lot now on Switch. They're announcing ports months after a game's initial release in the hopes that spergs buy again for portability.