Sony allegedly starting to censor depictions of violence in games starting with dismemberments

Dwarvenhobble

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Sony is censoring violent depictions in video games according to a recent report. The degree of violence in video games has been a controversial aspect for quite a while now. It is often debated that games should have lower degrees of violence to make them accessible to a larger audience.
According to a report on GameSpark Japan (via ResetEra user ILikeFeet), Sony is asking developers to remove violent depictions in video games. This comes from the Japanese development studio Cyberconnect2’s President and CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama who states that Sony compelled the developers to make changes in the Naruto Ultimate series. One of the characters in the game, Minato Namikaze, was missing an arm in the original story. However, in the final game, his arm was present to comply with Sony’s policies.
So seems like Anime Boob were only the start and now Sony is moving on to restrict violence starting with dismemberment a move that feels somewhat reminiscent of the Australian video game rating board policy that saw Left 4 Dead have to cut out limb removal from the Australian version of the game.
 

laggyteabag

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Seems unlikely.

I'll believe it when God of War 2 censors itself, and is T for Teen.

I don't foresee that happening.
 

09philj

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Minors are a large audience for videogames. Broadly speaking, parents tend to be opposed to allowing their children to view material containing violence, sex, profanity, drug abuse, or threatening or scary scenes, with the exact nature of the material deemed most inappropriate varying across cultures. It is in the interest of game publishers to put games into the hands of as many people as possible, so it is unsurprising that they would prefer levels of violence to be toned down, as long as they think people won't mind reduced levels of violence.

I don't personally care about how violent games are, one way or another, and I'm particularly indifferent to how large companies curate the mass market media they produce. I would rather live in a system where profit motive was not a necessary component of the production of art, but we do, and brands have to consider their image.
 

Gergar12

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At one point they will get rid of it all together knowing how much the ruling liberal class liberals in California hate violence in video games, but love nudity or how people in my region of the midwest hate nudity but don't care about violence.

It's all society constructed anyways. Religion is a social construct, violence, and or nudity in games, and their acceptance is a social construct.

Basically, we as a society decide if it's okay, or not okay. So are we as a society going to ban all vices, or are some people/elites going to pick the vices that are culturally unacceptable or ones they like?

Yes, I know Sony is Japanese, but they are letting the bigger consumer base from western countries in Europe, and the US decide which basically means the social liberals in Games Journalism, are deciding. And while conservatives like the TheQuartering, Upper Echelon Gaming will say only the people who started early on a game, and people who play games should change a game I disagree. Companies are driven by profit, and new players = more profit. All consumers and possible consumers are equal, that doesn't mean anti-Christan video games should pander to the Catholic church, but women and people of color, and even liberals should get a say in say AAA COD games.

That being said, Games serve multiple purposes. Relieve stress, art, being an elitist PVP player, challenge, social activities, friends, social activity away from friends, decouple from life, etc. I would argue the most potential games have is to stop wars. They are a way to act out wars without fighting them, and I argue they do it better than Sports which numerous studies have argued has created peace like between India, and Pakistan(Cricket), The World(Fifa), and also Ping Pong Diplomacy with Nixon, and Deng(China).

In the future militaries will conduct wars via VR simulations, and virtual military exercises. This will create kinship between militaries, and they will hopefully stop hating each other. Violence in gaming serves as an outlet from violence in real life.

And yes while I don't like Mortal Kombat because it's graphic, I don't like banning stuff just because I don't use it, or I dislike it, unlike some people(California Liberal). Also, I heard from an NPR journalist that California doesn't like violent video games, so that's my source.

Yes, death threats, racism, and sexism are bad, and video games are very toxic, believe me; as someone who used to play lots of PVP, I have heard my fair share of toxicity.

I would also like the people who want to ban violence in games to what evidence they have that it's bad and not just non-evidence tautology of it's bad because it's bad. Because E-Sports is Sports, and I have plenty of evidence that sports lead to peace from my political science undergrad, and video game journal articles that show video games lead to better societal outcomes.
 

Casual Shinji

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From the linked article it only seems Sony asked one developer to remove dismemberment on a character, not that this is going to be the new mandate going forward.

It would be highly unlikely that Sony would get rid of all violent dismemberment on human characters in their games. It would mean the Playstation version of every future Resident Evil would get laughed off the stage. And I doubt Sony would be stupid enough to put themselves in that position. I mean, big, bouncy, anime titties are seen as quite niche and embarrassing, so they can sorta get away with being a bit prudish about that. But violence is, like, 80% of AAA "credibility", not to mention Naughty Dog, a.k.a. Mr. Violence Makes for Genuine Drama, is their prized stallion.

Unless there's been some recent controversy I wasn't aware of that scared the piss out of Sony.
 

Gergar12

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Minors are a large audience for videogames. Broadly speaking, parents tend to be opposed to allowing their children to view material containing violence, sex, profanity, drug abuse, or threatening or scary scenes, with the exact nature of the material deemed most inappropriate varying across cultures. It is in the interest of game publishers to put games into the hands of as many people as possible, so it is unsurprising that they would prefer levels of violence to be toned down, as long as they think people won't mind reduced levels of violence.

I don't personally care about how violent games are, one way or another, and I'm particularly indifferent to how large companies curate the mass market media they produce. I would rather live in a system where profit motive was not a necessary component of the production of art, but we do, and brands have to consider their image.
As someone who worked at Gamestop, I literally saw parents buy GTA5, Mountains of COD, and the newest violent game everyday. It's OTHER parents want to socially engineer a society without things they don't like or perhaps understand.
 

Drathnoxis

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Uh oh, this seems like a bad idea. If I can't get my dismemberment and gore fix from video games I'm going to have to start exploring other avenues, and that might get me in trouble...

In the future militaries will conduct wars via VR simulations, and virtual military exercises. This will create kinship between militaries, and they will hopefully stop hating each other. Violence in gaming serves as an outlet from violence in real life.
The thing is, if you do it like that, you still need to send your own citizens to the laser chambers to be vaporized to concur with the results or it doesn't count. Star Trek taught me that.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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Allegedly. One dev. In Japan. Through their country's ratings board. From a redpilled site.

Just played MK11 testing some fatalities. Everything looking standard there still. Another nothings, not enough to down the pill just yet.
 
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Gergar12

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Uh oh, this seems like a bad idea. If I can't get my dismemberment and gore fix from video games I'm going to have to start exploring other avenues, and that might get me in trouble...

The thing is, if you do it like that, you still need to send your own citizens to the laser chambers to be vaporized to concur with the results or it doesn't count. Star Trek taught me that.
I don't watch Star Trek other than the occasional Youtube Video, Stars Wars Legends, or Expanded Universe(EU) on the other hand...
 

CaitSeith

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It would mean the Playstation version of every future Resident Evil would get laughed off the stage.
Interestingly, there are two versions of Resident Evil in Japan (a censored one and a "grotesque" one); and even the "grotesque" version censored things like the decapitated mutated head in the fridge.
 

Casual Shinji

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Interestingly, there are two versions of Resident Evil in Japan (a censored one and a "grotesque" one); and even the "grotesque" version censored things like the decapitated mutated head in the fridge.
Yeah, I know. And maybe japanese audiences are a lot more okay with this, but the West seems to value its AAA violence A LOT. If the western Playstation version of Resident Evil got its violence censored, I fear it would result in an incredible black eye for Sony. And I know Sony is prone to some bonehead decisions, but this would be an unimagineable dozy.

Sony censoring its violence would be like anime censoring its moe.
 

Samtemdo8

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At one point they will get rid of it all together knowing how much the ruling liberal class liberals in California hate violence in video games, but love nudity or how people in my region of the midwest hate nudity but don't care about violence.
Really? Because its becoming rare to see Nudity in mainstream AAA games, even the M rated ones depicted in a sexual manner.

With Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 still not being officially released in the West and Devil May Cry 5 had to censor a butt shot.
 

Gergar12

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Really? Because its becoming rare to see Nudity in mainstream AAA games, even the M rated ones depicted in a sexual manner.

With Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 still not being officially released in the West and Devil May Cry 5 had to censor a butt shot.
I heard it on NPR. Granted the people who call NPR are mainly baby boomers.
 

Gergar12

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Really? Because its becoming rare to see Nudity in mainstream AAA games, even the M rated ones depicted in a sexual manner.

With Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 still not being officially released in the West and Devil May Cry 5 had to censor a butt shot.
Also games with nudity off the top of my head

Heavy Rain

GTA5

Witcher 3

Cyberpunk 2077

A bunch of Steam games that you could google(Kagura Games for example)
 

Avnger

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Also games with nudity off the top of my head

Heavy Rain

GTA5

Witcher 3

Cyberpunk 2077

A bunch of Steam games that you could google(Kagura Games for example)
Ghosts of Tsushima had nudity as well.

So seems like Anime Boob were only the start and now Sony is moving on to restrict violence starting with dismemberment a move that feels somewhat reminiscent of the Australian video game rating board policy that saw Left 4 Dead have to cut out limb removal from the Australian version of the game.
So are we supposed to all get our rage on or our panic on based on a "report" from a random internet user that some CEO allegedly made some comments that Sony, again allegedly, for unstated reasons requested a single developer to remove a single instance of dismemberment from a single game that, being based on a children's anime, is likely targeting a child-age audience?