Sony Succeed in Pressuring MS to Censor Game as Gal Gun Remaster will not release on Xbox

[thefourfoldroot 1,033]

Looks like MS have decided they can’t publish Gal Gun Returns without censorship, and the publishers have courageously decided to drop the platform like they did with Sony.

 

https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2020/12/26/galgun-returns-xbox-one-version-release-cancel-cancelled/

 

Still available on Switch and PC, but must have become all but impossible for MS to risk the bad press of releasing a game Sony had decided was unacceptable to their puritanical ideals.

 

The noose is tightening, as it is in society generally.

Edited January 1 by Beyondthegrave07
Clarified topic title

[diskdocx 1,990]

It is astounding that Nintendo has become the only safe haven for NSFW games. I feel like I could have made serious bank placing a wager on that 10-20 yrs ago.

[Undead Wolf 16,927]

I have a lot of respect for the developer/publisher for deciding not to go through with the Xbox release if it meant censoring their product. A lot of others can learn from their example.

But yes, it turns out Microsoft are just as shit as Sony when it comes to this stuff. They had an opportunity to appeal to an audience Sony has abandoned and maybe even increase their abysmal hardware sales in Japan, but they decided to throw all of that away. Switch and PC are the only viable options for these kinds of games going forward and I'd suggest anyone here who's a fan of these games to invest in one of those platforms, even if PlayStation is still your primary platform of choice.

[awf9495 503]

26 minutes ago, diskdocx said:

It is astounding that Nintendo has become the only safe haven for NSFW games. I feel like I could have made serious bank placing a wager on that 10-20 yrs ago.

 

NSFW games are fine by Sony, as long as they are by Western developers for the sake of "art".

 

I wouldn't say that Sony pressured MS. It is more the mindset of those in the Silicon Valley bubble, including quite a number of games activists, er "journalists".

[diskdocx 1,990]

42 minutes ago, awf9495 said:

 

NSFW games are fine by Sony, as long as they are by Western developers for the sake of "art".

 

I wouldn't say that Sony pressured MS. It is more the mindset of those in the Silicon Valley bubble, including quite a number of games activists, er "journalists".

Actually that's not really true. Sony is fine with Western violence. There is very little sexualized content in any Western games. The odd bit of nudity here and there, but Sony has become very risk averse for anything that might not fit current societal (read social media) accepted norms.

 

I agree that this decision had nothing to do with Sony pressuring MS. If anything, Sony has migrated closer to the stance that MS has always taken as a US based company. Guns good, boobs bad.

 

There really isn't very much freedom anymore in so call 'free' democracies.

[rdhight 363]

4 minutes ago, diskdocx said:

There really isn't very much freedom anymore in so call 'free' democracies.

 

Sure there is. Sony and Microsoft had the freedom to embrace Galgun and games like it, or to reject them. They chose to reject them. The laws, governments, etc. preserved their freedom to make that choice for themselves, and they made it as they had a right to do.

 

This isn't about someone taking away freedom. It's a company using its freedom to make a choice you don't agree with. Freedom also means other people having the freedom to do things you don't like. No one owes you a porn-game.

[MandA60VISE 451]

18 minutes ago, diskdocx said:

Actually that's not really true. Sony is fine with Western violence. There is very little sexualized content in any Western games. The odd bit of nudity here and there, but Sony has become very risk averse for anything that might not fit current societal (read social media) accepted norms.

 

I agree that this decision had nothing to do with Sony pressuring MS. If anything, Sony has migrated closer to the stance that MS has always taken as a US based company. Guns good, boobs bad.

 

There really isn't very much freedom anymore in so call 'free' democracies.

There's a sex scene in Last of Us 2.

[ccase137 150]

The problem with this game is that it depicts school aged / underaged girls, which is a very sensitive fine line that's easy to cross into outrage (even if legal and allowed).  I wonder if Nintendo will eventually do this as well, and then the only place left for these types of games would be PC.

[LoveInHell 1,600]

11 minutes ago, ccase137 said:

The problem with this game is that it depicts school aged / underaged girls, which is a very sensitive fine line that's easy to cross into outrage (even if legal and allowed).  I wonder if Nintendo will eventually do this as well, and then the only place left for these types of games would be PC.

This and a game like this, imo, should be categorised as porn. I don’t want to know how many people got off at this game...

[Beware_Of_Bob 39]

Gal-Gun is going too far honestly.

[MsVelvet 28]

7 minutes ago, LoveInHell said:

This and a game like this, imo, should be categorised as porn. I don’t want to know how many people got off at this game...

Considering the minds of the male population...🤔, im gonna say alot

[DEI2EK 3,086]

3 minutes ago, Beware_Of_Bob said:

Gal-Gun is going too far honestly.

I mean Cyberpunk lets you customize your own junk and no one cares about that. The only titles that see this kind of scrutiny are Japanese.

[ExHaseo 4,211]

I think it's funny they're being called brave for this. Censoring a game would require more work, which costs money and time. This is a very niche game that already isn't going to sell all that many copies. Spending the money to censor the game to sell a few extra copies just wouldn't make sense. They would likely only make back what what spent censoring, if they make money at all. This is a business move more than anything.

 

It will say that I think it's hilarious that Sony and MS are perfectly okay with uncensored boobs in Cyberpunk, but a game like Gal Gun is a no go.

 

Edit: Now that I've actually ready the article. Nowhere did they say that they had to censor or it wouldn't be published. MS passed on it, and that's all we know. They may have just thought the game was bad or poorly optimized.

Edited January 1 by ExHaseo

[talespagni 1,038]

Reading this thread made me remember an essential Benjamin Franklin quote:

 

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

 

Guess it applies not only to the censorship discussed in the thread, but also to practically everything we saw happening in the world in the past year.

 

Yes, unfortunately it will only be getting worse, folks.

[LoveInHell 1,600]

1 minute ago, DEI2EK said:

I mean Cyberpunk lets you customize your own junk and no one cares about that. The only titles that see this kind of scrutiny are Japanese.

Cause its funny. It has humorous purposes. Gal Gun has other intentions.

[Void 668]

11 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

I think it's funny they're being called brave for this. Censoring a game would require more work, which costs money and time. This is a very niche game that already isn't going to sell all that many copies. Spending the money to censor the game to sell a few extra copies just wouldn't make sense. They would likely only make back what what spent censoring, if they make money at all. This is a business move more than anything.

 

It will say that I think it's hilarious that Sony and MS are perfectly okay with uncensored boobs in Cyberpunk, but a game like Gal Gun is a no go.

 

Edit: Now that I've actually ready the article. Nowhere did they say that they had to censor or it wouldn't be published. MS passed on it, and that's all we know. They may have just thought the game was bad.

especially since censoring the (any) game will more than likely cause them to LOSE sales not gain sales. personally i never paid Gal-Gun any mind but I do not like buying a censored product when i do buy. That is why I imported Conan Exiles and several other games.

Edited January 1 by Void

[LoveInHell 1,600]

Its funny how people compare TLOU2 sex scene and nudity in other games like Cyberpunk (and what comes to mind: The Witcher 3) to Gal Gun.

 

TLOU2 sex scene was not intended to get turned on by. It shows a little extra on how relationships, how people’s lives are in an apocalypse, basically like a documentary. There’s this movie about a hacker, they showed sex and sexual scenes in that but thats not even the main subject and people forget about this crap anyway.

 

Nudity in games. Showing boobs and ass in games is not the same as what Gal Gun is doing. The Witcher does not try to get you turned on and if you get a boner from a 15 seconds love scene that barely reveals anything then please seek help. Same goes for Cyberpunk.

 

To compare these games to a fucking game where you lure at girls that are dressed up as high school chicks, even middle school chicks, stare at their body bending over for ya in and making them blush n shit (as if they get so turned on by you) and keep in mind THIS HAS A VR VERSION.

 

Now thinking about it, Dead Or Alive Paradise and Dead Or Alive Xtreme 3 are fucked up games too and should be categorised as porn but that is

 

my opinion.

Edited January 1 by LoveInHell

[shadowhood1111 154]

41 minutes ago, LoveInHell said:

This and a game like this, imo, should be categorised as porn. I don’t want to know how many people got off at this game...

 

I can't speak for others but I myself should tell you that you can place me in your tally

 

I am number 1

Anybody else want to keep the count going?

Edited January 1 by shadowhood1111

[talespagni 1,038]

@LoveInHell

 

It's not about which scene/game/etc is offensive to you (and I wholeheartedly agree some of them indeed are), but getting your choice (of the purchase, denial of purchase, experience, etc) taken away from you.

 

If some higher up, enlightened caste is able to determine whatever is right or wrong for you to choose, sooner or later there will be no choice at all.

[LoveInHell 1,600]

2 minutes ago, talespagni said:

@LoveInHell

 

It's not about which scene/game/etc is offensive to you (and I wholeheartedly agree some of them indeed are), but getting your choice (of the purchase, denial of purchase, experience, etc) taken away from you.

 

If some higher up, enlightened caste is able to determine whatever is right or wrong for you to choose, sooner or later there will be no choice at all.

Understood. I wonder why they can’t just release two versions? Censored and uncensored. Uncensored with a warning sign etc. Then everyone can be happy and its fair and square.

 

It would be easy to make the uncensored Gal Gun only purchasable for 18+ but a lot of people made/make a PS account lying about their age, lol. 

[Lianco 96]

2 hours ago, Undead Wolf said:

I have a lot of respect for the developer/publisher for deciding not to go through with the Xbox release if it meant censoring their product. A lot of others can learn from their example.

But yes, it turns out Microsoft are just as shit as Sony when it comes to this stuff. They had an opportunity to appeal to an audience Sony has abandoned and maybe even increase their abysmal hardware sales in Japan, but they decided to throw all of that away. Switch and PC are the only viable options for these kinds of games going forward and I'd suggest anyone here who's a fan of these games to invest in one of those platforms, even if PlayStation is still your primary platform of choice.

Honestly, if I could start it all over again, I'd just game on a PC with a Nintendo console. You don't really need much else at this point. Especially considering that most PS exclusives don't interest me either. Over the shoulder, 3rd person action adventurer with crafting elements and 4th wall breaks. 

[Elvick_ 5,401]

Apparently some people in here don’t know what porn is. Lol
 

don’t see why you’d blame Sony for MS’s choice though. 

[Kishnabe 3,151]

Still mad that Mary Skelter 2 not coming to PS4.

 

 

[DEI2EK 3,086]

7 minutes ago, Kishnabe said:

Still mad that Mary Skelter 2 not coming to PS4.

 

 

Yeah I’m not expecting the third game to come out in english on ps4/5 either

 

[talespagni 1,038]

28 minutes ago, LoveInHell said:

Understood. I wonder why they can’t just release two versions? Censored and uncensored. Uncensored with a warning sign etc. Then everyone can be happy and its fair and square.

 

It would be easy to make the uncensored Gal Gun only purchasable for 18+ but a lot of people made/make a PS account lying about their age, lol. 

 

It could be a multitude of factors:

 

a ) the company doesn't want to compromise its artistic integrity by editing/removing parts of the game;

b ) certain countries' regulations and laws can be stricter and quite different from others (Australia, Germany, etc), requiring the company to end up doing the same thing I said above;

c ) as I said in the previous post, a higher up, centralized channel who itself regulates (and censors) whatever may be offensive and/or allowable;

d ) all of the above.

 

All of this, together, may have given a small company such a big headache it decided that the cost to do business was not worth it.

 

Regarding your 2nd paragraph: imagine if Sony somehows creates a software which it is dedicated self-install itself and check into every single videogame connected to the internet, verifying whatever is being consumed (played, in the case), and automatically censoring/blocking/deleting/reporting/etc whichever content is deemed "inappropriate" (again, deemed by an enlightened selected few who are "worthy" like Thor).

 

Do you understand what this situation would lead all of us into?

 

It's up to the individual to decide whatever is his choice to make: either if you are above a certain age, or if you have a kid, decide for them.

 

That's called free will.