Stellar blade controversy and censorship as a whole

[Mr Croft]

So I wanted to take the time to gauge everyone's opinion on the controversy with Stellar Blade and how other things are censored with no rhyme or reason. I'm sure everyone here has seen the backlash Sony has received for censoring some more revealing outfits of Eve. It seems the conversation has shifted to why specific games seem to get a pass while others are altered from the original design. Games like Baldur's Gate 3 get a pass from any form of censorship when you can have full-on sexual acts and literally make your characters run around in their birthday suits with ease. In TLoU 2, there is a scene where one of the characters is pretty much getting railed from behind and nothing changed at all. Stellar Blade isn't the only game made by an Asian developer that has had this issue; it's the most recent one.

Why is it okay for one set of games to be free from change while the other (arguably far less explicit) gets altered? Is it because of the general design of eve? Is it censoring Asian devs? I'm Very curious to hear how others feel about seemingly one sided changes.
note: i dont own a ps5 lol

[Skunkworks]

I'm more angry about a PS5 exclusive in the year 2024 than any amount of censorship.

My take is that they are censoring it because they feel it will make it sell more copies. According to this article, in 2023 47% of console gamers were women. It is impossible for Sony to ignore the economic effects to content that may be viewed as negatively to nearly half of their consumers. I don't think 'one set of gamers' are the source of the censorship - The censorship is coming from an executive(s) at Sony who is concerned with the quarterly earning reports and the stock price.

[Althena]

I'm more angry about a PS5 exclusive in the year 2024 than any amount of censorship.

My take is that they are censoring it because they feel it will make it sell more copies. According to this article, in 2023 47% of console gamers were women. It is impossible for Sony to ignore the economic effects to content that may be viewed as negatively to nearly half of their consumers. I don't think 'one set of gamers' are the source of the censorship - The censorship is coming from an executive(s) at Sony who is concerned with the quarterly earning reports and the stock price.

I am a woman, and I approve this message.

[Random Encounter]

I am a woman, and I approve this message.

a/s/l

[The Grimace]

Sony specifically has been very dumb about censorship in the last several years. Remarkably, Nintendo has looser censorship policies than Sony. And Sony often really lays the censorship on thick, outside of their own first party titles.

Maybe I'm being short-sighted, but the amount of censorship is one more reason why I eventually see consoles going the way of the dodo in favor of PC- and I say this as a console gamer. It just makes me think, "why even have the ESRB AO tag" when they do everything to remove nudity.

And the violence. You can see so much gore and they don't bat an eye, but a little bit of skin and they go nuts. It's so hypocritical.

[Skunkworks]

After researching the issue more, I think this is much ado about nothing. The amount of outfits changed were negligible. Additionally the dev said it was changed to fit their vision.

SHIFT UP was asked about this directly at one point. They say outright the “final costume we wanted to show you” was the one that is seen in the patch, leading many people to point out that this was simply the developer’s vision for those outfits, rather than someone pressuring them to change it. There is also no hard evidence Sony had demanded these tiny changes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/04/28/stellar-blades-new-censorship-controversy-is-extremely-bizarre/?sh=31c2bca75388

[Mr Croft]

I'm more angry about a PS5 exclusive in the year 2024 than any amount of censorship.

My take is that they are censoring it because they feel it will make it sell more copies. According to this article, in 2023 47% of console gamers were women. It is impossible for Sony to ignore the economic effects to content that may be viewed as negatively to nearly half of their consumers. I don't think 'one set of gamers' are the source of the censorship - The censorship is coming from an executive(s) at Sony who is concerned with the quarterly earning reports and the stock price.

I agree sony has a very weak lineup this year. Microsoft gsmes launching on the platform and being in the top 10 is insane. 47% is a high number I'm sure not every person feels the same but a big number nonetheless. I think I'm lumping this into the escape from tarkov stuff as well as a form of false advertising. If I'm purchasing a product and I'm told I get X,Y and Z but only receive X,Y then I'd be upset.

After researching the issue more, I think this is much ado about nothing. The amount of outfits changed were negligible. Additionally the dev said it was changed to fit their vision.



https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultas...h=31c2bca75388

I wanna believe this but I've played nikke before lol. No way what was orginal not the intended vision imo just based off of nikke alone. Also I know I saw something from 2018 about steps sony was taking to make sure everything is filtered through the sony California branch (twitter not loading on my phone at work).Which is turn causes so many foreign titles to have changes before release. I do think consoles will die off very soon as well; but not because of censorship tho.

[Althena]

And the violence. You can see so much gore and they don't bat an eye, but a little bit of skin and they go nuts. It's so hypocritical.

[Selbaek]

From what I understand, this is less about degenerates not getting to see some cleavage, and more about how the demo had said cleavage, and the developers marketed the game as being uncensored in all regions, and then with a day 1 patch they seem to have quietly censored quite a bit. Outfits that weren't originally afraid to show some skin are now covering cleavage. The amount of gore left on the main character's body after a kill was severely toned down. Graffiti on the wall was completely changed because of racial implications.

I can see how people can perceive that as false advertising after being given a demo and a promise of a game being uncensored, and I guess I can see where people can feel like they were lied to, but... I dunno. In my opinion, if the game plays the same and sets the same tone, what does it matter?

[The Grimace]

I think what it ultimately comes down to, is whether or not the director's original "vision" is properly displayed in the end. Even for a booby game, if they end up having to censor the game away from the originally inspired aesthetic and violence, it kinda sucks. Like, the game is still there as a whole, but if they're censoring things simply to reach a wider audience without giving any thought to the original intention the director had, it's concerning. Particularly if it passed the ESRB and CERO before any changes were made in order to fit into a specific rating.

But the game is extremely WYSIWYG. Scantily clad girls fighting crazy organisms with blades, lots of gore. I think that anyone who was going to get the game would have realistically known what they were getting into, so adjusting things like this after release feels really silly. Certain people weren't going to buy the game no matter what. Changing segments of the game catering to the core demographic, when they've seen Before and After thanks to the demo, is just going to cheese people off. There's not really any chance for the developer to win in a situation like this, and more than anything it feels like Sony trying to backpedal once again when they realized how popular the game was going to be.

I think I'm just rambling at this point though, and prolonging myself from finishing my break, haha.

But in essence, I do like the idea of optional censorship in games like this, to appease everyone.