Before we get into today’s video, first a message from our sponsors.
Are you tired of content being unavailable in your region?
Do you want to keep your browsing anonymous and safe?
NordVPN solves these issues and more and right now you can get a huge discount plus 1 month
free, by going to NordVPN.com/censoredgaming or via the link in the description.
It’s also risk free, with Nord’s 30 day guarantee.
With Nord you can change your IP location to over 60 countries, allowing you to bypass
regional restrictions.
It also hides your IP address and the sites you visit, keeping your activity private.
And it has passed an independent audit confirming they don’t log your data, unlike many competitors.
And so go to NordVPN.com/censoredgaming and use the code CENSOREDGAMING at checkout to
get a huge discount and 1 month free.
It’s been a while now since The Wall Street Journal did a big investigatory piece on Sony’s
crackdown on explicit content in games.
This article was wrote in April 2019, but prior to the article, the effects of Sony’s
changing stance had already been seen by quite a few gamers - and especially those who are
fans of Japanese games.
What The Wall Street Journal did however was bring this to the mainstream and not just
the mainstream gaming audiences but mainstream audiences in general.
They also managed to get in contact with many Japanese game developers and others that have
been affected by the changing policies at Sony, and reach out to them and get statements
and hearing about their experiences.
Also when it comes to US news organisations, The Wall Street Journal is one of the oldest
and most authoritative news organisations there is.
And so, due to all of these points, I think that this article is a very good starting
point for anybody not familiar with the Sony situation and would like to catch up on it
and so there will be a link in the description if you want to go read up on it.
This is something that this channel has taken a look at many times now and so today we’ll
be taking a look at something a bit different, which is an old Japanese term that has once
again reared its head and started to become popular again.
You may already be familiar with Japan’s rating system - the Computer Entertainment
Rating Organization - which is similar to the ESRB in North America.
Like many platforms that are popular in the west, Wikipedia is also popular in Japan,
where a Japanese-language version is produced and highly maintained.
And on the Japanese Wikipedia is a page devoted to games that have been given the max 18 rating,
with this continuing to be updated, with it now including PlayStation 5 titles, for example.
But at the top of the list is an explanation that speaks about how it isn’t just the
Computer Entertainment Rating Organization that regulates content, but this can also
come from the platform holders themselves who can their own internal content screening
procedures and rules for what is and isn’t allowed.
And it’s here where they use the term “Sony Check”, when speaking about Sony’s procedures
and policies for regulating content that are separate from the Computer Entertainment Rating
Organization.
The term “Sony Check” is wrote using Japan’s Katakana writing system, which is often used
for things like transcription of foreign loan words.
This means that the Japanese term “Sony Check” is said like we in the west in English
would say “Sony check” and it also means the same thing.
In the Sony Check section, it is discussed that this check occurs after the checks by
the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization.
And that for games with the max 18+ rating, content that would be fine on other platforms
can get changed due to the Sony check.
The page then discusses the games Dark Sector and No More Heroes, which are two games that
were released in censored lower rated versions on PlayStation compared to other platforms.
But it says that these decision were made intentionally and not due to the Sony Check.
However, it then goes into what the The Wall Street Journal reported on, which is that
since 2018 the Sony Check has become stricter and some games have had to change content
significantly compared to other platforms or even compared to older versions of games
previously released on Sony platforms.
And then a few examples are given for this including Nora, Princess, And Stray Cat, as
well as Nekopara Vol. 1.
Nekopara had its PS4 release delayed and then when it released in 2018, players spotted
changes had been made compared to the Nintendo Switch release.
These changes include the removal of a “chest bounciness” setting in the menus and obscuring
a variety of scenes with extra steam, keeping the characters much more covered up.
Nora, Princess, And Stray Cat released in 2019 and had a variety of risqué scenes toned
down through methods such as adding bright rays of light.
This is, again, despite the Nintendo Switch release being without these changes.
Jumping back to the Japanese Wikipedia article, the next section talks about how Nintendo
doesn’t have its own regulation process and just leaves things to the various age
rating systems around the world.
This is also something that was reaffirmed by the Nintendo President at 2019’s Annual
General Meeting of Shareholders - saying that they believe that existing 3rd party rating
systems and parental controls are the best approach to content regulation.
The Japanese Wikipedia article then gives an example of the effects of this being seen
in game’s content and, for example, cites Killer7 which was censored on PS2 but uncensored
on GameCube.
This is referring to how cuts had to be made to scenes revolving around both risqué and
violent content for Killer7’s Japanese PS2 release.
This is something the channel has already made a full video on in past and these cuts
that Sony demanded were even with the game already being given the highest rating possible
by the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization.
Also, Killer7 was originally released way back in 2005 and so this represents that,
despite now coming back into prominence since 2018, the Sony Check is not new but has existed
for a long time.
What appears to have happened though is that starting around a little after 2010, Sony
eased up quite a bit on their own internal content regulation procedures.
However then in 2018 things once again became stricter.
This is something that the video will delve into more and so, for example, the next section
of the Japanese Wikipedia page talks about an interview with the president of Mages - Mages
being a big Japanese developer responsible for games such as Steins;Gate and Corpse Party.
In this interview conducted by the Japanese publication Famitsu in 2009, Mages’ president
sits down with the Famitsu reporter and reveals why two of his upcoming games would only be
coming to the Xbox 360.
The President says that Xbox is more liberal with what is allows than some other platforms
and releasing the games on Xbox was the only way it could be done without having to make
change to the games.
The games being discussed were Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate.
Steins;Gate would later go on to receive PlayStation releases, with this first being for the PSP
in June 2011.
This was well after the original Xbox 360 release though, which came October 2009, and
it seems to be from the time when Sony started to ease up on their policies and prior to
them clamping down and getting stricter again in 2018.
Chaos;Head on the hand was released on Xbox 360 in February 2009 but would be released
on PSP the following year and with heavy cuts being made that changed its age rating from
18+ to 17+.
Also the PS3 release that came in 2012 was also of the censored version, but perhaps
this was for parity reasons as this is thought to be during the time when Sony had started
to ease up on their policies.
The PlayStation Vita version however that came much later in 2014 was this time finally
released uncensored and with the 18+ rating.
But to move away from the Japanese Wikipedia, as it was just thought that the “Sony Check”
being discussed to such a degree is something that perhaps not many people were aware of.
And also that this term “Sony Check” exists and has been in use for a long time by Japanese
gamers but now, following Sony tightening up their internal policies again in 2018,
has started to become used much more frequently again.
This means that you can search the Japanese “Sony Check” term on different parts of
the web and see lots of people using it.
For example, searching right now on Twitter you’ll see the phrase being used pretty
much daily and, for example, here’s a recent person from Japan expressing disapproval of
the “Sony Check” and he then links to the website for the game LoveR Kiss.
If you look at the entire conversation you can see that he’s talking about the extra
risqué content that was added to the Switch version that couldn’t be added on PS4 due
to the “Sony Check” and that this is why he is expressing disapproval of it.
Like this video has discussed though, the “Sony Check” term is nothing new and used
to be used fairly frequently in the 2000s, prior to Sony easing up on their policies
starting around a little after 2010.
But since getting stricter again in 2018, this means that the term has seen a big resurgence.
Interestingly you could occasionally see some in the west use the Japanese term from time
to time as well.
For instance, the Japanese-focused website Sakaku Complex discussed the “Sony Check”
in multiple articles in the late 2000s and about games around the time that it had affected.
And keeping with the theme of games from the 2000s being affected, one high profile game
that you may remember is the titillating extreme sports game BMX XXX.
Changes to bare female chests, as well as other adult content had to be made to the
title under orders of the US branch of Sony, whilst all copies sold on Xbox and GameCube
were 100% uncut.
This was a rather notable case however, as it was only the US branch of Sony that forced
this and not worldwide, which is what you usually see.
Going even further back though, another example of Sony requiring changes to be made to another
high profile release is Hideo Kojima’s Policenauts.
Policenauts was the last game Hideo Kojima would create, prior to creating the hugely
successful Metal Gear Solid in 1998.
Policenauts is regarded as a cult classic however and was met with much critical acclaim.
And it was also ported to many different platforms following its initial release for the NEC
PC-98 system in 1994.
When it came time for PlayStation port in 1996 however, Kojima got into an intense dispute
with Sony over having to tone down “breast touching” that the game featured.
This occurred during Sony's certification process and they forced him to restrict it.
This is also something that Kojima wasn’t happy about, with these quotes being translated
by Junker HQ, who are a very trustworthy source for all matters Kojima related.
And so, as you can see, Sony’s recent crackdown is not quite as new as it may seem and is
quite reminiscent of some of the company’s earlier periods in history.
It’s possible that they may once more start to ease up on things again, like they did
in the early 2010s, but so far this remains to be seen.
Once again a big thanks to our faithful sponsors at NordVPN for sponsoring today’s video
and, until next time, thank you for watching.