Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
I think NoA and NoJ are very different entities.
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Nintendo reaffirms that it will not censor third-party games, says doing so would ‘inhibit’ industry
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Isa
Member
Definitely something to keep my eye on. If they go this route in the future I'll not support the Switcheroo very much if at all.
I suspect it'll just be an improved version of the western release sadly. I'd even wager it'll be that SKU for all territories. I hope its not ofc.
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
NoE localized the XB games which is why they were mostly fine. NoA is the big issue.
Based on the posts/links so far, no one seems to know exactly what is causing the games to not be allowed aside from the developer(s). It seems to only be ambiguous phrases, but there is nothing else I can see. "Nintendo changing policies to stricter content regulations" or "Expression Restrictions" doesn't really say much either. It could be character related depictions, phrases that are used, etc. Or it's getting rejected for something else not even related to the usual stuff we would typically see modified?
Seems they aren't even releasing an edited version either, so we likely won't be able to see an original vs edited comparison. Only thing at this point is to wait for the PlayStation release and check out the content for anything that maybe would cause it to be rejected elsewhere. I don't play these specific games, but I still always find it interesting and annoying when there are regional differences/edits - so I always find it an interesting discussion (before the usual people come in to shit on the thread).
PlayStation has mostly been in the spotlight when differences are found, but Nintendo isn't necessarily immune either. We've seen regional differences for phrases and/or animations (too lewd?) from them from time to time (mostly on 1st party games, but there have been other releases modified too). It's typically inconsistent too. Which makes it even wilder when you compare it to what the other posters have said about the current state of the eShop - it doesn't look like they do much enforcement on content quality there. The previous iterations of these games have made it here physically too.
Overall though, I think we need more concrete proof of anything changing (Policies, Guidelines, Future Games, etc.). Otherwise, this sounds more like the random rejections Steam would do (which is also inconsistent).
**As for the upcoming Xenoblade X Definitive Edition - It'll likely be based on the version we got in America like Isa mentioned, so it'll include the edits of the original most likely. Similar to the Tokyo Mirage Sessions, they based the updated ones on the international release which was already modified.
Seems they aren't even releasing an edited version either, so we likely won't be able to see an original vs edited comparison. Only thing at this point is to wait for the PlayStation release and check out the content for anything that maybe would cause it to be rejected elsewhere. I don't play these specific games, but I still always find it interesting and annoying when there are regional differences/edits - so I always find it an interesting discussion (before the usual people come in to shit on the thread).
PlayStation has mostly been in the spotlight when differences are found, but Nintendo isn't necessarily immune either. We've seen regional differences for phrases and/or animations (too lewd?) from them from time to time (mostly on 1st party games, but there have been other releases modified too). It's typically inconsistent too. Which makes it even wilder when you compare it to what the other posters have said about the current state of the eShop - it doesn't look like they do much enforcement on content quality there. The previous iterations of these games have made it here physically too.
Overall though, I think we need more concrete proof of anything changing (Policies, Guidelines, Future Games, etc.). Otherwise, this sounds more like the random rejections Steam would do (which is also inconsistent).
**As for the upcoming Xenoblade X Definitive Edition - It'll likely be based on the version we got in America like Isa mentioned, so it'll include the edits of the original most likely. Similar to the Tokyo Mirage Sessions, they based the updated ones on the international release which was already modified.
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Solarstrike
Member
Delete
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Doczu
Member
No boob slider for the west.
nial
Member
You can @ me if you need to.6 year old thread necro about adult content and the necro-er has a cartoon avatar of a little girl.
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Astral Dog
Member
I think it has to do more with the West becoming stricter with censorship and guidelines in entertainment more than Nintendo themselves, they are just reacting to the current state of the market, these moves are opposite of what they been doing since the Switch launched, plus they need Woke consultants now
I don't think they have much interest in censoring third party games themselves but its to remain on the 'safe' side, (i mean there are people here who want Nintendo to censor the eshop because it has dating sims /otome games)
s_mirage
Member
Sorry, but no, Nintendo's responsibility can't just be handwaved away. That's the whole point of ratings bodies; they decide what ratings games get and if there are any potential legal issues. The platform owner, Nintendo in this case, doesn't have to do a damn thing other than accept the ratings given, and it's the responsibility of the body issuing the rating if there are any issues. No-one's forcing this on them; they chose to do this.
This smells of activists within Nintendo (likely NoA as NoE have tended to be more easygoing).
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Power Pro
Gold Member
The thing that is such bull shit is I've played Re;birth 1 and 2 to completion. There's nothing in those games that hasn't already been released on Switch, AND past releases of it were rated T for fuck sake. We're censoring games that even the ratings board think is not that bad.
s_mirage
Member
Yep. PEGI 12 and ESRB T, so god knows WTF Nintendo's problem is.
Maybe they've hired the person from Valve who was behind the random seeming refusals of anime style games on Steam.
Astral Dog
Member
What i mean its for better or worse you going to see some changes, as different companies try to adapt to culture wars and government,i don't see it just in Nintendo, but also Capcom,SEGA,Square Enix etc. so far Japan has mostly stayed away from it,but it will be more overt in the coming years.
I don't want them to censor or cancel any third party game either, specially since their recipe with the Switch has been so successful, but we will see how it fits in the future (i hope it won't be too damaging ,i think the Switch struck a good balance in content and appeal)
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s_mirage
Member
There's no need for them to do anything though. That's my point, and that's been Nintendo's position up until recently. There's no public clamour for them to change their position either, which IMO points towards activist employees pushing their "moral" values like the god-botherers of old.
If a game has to be censored to meet legal requirements, or cannot be released in certain territories, it's up to ratings agencies to either decide that or defer to a legal authority. If platform owners decide to ignore ratings bodies and be censorious fuckwits, that's entirely on them.
Hamlock
Neo Member
I'm disappointed with Nintendo, but not entirely surprised. I had a feeling their lax regulations wouldn't last forever.
In a way, we're back to a level of normalcy where Playstation is less strict than Nintendo when it comes to sexual content, but they should reconsider and allow Neptunia and Death end re;Quest to be released on Switch in the West.
I know nothing will change though, NoA/NoE have no reason to reverse their new regulations. I accept that we basically lost and I'll try to move on.
In a way, we're back to a level of normalcy where Playstation is less strict than Nintendo when it comes to sexual content, but they should reconsider and allow Neptunia and Death end re;Quest to be released on Switch in the West.
I know nothing will change though, NoA/NoE have no reason to reverse their new regulations. I accept that we basically lost and I'll try to move on.
TheTony316
Member
So...who's gonna tell him?
bender
What time is it?
I'm not so sure about that.
Serenity Forge
Serenity Forge is a video game publisher and development studio based in Boulder, CO. We create meaningful games that challenge the way you think.
serenityforge.com
ShadyAcshuns
Member
Censorship sucks, no matter who does it. Everybody hand waived when Sony did it, so they'll all do it again now with Nintendo.
Hamlock
Neo Member
Damn, they got them to censor cigarettes? Sony's done some pretty crappy censorship stuff since their regulations changed in 2018, but at least they're still allowing Neptunia and Death end re;Quest to release on PS4 and PS5 in the West. Sony sunk low, but Nintendo is sinking lower for no reason. They had a good advantage over Sony.I'm not so sure about that.
Serenity Forge
Serenity Forge is a video game publisher and development studio based in Boulder, CO. We create meaningful games that challenge the way you think.
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt
Biggest Trails Stan
I'm not, now I'm sure to buy most third party games on Steam instead and just play the occasional first party game on Switch/Switch 2
This is such bullshit. I guess these blue hairs are part of NOA now...
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nial
Member
Gamuzumi is a small company dedicated to make ecchi VNs that has supported the Switch for all its releases, except for the latest one, Sakura Melody, which is a PlayStation and PC exclusive WORLDWIDE. This is what they had to say for the matter:
And while another game early this year, Sakura Succubus 7, did make it to Switch, it remained Japan only on the platform, while PS4/PS5 and PC managed to get the localized versions for the West.
And while another game early this year, Sakura Succubus 7, did make it to Switch, it remained Japan only on the platform, while PS4/PS5 and PC managed to get the localized versions for the West.
Buggy Loop
Member
Solarstrike
Member
Not much quality control either. There are over 11,000 Nintendo Switch games. Many are quite terrible if you have any ounce of consciousness.
www.mobygames.com
List of all Nintendo Switch games - MobyGames
11,861 video games were released on Nintendo Switch from 2017 through 2024. They were developed by 68,853 people from 8,605 publishers and developers.
www.mobygames.com
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Begleiter
Member
There were always censorious losers on staff there, though. Nich Maragos is still working on NoA localisations, he's credited on Brothership. And Steam has its own problems as well. For some reason people just feel compelled to stop regular folk buying legal products.
TheTony316
Member
This is bad. A handful of developers mentioned that Nintendo has some very strict guidelines now.
I mean, i'm not really a fan of what Sony has been doing since they moved to California but straight out banning games from releasing on your platform is much worse (imo) than slightly censoring specific scenes.
Trogdor1123
Member
Been a long time since I’ve heard this…
cinnamonandgravy
Member
whatever, nintendo couldnt censor 3rd party games if they wanted to
there are 100 million shit-tier games on the eStore and paying employees to look through all those crap games would result in bankruptcy-worthy mental health care costs
there are 100 million shit-tier games on the eStore and paying employees to look through all those crap games would result in bankruptcy-worthy mental health care costs
nial
Member
delishcaek
Member
I mean... didn't we already know about this? Like Gamuzumi had to censor games to release on Switch, while they never had to before.
This was 2 years ago
This was 2 years ago
TheTony316
Member
Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos release date moved up to January 2 in the west; Switch version DLC ‘Swimsuit Costume Set’ canceled
Idea Factory International has moved up Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos from its previously planned January 28, 2025 release in the west by four weeks, to January 2, 2025. It will be available for PlaySt…
www.gematsu.com
"Additionally, the company announced that the downloadable content “Swimsuit Costume Set” will no longer launch for the Switch version of the game “due to the contents of the Swimsuit Costume Set not complying with Nintendo Guidelines.”
"The downloadable content “Swimsuit Costume Set” will still be available as planned for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 versions."
nial
Member
Extremely weird that almost no one ever brought up this, but as things seem to get worse more and more people are finally noticing it.
Also, the Nintendo check strikes again.
Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos release date moved up to January 2 in the west; Switch version DLC ‘Swimsuit Costume Set’ canceled
Idea Factory International has moved up Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos from its previously planned January 28, 2025 release in the west by four weeks, to January 2, 2025. It will be available for PlaySt…
www.gematsu.com
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nial
Member
Lmao, we posted in the thread at the exact same time.Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos release date moved up to January 2 in the west; Switch version DLC ‘Swimsuit Costume Set’ canceled
Idea Factory International has moved up Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos from its previously planned January 28, 2025 release in the west by four weeks, to January 2, 2025. It will be available for PlaySt…
"Additionally, the company announced that the downloadable content “Swimsuit Costume Set” will no longer launch for the Switch version of the game “due to the contents of the Swimsuit Costume Set not complying with Nintendo Guidelines.”
"The downloadable content “Swimsuit Costume Set” will still be available as planned for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 versions."
TheTony316
Member
Safe to say that Rebirth wasn't canceled due to performance issues, lol.
Nintendo going back to the 90's. Would be funny if Sony reverts back to not giving a shit.
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Crystal Winters
Member
Why do they keep flip flopping around like this? One minute they are the console that does not censor, next minute they are. Also, not letting the neptunia trilogy on the switch that I recently read about, but they have Hentai Hero on their store.
TheTony316
Member
Switch success got to their heads. Just like it happened with Sony and the PS4.
nial
Member
It was cope from desperate fans, that footage was running via emulation@4K, you could easily find a lot of other videos of the game on Switch with a pretty fine performance.
Safe to say that Rebirth wasn't canceled due to performance issues, lol.
Nintendo going back to the 90's. Would be funny if Sony reverts back to not giving a shit.
delishcaek
Member
What's already on the store doesn't matter if these guidelines are relatively new.
You had the same happening with Playstation years ago... DOAX 3 Fortune for example IS available uncensored on PS4, however the new updated version Scarlet needed to be censored for PS4 (while being uncensored on Switch). So Playstation gamers were better off with getting Fortune instead of Scarlet.
Something has changed, this is now obvious... and not allowing these swimsuits seems like an overreaction
TheTony316
Member
Yep. Something has changed very recently. Around 10 games have been canceled/censored just in the last couple of months.
Thick Thighs Save Lives
NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
Uhm... are we talking about the same Steam that rejected Tokyo Clanpool just a month ago?
Tokyo Clanpool rejected by Steam as ‘too sexy’
EastAsiaSoft’s latest western release Tokyo Clanpool has allegedly been rejected by Steam according to the publisher for being “too sexy”.
nichegamer.com
At least NoJ seems to be fine with Tokyo Clanpool as it's releasing on the Switch in Asia.
Tokyo Clanpool PLAY EXCLUSIVES SE for Nintendo Switch
Tokyo Clanpool PLAY EXCLUSIVES SE for Nintendo Switch * In our warehouse. Experience a dynamic dungeon RPG set in near-future TokyoAct as the young Prime Minister of Japan and her moe cabinet membersEarn the approval of the citizenry for valuable bonuses or lose support for your missionNavigate...
www.play-asia.com
Angry_Megalodon
Member
Nintendo is a family brand, always has been. Even though I despise censorship, I'd respect their decision based on this.
However, this is the same Nintendo that funded Bayonetta, so this censorship has very little to do with family values. It's about Western hatred towards anime girls. That's the actual problem.
However, this is the same Nintendo that funded Bayonetta, so this censorship has very little to do with family values. It's about Western hatred towards anime girls. That's the actual problem.
graywolf323
Member
Steam is notorious for being nothing if not inconsistent with their approach to this, there’s seemingly one lady on their approval team that if a publisher gets assigned to her for a game like this it’s an automatic rejectionUhm... are we talking about the same Steam that rejected Tokyo Clanpool just a month ago?
Tokyo Clanpool rejected by Steam as ‘too sexy’
EastAsiaSoft’s latest western release Tokyo Clanpool has allegedly been rejected by Steam according to the publisher for being “too sexy”.
At least NoJ seems to be fine with Tokyo Clanpool as it's releasing on the Switch in Asia.
Tokyo Clanpool PLAY EXCLUSIVES SE for Nintendo Switch
Tokyo Clanpool PLAY EXCLUSIVES SE for Nintendo Switch * In our warehouse. Experience a dynamic dungeon RPG set in near-future TokyoAct as the young Prime Minister of Japan and her moe cabinet membersEarn the approval of the citizenry for valuable bonuses or lose support for your missionNavigate...
there’s also no appeals process nor are you even allowed to make changes & then resubmit, the only time I think Steam has EVER changed a ban was for Mages/Spike Chunsoft when they initially rejected the latest in the Sci Adv series
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Not that it's at the top of my wishlist or anything, but I'm glad that GOG's letting games like Tokyo Clanpool get a release, without censorship. What good does it do to ban this shit from random platforms? Is anyone attributing the content in these games to the moral character of Sony or Nintendo or whoever? I think we're past the point of having to worry about someone's kid playing some scandalous shit on their Switch and then having their parents complain to Nintendo about it.
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JunkerWoland
Member
Unfortunately, while EastAsiaSoft decided not to announce this ahead of time, the game is technically censored on both the Switch and GOG: the touch mini-game found in the original Vita version of the title has been removed.
For reference in the below tweet, Joshua French is a Project Lead at EastAsiaSoft, the publisher of Tokyo Clanpool on Switch & GOG.
As for the current topic of this new round of bans & censorship on Switch, what I'd like to know is does this directive come down from the mothership or have NoA & NoE been given greater control over content in their regions. Since nothing is seemingly being retroactively scrubbed, we currently don't have good indicators on whether NoJ has also tightened reins on content. There is a port of some Neptunia Noir game coming in early 2025 to the Switch in Japan; I'll be interested to see if anything is altered or ommitted from the release.
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Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Well that's kind of disappointing - and I say that knowing full-well that yeah, it's just some creepy shit they took out, but it's more the principle of the thing than anything.
TBH, I'm mostly just shocked by the price point for this thing. Bold choice on their part.
delishcaek
Member
It is funny to me because games like NejicomiSimulator TMA02 can exist on Steam and that is a rape simulator... even funnier after what happened with Rapelay back in the day.
I can get where the guy is coming from, but it is a dick move to keep the censorship hidden to "not jeopardize" the release. If these games can't get an uncensored release on the major platforms then it's about time they think about releasing their uncensored versions somewhere else like Nutaku, FAKKU or Mangagamer and ditch consoles entirely. Or just make a patch available that adds back the removed content like devs did in the past when they released Eroges on Steam.
I can get where the guy is coming from, but it is a dick move to keep the censorship hidden to "not jeopardize" the release. If these games can't get an uncensored release on the major platforms then it's about time they think about releasing their uncensored versions somewhere else like Nutaku, FAKKU or Mangagamer and ditch consoles entirely. Or just make a patch available that adds back the removed content like devs did in the past when they released Eroges on Steam.
nial
Member
The minigame wasn't allowed in Asia (not available in Japan, but that's on EAS not publishing anything there, I gotta say) either, which implies that it isn't a NOA/NOE only issue and it's also affecting the Asia side, which I *believe* is handled by NCL (NOJ) itself.
The last message is important for those who go "but X/Y game was allowed before!", do a quick Google search on Genkai Tokki: Seven Pirates and see how much worse it is compared to something like this from the newest Neptunia game:
The last message is important for those who go "but X/Y game was allowed before!", do a quick Google search on Genkai Tokki: Seven Pirates and see how much worse it is compared to something like this from the newest Neptunia game: