Welcome to the new Censored Gaming Recap! In these articles, we’re going to take a look back at all of the latest happenings in the world of censorship and then round them up in a special weekly feature.
It’s been a quite eventful week and there’s been both good and bad. To kick things off with some of the bad though, reports have surfaced of Nintendo removing large amounts of fan art from Tumblr using DMCA takedowns.
Now companies wanting to protect their IPs is in no way censorship, but fan art could be seen as falling in line with the Fair Use clause in copyright law. Also, it seems that only hentai-style drawings are being taken down.
LewdGamer have investigated the matter further however and are suggesting that perhaps this is the work of somebody pretending to be Nintendo, due to Tumblr’s lack of proper verification that people really are who they say they are.
Whatever the case, either Nintendo or somebody claiming to be Nintendo are going on a rampage, taking down art all over Tumblr, and this is art that, if seen as Fair Use, should be allowed to stay up without any issues.
Next up is the latest toning down of sexual content in Capcom’s Street Fighter V. The version 1.04 update has, for some reason, removed Cammy’s nipples from her character model.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYh8fx_R5zk
This is now one of many examples of sexuality being reduced in the game, which is something Capcom previously explained to be due to not wanting to offend anyone. As for this specific change, no statement has yet been made but it is likely that it’s been altered for the same reasons.
Not all in the industry are so pro-censorship though. Actually, we’re still not done talking about Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE. A Tweet made by the game’s co-director, Mitsuru Hirata , has now received a translation by Nintendo Everything.
The director has gone on record saying:
"When I found out we were unable to provide the same experience as the Japanese version, I also felt some disappointment. But our overseas fans remained happy that the game was being brought over and I’m glad to see their passionate support. In the meantime, the new costumes added could in a way be considered a merit that can only be enjoyed by our overseas fans! Thank you, and please look forward to the game!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsjWqCHPZ0w
So there you go, not everybody on the development team was fully on board with their original work being changed, if that’s something that’s really that surprising.
The last point kinda links well with the next, in fact. New details have been revealed about the upcoming NieR: Automata. Like the first game, 8-4 Studios will be handling the localization and, also like the first game, changes will be made to make it fit better with the differing market.
Now whilst this may seem worrying from a censorship perspective, a Square Enix representative has more specifically stated that it is “concepts and ideas that would suffer in direct translation” as what’s getting altered, and that this will be done respectfully.
The upcoming Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni, however, will be remaining extremely faithful to the original material and will be completely uncensored.
The title is the latest game from the Senran Kagura creator and plays and looks very much like the Senran Kagura games. It’s being localised by UK-based publisher PQube Games, also known for bringing the new Gal Gun game over to the West fully uncensored as well.
TechRaptor's recent interview with PQube gives some interesting info on their attitude towards censorship.
And the last bit of news revolves around the updated release of Tekken 7, scheduled for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC early next year. In a now-deleted Tweet, the series’ producer responded to a question asking if the swimsuit outfits will be included in the Western release by mocking SJWs and telling everybody to go ask them.
This has, of course, cast doubt over their inclusion in the Western versions. The producer did later suggest that perhaps they will be included as DLC, but, over in Japan they will be included in the base game.
https://twitter.com/Harada_TEKKEN/status/751323572161753088
So whether they will be included or not is, at this stage, not known. We’ll have more details on this as soon as it’s possible.
See you next week for more of the Censored Gaming Recap and please check out the Censored Gaming YouTube channel for more content on video game censorship! Or our Twitter account here!
