Woolie's "Occam's razor" thing being followed by "People can point to the past" was the FASTEST missing the point I've ever seen. Pat's saying he wants to know why six months ago Zombie Hunter Schoolgirl or whatever, the game where zombies rip clothes off underaged Japanese schoolgirls was TOTALLY FINE by Sony's standards, but now DOA is too much. That's not "the times." Six months is "Greg, the guy who always wore an Akatsuki coat to work, got fired. Now Dave is approving games, and Dave things anime is a sin against God." Pat wants to know WHO in Sony wasn't around a few months ago that is around NOW. And Woolie almost completely walked into saying the EXACT SAME THING, but still maintained me meant something different.

They're basically killing the Vita's entire library. As if the system itself wasn't enough. Meanwhile, Nintendo's like "Get your nekos here! Each Neko you buy will make Todd Howard stop telling lies!"

Welcome back to "Woolie is wrong and Pat is pissed about it".

Woolie saying "The times" being the reason doesn't make a lick of sense given Japan's social political stances and other companies going the opposite ways.

Woolie, please stop trying to use occam's razor, you're doing it wrong. "the times" implies a zeitgeist which isn't the case given Nintendo are cool with it. Pat's answer of the hierarchy at Sony changing is a simpler answer.

The fact nintendo is okay with it and sony not is the amazing thing

Pat is asking a pretty specific question and Woolie keeps saying "the times" then in the next breath "it's company by company". Which is it?

Liam is rolling in his grave

Wow, never thought Crazy Talk would affect Woolie so badly. DMC LPs must be getting to him.

Woolie is way off base, this is in no way "the times" because if it was you'd see this in a degree everywhere by everyone. Everything about this feels like someone with some very strong particular beliefs got promoted into a position and they're using that position spread their beliefs.

Woolie is incorrect when he brings up Occam's razor. Nintendo has moved away from censoring as much as they used to, but even at their worst they never censored third party games, let alone games being published in Japan. Steam also has opened up immensely. There's still a rogue employee trying to ban games one at a time, but for the most part, the store is quite open. The easiest explanation is that Sony's headquarters are in California, and pretty much every company that has their headquarters there has been infected with the same mindsets that cause companies to love censorship. It's not to say that the change would happen over night, I see people asking why it took 2 years, but how long it takes isn't relevant, but rather that it eventually does. As people get replaced, a company will eventually shift it's focus. If you look at when Nintendo was so censorship happy, you will find Treehouse at the center of most of it. And where is Treehouse's headquarters? California. Take a look at when Steam started the whole waifupocalypse, shortly after they acquired Campo Santo. And where did Campo Santo come from? California, specifically San Fransisco. Hell, take a look at XSEED. A niche gamer's darling due to how anti-censorship they seemed to be. But if you pay attention, over the years their anti-censorship stance has somewhat softened. Recently, two big members resigned, though it looked suspiciously like they were let go. One such member, Tom, was practically the face of it's anti-censorship stance. He was very vocal about it. But he revealed when he left that he cannot ensure that the company will remain dedicated to it's anti-censorship beliefs and that he was pretty much the only one that actually took it that far. Over the years he's fought against censorship. And where is XSEED's headquarters? California. In comparison, Valve's headquarters is located in Washington. Same as Nintendo of America, though Nintendo's main headquarters is in Japan. More specifically, In both Nintendo and Sony's cases their policies seemed largely to change as their leadership did. After Iwata passed, and with a new president, the company seems to be moving towards a more gamer focused console, and away from the need to always be seen as just a family friendly company. Somewhere along the way they learned that you can appeal to families and older gamers at the same time, hence why their store is more open to that kind of content. Sony on the other hand replaced their former president and CEO, Andrew House with John Kodera just last October. The general trend is that as companies immerse themselves in a censorship happy environment, that over time they will be influenced to censor as well. While the specific event that lead to the changes is more that certain people gain more power, which is what censorship happy people tend to try to do. What's worse is that while Treehouse only affected games localized in the America, and had no real say in games developed for Japanese gamers. SIE is not just Sony's American branch, they're Sony's entire gaming division now. They are no longer a japanese company with an American branch, they are an American company now. And that's the reason why they are expecting developers from all around the world to do everything in English, even for games made for other languages.

Remember when people got on Nintendo for censoring dialogue and costumes but Sony is out here literally changing games from M to E with no comment?

Woolies reasoning on this is weird, japan cares less then ever and "the times" were there for decades as DoA has been under fire even from players for years for its creppy bullshit, and sony never once cared and even provided more fuel with its dlc and VR games, nothing was ever towned down or restrained. So WHY NOW is a damn legit question as the DoA controversy hasnt gotten significantly bigger or louder. And Sony of all, not nintendo. Just sony in this isolated case.

Sony HQ moved from Japan to California.

Pat's being hyperbolic with that "NOOO MY ANIME DOLLS" line. There are people like that, but consider: - Sony policies now require that appeals are sent in English (which makes the process inherently harder for Japanese devs). - Sony banning these things effectively creates an inferior product that is priced the same (why not release the blocked content as a free DLC patch? To comply with laws, have the system read your birthday and note that Sony does NOT take responsibility for your purchase if you lie about your age). - Sony banning things creates a slippery slope towards them altering other games in greater ways. - People who complain about Sony's practices or the types of games they allow on their console can vote with their wallet by NOT buying those games in the first place. It's up to the consumer to decide, not Sony - and while they can now decide to buy things on non-Sony consoles, that assumes they own a decent PC or a Switch. OUTSIDE OF THIS Sony is no longer allowing Visual Novels on their consoles; the ones in development have been grandfathered in. I don't know if this refers solely to H-games (in which case, I don't care) but if it's a blanket statement about ALL VNs then, as a VN developer myself, that's pretty fucking closed-minded.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE PLEASE SEND THEM A CORRECTIONS EMAIL OR SAY IN THE PODCAST NEXT WEEK ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA HEADQUARTERS THING. THEY ARE LITERALLY FORCING THE JAPANESE DEVS TO SPEAK IN ENGLISH DURING BUSINESS MATTERS AND FORCING THEM TO CONDUCT SAID BUSINESS ON THE CALIFORNIA TIMEZONE.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad Liam isn't alive to see this atrocity.

Big Boss warned us about "the times", who knew Big Boss was right all along.

At the request of someone in the replies asking I post this here: "I just wanna point out that most people who feel strongly about Senran Kagura and such being censored don’t care about the games themselves necessarily, just the precedent. I forget who but a localizer mentioned how these precedents create opportunity for more companies and people to feel more comfortable censoring similar stuff. Why would anyone be ok with some guy in California judging what my eyes are and aren’t allowed to see from an artist? Especially when it’s something as hypocritical and prudent as some anime tiddy. If Catherine isn’t censored it’s only because it was deemed “art enough” to be allowed to have tiddy, and that’s just bullshit. I don’t want to be back in Treehouse Nintendo days with Sony. I want ANY creation to have the right to let me see whatever they want to me see if I’m interested in enough. This ruins the whole point of the ESRB. Not to mention it’s a slap in the face from Sony straight to it’s already in contract Japanese developers who were under the assumption they were allowed to do things that they did before on the same system. Don’t get me started on them making even Japanese developers for Japanese only releases write reports in English. That’s pathetic. Sony was a Japanese company. I say was because they’ve been moving towards being a western one this entire generation, and it’s been losing me. Though I digress. Point being, yeah it’s funny Pat when it’s “XD my boobs!!!” But it won’t be so funny when Persona 5 Crimson runs into issues or Yakuza, or Street Fighter, etc. the same logic can easily be applied to those games, but if it isn’t then we just got lucky. That’s asinine."

This is most likely one person within the company that got promoted and saw the opportunity to start censoring things they didn't like.

Woolie having a Kilogram or feathers moment as Pat tries to explain a question

Disagree strongly with Woolie here. This isn't the times. It's at most a bunch of outrage-merchants on twitter, and gaming blogs like Kotaku and Eurogamer. Pat is entirely legitimate in wanting to know what specifically changed at Sony. It's like how we can point to Treehouse when we see botched Nintendo translations. We know who and what is behind it. But we don't know what's behind it at Sony that is massively distinct from Nintendo (a family friendly company) and Microsoft (a western company). Why is Sony suddenly succumbing to the times? i.e. the demands of western Helen Lovejoy's, while the family friendly and western companies aren't? It's a legit question that Woolie keeps dodging and tacitly trying to shame Pat for asking.

I mean, I don’t play any of these weird Japanese sexy time games, but it’s still lame that people who enjoy them have one less platform to experience them on. Kind of a weird move on Sony’s part, but whatever.

As much as I don't play fanservice games (mostly because the internet exists), I am kind of annoyed by the American-run Neo-Sony being so pro-censorship and anti-devoloper/consumer for the sake of moral grandeur. If anything, that is costing them more money and customers in the long run with this display. Steam had to learn this lesson. Hopefully, they will do the same after awhile.

"The times" is the new "agree to disagree".

Sony: "We shoot ourselves in the foot better than any other company!"

It's really telling how Pat laughs at the games this affects and says he doesn't give a shit, but in the same conversation goes "What about Catherine though?".

For someone with an obvious distant for religion Woolie really seems to have a holier than thou attitude.

*sigh* I miss Liam.

Before you comment: you should be aware that Japanese PS4 games are being censored too.

So they aren't aware Sony changed their headquarters to California?

I'm going to scream if Catherine: Full body gets censored. The game will be ruined with any censorship because it's entire framework is a mature storyline involving sexual content

Pat-"I don't think it's enough to call it a story" 15 minute video

Occam's razor is as dull as a butter knife

"Don't put softening gel in A Hat In Time" But, just imagine how soft and bouncy Mustache Girl and the Mafia's mustaches would be!

"Censorship is okay when it's [thing I don't like], just don't censor [thing I like]" How about we just stop being moral authoritarians, stop censoring fiction, have some consistent principles and just let people make/buy what they want. I think that sounds like a good, actually liberal idea.

As a pervert what annoys me is any censorship at all on anything. Why are you allowed to tell me what will offend me? Let’s hope Sony do another hard 180 and start green lighting hentai character action games.

It's just creepy anime bullshit right? It's just religious imagery right? It's just some violence right? It's just featuring any opinion that doesn't align with ours right?

What is this weird glimpse into an alternate reality where Pat is more right than Woolie

I hate agreeing with Pat, but Woolie is crazy wrong on this one. If it were "the times" other companies would be shifting towards this, and Sony probably would have asked for these things to be removed earlier if they were the progressive, forward thinkers that would have been at the head of this movement, but creepy anime bullshit games is the Vita's bread and butter. It is so clearly a recent switching job position, or incident that we just don't know about. Like the HQ moving, for instance.

The fact that even the word "California" never comes up even once makes me think that either they don't know about the Sony HQ move, or they won't bring it up because of having connections to people there.

The answer to Pat's question, "Why the Sony?" Is very simple. Headquarters was relocated to California. PC prudes there are to blame.

> "HUR, 'MY ANIME DOLLS!!!' " > Couple minutes later > "But what about these games I do like!?" Just wow. They're brushing this off and being condescending to the point of being straight up assholes about it because this has been affecting a genre of games they really don't like. Yet they're worried this precedent might affect games they do like. My problem is not their general opinion on those kinds of games. My problem is their double standard on these games getting censored cause it's "creepy anime bullshit", but they're fine with it as long as it doesn't affect games they do like.

I do respect that they manage to both hit but also missing the point of the whole situation at the same time. Its very impressive.

With each passing year, this keeps aging better and better.

You know, i was afraid that the comments were going to be a bunch of "ITS JUST ANIME SHIT WHO CARES LMAO', but It seems like theres a lot of reasonable people here. Mad respect

glad to see studiofow is gonna get some more assets.

The thing that worries me is if they keep pushing their own views to go beyond just fanservicey stuff.

Watching Pat smash his face against the brick wall of Woolie's capacity to miss his point gave me empathy pains. He just wants to know who or what set this hilarious misstep from a business standpoint off, "the times" is just the context that made it possible in the first place, there still had to be an event, it wasn't some sort of autonomous paradigm shift, the company's employees and management aren't a hive mind, Sony wasn't replaced by ultra puritan Nega-Sony from another universe like the Berenstain Bears, some dumbass with authority pulled the trigger and had an equally dumbass reason for doing so.

Pat making fun of people upset at this news for being weird creepy perverts while also worried about Catherine being censored, which is also a creepy anime pervert game only it masquerades as a mature story for adults and he can't tell the difference because he's so deep in Atlus' bullshit he can't tell he's being a massive hypocrite is pretty funny.

I don't get the deal with all this weird tip toeing, this is censorship. And no matter what the content is, censorship is bad. Even if you don't care for what's being censored now, it sets a bad precedent for the future.

why even try to make *Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball* less perverted? the whole point is to be perverted, so removing options will just make it sell less on their system compared to other platforms that have the full "experience".

Luckily it's pretty easy to take your business elsewhere nowadays if you're a creepy anime bullshit enthusiast. Thanks Gaben and Reggie, very cool.

I remember one time Jim Sterling mocking gamers saying "Are they gonna take away your titty anime game from you guys?" Well Mr Sterling, they are in fact taking away our titty games. All because Sony HQ is located in a state with a progressive social climate and dictating every Sony game including games made by Japan exclusively for Japan.

Hopefully, Sony backpedals from this and sees the error of their ways. Censoring niche games for the sake of appealing to a non-existent and barely vocal audience isn't going to do well for them. We saw how it worked for Marvel's comics division during ANAD and Legacy or Capcom a few years ago; it ended with poor sales and a lot of backlash. Sony censoring Japanese games will only mean the worst for anyone else. What if they go after GTA after this? What if they find games like Mortal Kombat are too violent? What if they find The Witcher is too sexy? Like, where will they stop after this? Sony doing this will only have people going to buy a Switch, an Xbox or invest in a gaming PC. Like, there's a market for all sorts of thing. Now, I don't think they should just sell porn, but that games like Senran Kagura and DOA Extreme, games I'm not a fan off tbh, have every right to be sold just like any other game and be sold as they were intended to be sold.

Every time the boys venture into anime territory, my heart aches knowing Liam Senpai isn't around to guide them into the light.

End of an era.

I’m wondering how Sony’s decision is going to affect games like God Eater 3 and Code Vein. Edit: I also wonder how these changes will affect the relationships between Sony and Japanese developers from now and into the future?

DAMMIT CALIFORNIA

Welp, Sony won't be getting any of my money in future.

Guess we can't play catch the greased up bikini babes anymore...

Valve is that cool uncle who let you watch Ghost in the Shell when you were like 6.

People take the wrong approach with the new Sony policies, they aren't just going after anime tiddies, those games are just the most obvious example of what this censorship affects, in reality this is going to hurt any and all developers and especially Japanese developers. Their games get delayed whilst seeking approval from the Sony mollycoddlers and get released butchered and compromised, or they can release on steam the next day, fully uncensored. I'm no Xbox fanboy or Nintendo but Sony are a genuinely awful company, if their console didn't have so many exclusives on it I would jump ship any day.

Now is the time on the BestFriendCast where we talk out our asses.

Woolie had some real problems wrapping his head around Pat's question,

The “why” for me is why would Sony do this from a business perspective? Like at the end of the day the babies that cry over these types of games existing aren’t going to be satisfied by a few features being removed, and even if they were it’s not like they’re going to buy the game now, so Sony makes zero monetary gain from this decision while almost undoubtedly losing customers since anyone whose interested in this game that owns both a switch and a ps4 is more than likely just gonna buy it on the switch since it’s easily the “better” version.

As the bloody battlefield clears of smoke, a contender rises, a hero no one realized was even there. Nintendo: OMAI WA SHINDERU! Sony: NANI REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

No Wooile. It is based on the specific reason of Sony not wanting to be associated with the other companies. Limit Cross Platform Play. No Fortnight account sharing. Sony not wanting to go to E3, and to show themselves as separate from their competition, even if arbitrarily. Safe Platform for gamers etc etc.

There is no escaping socio-politics anymore. If you don’t want to take part in the discourse, it will find you regardless.

15 minutes of speculation and Pat constantly asserting that he wants to know information he can never possess

First, they came for the gold fan and I did not speak out Because I didn't care about creepy up-skirts Then they came for the softening gel And I did not speak out Because I didn't care about creepy anime bullshit Then they came for my Catherine and yakuzie dominatrix side missions and there was no one left To speak out for me

Hmm, if only we had a rating system so risque games could only be played by mature audiences

Woolie: What was that fucking game again with the boxart with the sausage on it? Me: *looks at shelf* Record of Agarest War The Really Naughty Limited Edition. Edit: Matt is assuming that Sony is only censoring localizations. They're actually forcing Japanese devs to submit reports in English so the game can be censored altogether.

i can understand the doa changes but the screenshots ive seen of visual novel censorship are really ridiculous and arbitrary imo. images that involve no nudity and are mildly suggestive are censored to hell on ps4 for no apparent reason. even anime perverts are entitled to their moneys worth when the game is available in full on other platforms

I expected Liam to burst into the room once they said Vita.

Every time someone describes gameplay & features for DOA, it sounds like a fucking Buffalo Bill simulator

i seriously hope you guys upload all the parts of pat's updates on watchign Hunter X Hunter to the channel. or atleast the latest part where he finished the series

This censorship sets a dangerous precedent because any game with lewd content can become a target. I'm worried for DOA6, Catherine, Senran Kagura, Kill la Kill and any other fanservice game that could come to the ps4 in the future.

It's not "the times," Wools. It's that ashtray of a state called California.

I'm honestly supprised they missed the whole part about Sony HQ moving to Cali and forcing Japanese companies to work on their hours in English so that their games can get censored in japan.

this has aged so well, the hypocrite sony had now shown on screen male on male butt coitus because hey it's our first party game

sony just wants to transition to the pachinko market

*THIS QUESTION WAS ALREADY ANSWERED ...* Sony PlayStation's moved its USA headquarters to California.

How much you wanna bet the person that snowballed that has blue hair?

"Fuck it, as long as it doesn't break the law, I guess..." -Gabe Newell

Pat: But why? Woolie: THE TIMES Matt: But why does Nintendo- Woolie: THE TIMES Pat: But why now specifically- Woolie: DESTINY IS DESTINY

When Nintendo is more mature then Sony

The worst thing about this is that, no matter what happens, Sony loses. The people who would be happy about this are also the people who wish that Dead or Alive didn't exist to begin with.

How about Abe is trying to clean up Japan before the Olympic games?

Sony moved to California and boom. Also Woolie for some reason can't understand a simple question and responds with an even wronger answer. The times? The times is not the answer when everyone else is fine with it. Oh it's the times as Nintendo is giving a thumbs up and Steam is selling rpg maker porn. Woolie "Let's agree to disagree." Madden you aren't anywhere near correct. It's the location not the times.

no Woolie, Ocam's Razor is not going "Lalalala generic answer lalalala", you still have to actually acknowledge the situation, & the fact that Nintendo a company that exist in the same context as Sony is dong the exact fucking opposite clearly means is NOT "the times & the puritan society", Pat's "Sony CEO Johnny Miyamoto's wife saw the porn" is in fact a closer Ocam's razor answer

The steam creepy bullshit is the funniest because I fully expected them to stop caring after multiple creepy sex games in a row came out with a link to the uncensored patch ON THE STEAM PAGE. They realized nobody gives a fuck and just rolled with it.

If you put softening gel on Kirby, it would give him the power to bounce around the screen and deal damage.

"Ew, boobs. Take that out and put more gore in." -Sony Execs

My buddy had the Record of Agarest war with the mouse pad. Pretty goofy stuff...

Softening gel aka oil was used on that Turkish wrestler in street fighter and it was a fucking mechanic AND WE LIKED IT!!!

I REALLY wanna see updates in my steam library with "softening gel" in the patch notes. Just for at least 1 game.

Imagine people actually lining up at the store for doax like “yeah, gotta get in on that sick competitive volleyball!”

Oh damn! When they started talking about softening cream, more games and Steam allowing more perv games... I just had Vietnam flashbacks of Frank from House Party...

Isn't it weird for them to be shitting on creepy anime shit when they themselves and most of their fans watch or play creepy anime shit. I mean what about Gurren Laggan or Kil la KIll?