Indy galge stopped from distribution on Xbox Live
The Japanese indies game Sore demo, watashi wa aishiteiru which was released on Xbox Live has been stopped from distribution.
The author writes on his blog saying that he had originally been contacted by Microsoft Europe that one of the event scenes had content that was deemed inappropriate. The main points highlighted by Microsoft about the scene in question (pictured above) were that:
And the above three points were elements that are visual cues that would remind players of sexual violence, and was deemed to be one of the prohibited content in their indies games.
The author asked if it was possible to keep it in distribution only for the Japan region while they are fixing the scene in question, but were told that in the event that they do not comply and stop distribution, Microsoft will delete it and suspend their account.
Censorship on consoles isn’t new, but the problem faced here is apparently that they have to comply to the content regulations in every region, so if something is okay in the US and Japan but not in Europe, they’ll have to do something to fix it. Whereas the practice with normal console releases is that they would normally only censor the game for the regions that have a problem with it.
August 16th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Yikes. One potential problem of digital distribution. Let’s hope it doesn’t get so bad, we end up wishing for the good old days of physical distribution to come back.
August 16th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Since Equality Now is based in the UK, I get the feeling that they were involved.
August 16th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Somehow I can’t see this helping Xbox’s image in the Japanese market, though I wonder why this even matters since the game is for Japanese markets only.
Very worthy of an exasperated facepalming.
August 16th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Damn European snobs!
August 16th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Quoted from XNA:
http://creators.xna.com/en-US/faq#anchor_1_28
“Games are now evaluated for “one world” or worldwide approval.
…
Each game has to match the standards of all countries we support – that means the strictest standard will be applied for all countries. A game must pass all criteria before being allowed for sale in ANY Xbox LIVE marketplace.”
August 17th, 2009 at 2:48 am
I downloaded the demo before it was banned…I wonder if I can still pay for the full version to be unlocked? :3
August 17th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Europeans! 日本語を読めない癖に！
August 17th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Is Xbox LIVE available in Saudi Arabia?
August 17th, 2009 at 7:15 am
A lot of violent American games have women dressed in clothing that is much more revealing than underwear. Ban them too!
August 17th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Hats off to the creator… releasing doujin galge on Xbox LIVE is a way to stem the massive torrenting that happens to conventional PC release.
>>Let’s hope it doesn’t get so bad, we end up wishing for the good old days of physical distribution to come back.
It’s the same old set of problems inherent in globalization, whether digital or physical distribution. Corporations want to segment markets so they can charge according to the maximum each region would pay, while at the same time they just want to cut their efforts and just sell one global product instead of spending time and money to localize properly. While on the other hand consumers want to be able to import whatever products contain the local quirks as the region they’re importing from, and only get charged in the currency from the lowest cost region.
Making products region-free by default is a key step in conquering the smaller markets that rely too much on piracy. For example, thanks to the Xbox 360’s history of reliability, despite this country being a haven for piracy since way before the PS2 era, the piracy-free PS3 is still winning in the grey market. But unfortunately that seems to only apply to blu-ray games, as downloadable games and expansion packs seem to still be restricted per region.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Fuck.
Just because Equality Now were against Rapelay doesn’t mean they had anything to do with this. You fuckers seriously need to do your research.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:01 am
It was his mistake. Stop licking his balls just because he is Japanese.
He should have known the rules/standards before releasing the game. It’s not a matter of free speech, before all you sophists assault me. It’s private. “Freedom of speech” as a right refers to what the government cannot infringe upon. Person to person, company to company… you don’t have that freedom of speech.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:03 am
> Just because Equality Now were against Rapelay doesn’t mean they had anything to do with this. You fuckers seriously need to do your research.
They’re called Artefact, Sankaku Complex’s users and ignorant people.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Yeah, its no the femnazis fault this time. Its Micro$oft fault now. So, no europe fail, just the old and reliable USA fail. :)
August 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
> Just because Equality Now were against Rapelay doesn’t mean they had anything to do with this. You fuckers seriously need to do your research.
The only reason why you would try to defend people like them, is probably because you’re one of them.
Blaming MS only is nothing but an excuse, someone had to complain about the game first for them to even acknowledge there was a situation there. It’s extremely doubtful that they would test every single game released on their XBL downloads. To ban the game from sales in US or Japan as well, where the two had no complaints is just a bit too suspicious to anyone.
Equality Now has a racist agenda against Japan, heck they even tried to demand a ban for Fatal Frame on the Wii because your character can attack polygonal “spirits.” They were complaining it’s not right to attack “spirits” despite the fact they’re fictional. Majority of their complaints tend to focus on Japan, and they even tried to argue against real statistical facts with their own fictitious versions of “facts.”
August 19th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Where did you hear that Equality Now tried to instigate a western ban on Fatal Frame IV? I’d like to learn what bastard is responsible for the decision to halt localization as much as the next guy, but what makes you think it was Equality Now?
Just curious.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Something Zepy’s kinda glossing over is the fact that during this scene the girl is also begging the player’s character not to rape her.
which kinda makes a big difference.
August 19th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
> Where did you hear that Equality Now tried to instigate a western ban on Fatal Frame IV? I’d like to learn what bastard is responsible for the decision to halt localization as much as the next guy, but what makes you think it was Equality Now?
It was originally on Equality Now’s own website where they were complaining about the Japanese version of Fatal Frame, Zero ~Tsukihami no Kamen~ and how the game should be banned from stores in Japan. They were even making demands to Nintendo of America concerning the localization of the game. But after a short while they removed the posting because the internet community were telling them it was making their organization sound like idiots, since their argument was stupid to begin with.
August 19th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Before I forget, Equality Now tends to hide anything negative about them. They even removed a polite comment on their Facebook page, where a female user has posted a comment concerning about their actions against Japan and especially concerning Rapelay, she was telling them that they didn’t have the right to demand for bans, and it’s not even their own country and their laws, so it shouldn’t involve them in the first place. The first thing they did instead of responding to the user was hide/deleted the comment from that female user.
August 19th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Proof, please. Found nothing regarding this crap. Show me teh links.
August 19th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
> Proof, please. Found nothing regarding this crap. Show me teh links.
As I have said earlier, they removed everything very quickly. I have no proof to show you directly, sorry. You can go ahead and consider me a liar if you want. I know what I’ve seen, and there’s no point in defending myself from what I’ve actually seen.
Even there is proof of their actions, there’s no point of showing it here since they have members spying on a lot of sites like this already.
August 19th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
>Something Zepy’s kinda glossing over is the fact that during this scene the girl is also begging the player’s character not to rape her.
In the scene she tells him it’s still too early to kiss because her grandmother is really strict and he needs good grades.
August 20th, 2009 at 2:16 am
hahaha owow seems like said groups started to participate in the inforomation warfare, spreading their cancer onto the net and releasing false information like some comments here are indicating so. Just like the Pentagon and zionist organizations pay ten-thousands of users for internet propaganda.
August 20th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Just wait till Xbox Live has to deal with the Middle East… or Utah.
August 20th, 2009 at 5:46 am
>>hahaha owow seems like said groups started to participate in the inforomation warfare, spreading their cancer onto the net and releasing false information like some comments here are indicating so. Just like the Pentagon and zionist organizations pay ten-thousands of users for internet propaganda.
Can’t handle the truth can you Equality Now spy? Why don’t you ask what’s the relationship between the CIA and Equality Now or perhaps check up about Gloria Steinem
August 20th, 2009 at 8:48 am
“Can’t handle the truth can you Equality Now spy? Why don’t you ask what’s the relationship between the CIA and Equality Now or perhaps check up about Gloria Steinem”
Don’t be coy, tell us more!
August 20th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
> hahaha owow seems like said groups started to participate in the inforomation warfare, spreading their cancer onto the net and releasing false information like some comments here are indicating so. Just like the Pentagon and zionist organizations pay ten-thousands of users for internet propaganda.
Funny how you would consider it false information, when Equality Now does nothing but produce the false evidence and statistics to support their claims in actual documents for government officials to see.
Equality Now’s Claim #1: Anyone looking at fictional sexual violence or rape will be interested in performing real sexual violence or rape crimes.
Evidence provided by Equality Now: None.
True statistical data provided by Equality Now: None.
True evidence: Myself along with thousands or millions of others have seen this type of content, I for one have never been interested in performing any of these deeds, to be honest I am disgusted with themes of rape, but I have absolutely no issues with others viewing this content, because most people know it’s fictional. Only people who can’t tell the difference from fiction and reality would have issues with content like these, and most of these tend to be psychopaths in the first place. Since you’re unable to determine the difference between reality and fiction, are you and all members of Equality Now are declaring yourselves as one of those psychopaths?
Equality Now’s Claim #2: Japan actually has a high number of rape crimes, because most Japanese women won’t report it or they’re afraid of reporting due to lack of women’s rights.
Evidence provided by Equality Now: None.
True statistical data provided by Equality Now: None.
True evidence: Women in Japan have more rights than the women in South Africa, yet they were able to give out true statistics on the immensely high number of rapes occurring in South Africa. If Equality Now claims that Japan’s women are being silenced, then why does South Africa even bother releasing a rape statistic? Shouldn’t the number be 0 then, since the men in South Africa controls the outcome?
August 20th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Wait it seems my posting was interpreted the wrong way. I meant the posters above me which defended the feminazis, it wasn’t my intention to accuse sites like this one for agitation practices.
August 21st, 2009 at 7:15 am
Don’t try to backpedal.
We are on to you.
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:28 am
reatarded. Why the frak did you read his comment that way?