Let These Games Be Gross, You Guys
Sony has come under fire for their censorship practices before, but it’s not often another industry professional. Censorship pushback is nothing new, but Sony has a history of some controversial decisions. Mark Kern, a former Blizzard producer, is the latest person to take umbrage with Sony and their censorship rules.
Kern called this latest bit of censorship ‘Puritanism,’ suggesting that we’re on the precipice of another moral panic. The newest Senran Kagura game is launching on PS4 without its ‘Intimacy Mode,’ which is what’s triggered the latest bout of backlash. That game’s not nearly the only one affected by censorship, however. Omega Labyrinth Z isn’t coming west at all thanks to these policies.
In fact, every trailer for that Senran Kagura game on YouTube is loaded with comments about Sony and how people refuse to support the game’s PS4 release. Most fans are opting to grab the Steam version instead, although that platform has had it’s own share of censorship issues over the past few years. Whether this is truly signalling a new wave of Puritanism remains to be seen, although the dedicated fan can usually find ways around these issues. The question is, should they even have to? Does this policy of Sony’s need to be in place at all, or are they just shooting themselves in the foot?