Judgement series is going to end, due to licensing disputes

[HomebrewingNeko]

Judgment may have it's case closed, after PC licensing issues have made it so that the newest game, Lost Judgment, may not be able to be put on PC. The issue stems from the main character's actor, Takuya Kimura. The agency that manages him, Johnny & Associates, wishes that the game be blocked from being on PC, to make sure that they have the likeness rights to Kimura.

The control that Johnny’s has over the likenesses of its artists has meant power. By allowing Takuya Kimura, one of the agency’s most famous stars, to appear in a game released on an open platform like PC, the agency might think it’s giving that up. Thus, this could explain why Johnny’s is rumored to be against a possible PC version.

Lost Judgement releases September 24, 2021. If PC isn't happening, it'll still be on PS4 and PS5, as well as Xbox One and X/S.
Source
Kotaku Article

 

[Viri]

It's okay, you just need to unlock him.

Spoiler

 

[FAST6191]

This is a new one for me.
Never had likeness rights trouble a platform before -- closest I have seen was some of the fun with cyberpunk 2077 with some model/characters swaps there ( https://www.ign.com/articles/keanu-...ifies-stance-on-modding-models-of-real-people ) and that was more embarrassing than anything particularly legally troubling, even if I could possibly see it being that. Had a few celebrities/actors balloon a budget as devs had to pay for it, or pay for it in addition to voice work and maybe mocap.
Anyway I am drawn to wonder if this has happened in the past, or might be why we have seen some notable absences in PC ports/versions of Japanese games.

Also because nobody in the history of ever has ever ripped a texture/model out of a console game? I don't know which I would necessarily put as more common or easier to do for either side of the PC-console split (PC has some nice ripping tools, and scripting as per the thing above, but the tools are hardly flawless and the others potentially fall under basic model swaps) but it is hardly a niche activity on either side of things.

 

[Deleted member 471305]

Guess you could say that they should use better Judgment.