As of late, the gaming industry has gone through a rather topsy-turvy phase, with Sony cracking down by censoring or banning certain themes within video games, while Nintendo, usually thought of as the more "censorship-happy" company, has been allowing games on their platform without removing content. The most recent case of this being Super Neptunia RPG, which had two CG scenes edited in the release on PlayStation 4 as opposed to the Switch version, which was untouched. This topic was brought up during Nintendo's 79th Shareholder's Meeting Q&A, where Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa reiterated Nintendo of Japan's stance on censorship, claiming, "Nintendo, as do third parties and their software, applies for an objective rating from third-party organizations (CERO) prior to release. If platform-holding companies choose arbitrarily, the diversity and fairness in game software would be significantly inhibited. We provide parental controls that can be used to apply limits." (translation courtesy of Censored Gaming.)

Furukawa further added that, "Nintendo, at this time, does not censor, and does not intend to censor", when it comes to third-party releases on the Nintendo Switch. Whether this stance may also apply to Nintendo of America and their localization Threehouse branch, is dubious, with western first-party titles like Xenoblade Chronicles X, Fire Emblem Fates, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions having seen controversial censorship choices in the past. But as it stands, it appears that software from other publishers will remain uncensored, for the time being.

Source

 

[guisadop]

Learn how it's done, Sony.

 

[FAST6191]

But I thought PlayStation is for big boys and Nintendo is for kids

You know how last gen MS and Sony were content to rip each other off and essentially swap places?

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

What about that Mahjong game then...

CERO only allow nipples on Z rated games. Z rated games can't be published to home consoles.

 

[Toon Link]

Okay? But NoA are still gonna be complete dipshits though?

 

[DANTENDO]

Learn how it's done, Sony.

Thers nothing to learn ps5 wil sell shitloads regardless

 

[Jayro]

Now and f they could just stop censoring all games in general, that would be an absolute win.

 

[Hambrew]

Does this mean the eshop will be flooded with garbage just like Steam?

Can't wait for Meme Run 2!

 

[Foxi4]

It only took them 36 years to get to this (correct) conclusion, it's a shame some other companies are regressing their policies on mature content.

 

[WAUthethird]

On the 3DS, there was actually quite a lot of uncensored content. (minus some of the FE controversies) Corpse Party and both of the Senran Kagura games had a lot going for them in terms of their M rating, but as far as I know, neither were censored in their Western releases. Corpse Party was kind of an unbelievable third-party release for Nintendo at the time, but luckily it was a fantastic port.

In any case, I'm glad that Nintendo is going this direction. (also, I've seen a few comments saying that this means even more shovelware will be released. But as someone said above, censorship is not quality control.)

 

[chrisrlink]

oh dear go I can imagine an R 18 mode and H games on eshop they're gonna kill their own rep even further

 

[Tiger21820]

I think people are missing a keyword here: Nintendo of JAPAN. Y'know the country that Western publishers tend to censor most of that content from?

I fail to see how this means anything will change in regards to the "Western censorship" that already happens on Nintendo's platform, both first and third party wise.

At least the Switch is open-region!

 

[Sonansune]

Nony
Sintendo

 

[SomeKindOfUsername]

Japan still censors the hell out of violent content though.

But it's not anime tiddies (haha I said the funny thing) so nobody actually cares about that kind of censorship.
Also, changing the age of 15 year olds, because even though they don't care about that kind of thing it's VERY important for their sexual purposes that they remain that way...I mean, integrity purposes.

 

[Pokem]

Wow, Nintendo making great business moves.
I hope Nintendo of America also follows Japan, since the OP says "Whether this stance may also apply to Nintendo of America and their localization Threehouse branch, is dubious" kinda have me still a bit worried.

 

[Deleted member 445482]

Panty Party 2: Electric boogaloo.

 

[Justinde75]

it always amuses me how people lose their mind when their weeb 12 YO with tits, slutty outfits, and panty flashes are censored.i couldn't give a rats ass about censorship myself as long as i get to play the game

Its not about that. Its about companies taking away the freedom of creating what the artist wants to create. Censorship is ALWAYS a bad thing, especially today where free speech is pretty much impossible to do.

 

[Nollog]

Nintendo haven't censored third parties since the 80s, people just never get over it.

 

[FAST6191]

Nintendo haven't censored third parties since the 80s, people just never get over it.

I should note that the SNES was around well into the 90s. But anyway maybe not as overtly as during the NES and SNES era but it was not rank stupidity* on the part of all those devs doing things, or Sony, Sega, MS and such buying them out to not appear on Nintendo systems that saw all those systems lack the good shit of the day, or have watered down versions of it, and similarly Nintendo never really put any proper efforts into enticing them -- how much did they spunk on Bayonetta 2 and would that have been better spent on snuggling up to Rockstar to get them some GTA?

*I would probably look at relative sales of things. Stuff like if the GC lacked GTA then did True Crime Streets of LA sell proportionally more than might be expected (it is the only reason me and mine owned the game on the GC, just to have something like it)?

 

[EIREXE]

Does this mean the eshop will be flooded with garbage just like Steam?

I think steam store having bad quality games is a necessary evil.

 

[Raiderzzz]

Some good games finally made it to switch if you know what I mean