Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain and Onechanbara Origin producer Nobuyuki Okajima recently discussed in an interview recent stricter policies surrounding censorship, and how it’s not likely to be an issue for D3 Publisher going forward. [Thanks, Twinfinite!]
When asked about whether D3 Publisher’s upcoming games could be at risk over risque imagery, Okajima answered:
“You might be looking at it from a different point of view as we are. At times we create a game exclusively for the Japanese market since it’s acceptable and there is a lot of demand for that here.
However, we hear voices encouraging us to release it in the west, which always makes us wonder if that’s ok, and whether it will be accepted by different cultures in different countries, some times even by the government.
We’re extra careful with the titles created specifically to be released in the west, and these are most likely fine. We understand why some displays or visuals aren’t acceptable in those countries.”
As for issues with games releasing in Japan, Okajima talks about how they used to ‘enter the grey area’ but are more certain about what’s allowed and what’s not now:
“There is always a grey zone, even for the Japanese market. At times first parties say specifically “you can’t do that” in their guidelines. It’s very clear, and we’re not going to do it.
There have been times when we tried to get around it, and we entered that grey zone. That’s when occasionally we had issues. Yet, moving forward, I believe we have a pretty clear idea of what is allowed and what is not.”
Onechanbara Origin releases for PlayStation 4 in Japan in 2019. You can see more new screenshots in our previous report here.
