Gameitall 
While it has been something that was in the talks for some time, Sony has confirmed that they have created its own guidelines for sexual material in games, overriding rating systems already in place like the ESRB and PEGI. The report comes from the Wall Street Journal who cites unnamed Sony officials.
According to a spokeswoman for Sony, the move will help developers “offer well-balanced content” that doesn’t “inhibit the sound growth and development” of young people. However in the article, there appears to be a more business motives for the crackdown as some officials have stated that they were concerned that the Playstation brand could take a hit from sexually explicit material sold in Japan and other countries.
According to one American official, Sony is worried that it could be a “target of legal and social action” if one of these games catches the public eye. Studios in Japan are more willing to produce more racy games as their culture doesn’t see sexual material as such a taboo subject, however North America has seen several social movements that have raised concern about sexualization in media and the treatment of women in general.
Unfortunately, there are no clear rules in place and developers are not happy. With many creators wondering if this will curb creativity among developers as they’re not sure what will cross the line, which can cost extra development time and money to alter cutscenes or characters even if the game was thought to be relatively safe.
This has already affected a number of games, with Idea Factory’s Super Neptunia RPG releasing censored on PS4 but not on the Nintendo Switch, and more notably Devil May Cry 5, which saw the Western PS4 version censored for very mild instance of Nudity. This was recently reverted in a recent patch.
So far, Microsoft and Nintendo have not implemented this policy, with Nintendo already including some games to be fully uncensored like the mentioned Super Neptunia RPG, a new Senran Kagura Pinball game, and Moero Chronicles. While this is unlikely to hurt Sony’s bottom line unless a major title sees censorship, it’s likely still going to see some players flock to the competing companies on Censorship principle alone.
