Once again, you are spouting baseless claims. You are projecting your own beliefs devoid of any evidence in an effort to defend Sony as you tend to do. Meanwhile Sony has had a history of forcing censorship where it is unneeded/unwarranted. Censorship that is ignored on Nintendo, PC, and Xbox where said games still get physical releases.
Literally everything points to this just being Sony acting like hypocritical cunts as they have been acting for the past six years now, since their move of the Playstation Headquarters to California.
But keep on with the word vomit that boils down to “LEAVE SONY ALOOOOOOOONE
![Loudly Crying :messenger_loudly_crying: :messenger_loudly_crying:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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I'm a gamedev who asked other gamedevs who work on this particular publishing area how this works and I'm explaining it to you with facts.
Like many other self 'censored' games, this game gets only censored in the platforms where it gets a retail release (in this case PlayStation only). Probably because the small publisher can't afford to release it on retail for all versions, or they consider that retail sales will be too small on other platforms to become profitable. There has been also games where the only retail version was Switch, and that version was the one 'censored'. Or was censored on the PS and Switch versions but not other ones because PS and Switch were the only ones released on retail.
Since PlayStation is the platform where 3rd parties sell the biggest amount of games (over 1700M games sold until PS5 was released), when the small publishers can only publish on retail on a single platform most frequently choose PS, and sometimes PS & Switch. So if they have to cut some content to get the proper age rating needed to publish game in retail stores on countries like USA or Japan they self censor these versions they publish on retail.
So when they only release the game on retail in a single platform typically it's PS, then PS is the only self censored platform. Sometimes the version is PS, sometimes Switch, sometimes both and sometimes Xbox too. And happens because it has nothing to do with Sony, but the age ratings are assigned by external age rating agencies and national regulations are the ones that allow or not to sell on retail stores games with certain age rating for these countries.
These regulations in many countries only affect to retail stores/physical versions so don't afect those platforms where the game is only released digitally, like always happens with the PC versions. Then there's the difference between getting ESRB rating via a IARC for small digital only games/platforms, which is faster and less strict so they typically accept as ESRB M some stuff that should be ESRB AO. But if publishers want to release it in retail they must follow a more strictly reviewed ESRB rating.
There are many games like Outlast 2 or Agony that got self censored (again, not only on PS) to get M rating instead of AO because they wanted to sell it on retail stores for console. And that happened way before Sony opened their 2nd HQ in California.
The Sony censorship is a myth.
P.S.: I suggest you to don't be that insulting and console warring because this is how you get ignored and banned.
It shouldn't be censored or a toggle option should be there for those interested in the game but not the face decapitation.
I think games with ESRB AO content should be allowed to be sold in stores for console in retail in any country, but including a more detailed list of the potential controversial/problematic content next to the ERSB description, which I also think that in digital stores should be more visible. In this case publishers wouldn't have to selfcensor their games.
But yes, an option to skip stuff like the face scene would be also nice.