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[Helios]

https://rainbow6.ubisoft.com/siege/en-us/news/152-337194-16/aesthetic-changes-in-y3s4

We are currently working towards preparing Rainbow Six Siege for expansion into Asian territories. As such, there will be some adjustments made to our maps and icons to ensure compliance. None of these changes will have an impact on gameplay. We have examples of these changes at the bottom of the blog.
A SINGLE, GLOBAL VERSION
We want to explain why these changes are coming to the global version of the game, as opposed to branching and maintaining two parallel builds.

WE WANT TO STREAMLINE OUR PRODUCTION TIME TO INCREASE EFFICIENCY
By maintaining a single build, we are able to reduce the duplication of work on the development side. This will allow us to be more agile as a development team, and address issues more quickly.

WE WANT TO BE FUTURE PROOF
Having the same people working on a singular global version of the game ensures we only need to do the work once. In addition, we can guarantee that any future changes are aligned with the global regulations we are working towards.

WE WILL NOT CHANGE THE CORE OF THE GAME
We have a commitment to ensure that the Rainbow Six Siege experience remains true to its roots. We are adjusting art and visuals, but are not compromising what makes Rainbow Six Siege the game you know today.

Spoiler

Don't forget kids, gambling is bad. Unless the money goes to Ubisoft.

 

[Northeastmonk]

It looks like the version my mother always wanted.

 

[kingbean]

Are they getting rid of blood spray? If so then fuck the game, that's a huge part of the satisfaction.

 

[Patrick S.]

ResetERA approves.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Bowing down to actual totalitarians seems to be in vogue these days among huge corporations. They join the angelic chorus of Google and Facebook as complicit megacorps to a murderous machine.

 

[wipeout364]

I actually would sign a petition to stop this. I don’t mind when they make a version for a specific country but removing shit to please somebody else vision of right and wrong is getting a little too close to book burning for me. If this happens I will delete it off my hard drive and not buy anymore season passes.

 

[Helios]

Are they getting rid of blood spray? If so then fuck the game, that's a huge part of the satisfaction.

The example they showed is just a blood decal from the map. The post only mentions environmental and icon changes. It's unclear whether they're going to remove blood sprays. Another problem would be characters like Caveira or certain cosmetics that have skulls/blood on them.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Bowing down to actual totalitarians seems to be in vogue these days among huge corporations. They join the angelic chorus of Google and Facebook as complicit megacorps to a murderous machine.

Profits over people.

 

[Blam]

Personally I think this is beyond crazy for them to put China head of everyone else. The Country where cheating can have your real social score lowered like what the fuck?

Like really? Are you fucking kidding me Ubi? Use the money from the asian release to maintain the other one jesus fuck.

 

[Leonard Washington]

And what about the secret spy chips you put in everything China, hmm? What about them?

 

[IbizaPocholo]

To help allay some concerns about the changes and the future.

Moving forward, we do recognize and understand that for some elements, it is not possible to have a completely global build. Thus, there will be some things that are split build-wise. While our goal is to maintain as close a parallel as possible between builds, we will also not compromise the core integrity of the gameplay and mechanics as they exist currently.

Edit: For additional clarification, this branched build will be region locked, and will not have access to the worldwide data centers to engage with our existing player base - furthermore, VPNs will not function as a workaround

 

[haxan7]

They can't sell their product in an enormous market without incurring large additional costs if they don't make these changes.

Stop judging. Ask yourselves what would Jesus do (wwjd). Pray. Forgive.

 

[nowhat]

I don't know how much the rest of you know about Chinese culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in France where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in China, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the Chinese public, after hearing about Ubisoft disrespecting their competition, is not going to want to purchase Rainbow Six Siege, nor will they purchase any of Ubisoft's games.

 

[brap]

Globalism fuck yeah!

 

[xwez]

Rated M for Manipulated.

 

[Blam]

this decision makes no fucking sense they are gonna have 2 separate builds of the game.

 

[kingwingin]

a lot of companies play by china's rules. cant give up such a huge share of the market

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Shining light in PS4 Version.

 

[themidnightsun156]

ResetERA approves.

Actually they don't like it over there either and the sentiment is universal. Even users who don't give a fuck about the game are up in arms about this.

I'll have to wait and see if they remove the blood splatter from enemy hits and downed enemies, this being a key feature in the game to determine hits that have been landed, tracking enemy whereabouts and tracking downed enemies that leave a trail of blood who have crawled to cover. If this gets removed from the game simply to cater to a single country then my time with rainbow 6 siege is effectively over. Which is a shame as it is my favorite fps of all time.

 

[Razvedka]

Having the same people working on a singular global version of the game ensures we only need to do the work once. In addition, we can guarantee that any future changes are aligned with the global regulations we are working towards.

I'm struggling to wrap my brain around how having another branch of the game is terribly complicated for an outfit as big as Ubisoft. You have one that is for China, and probably only China (correct me if I'm wrong), and one that is for everyone else. Beyond whatever the Chinese government demands that they change for their version (branch b), it would be identical to the main one (branch a).

The cost savings of this decision must far outweigh the negative PR they're inevitably facing.

 

[Ar¢tos]

Skull drawings are censored in China?? WTF!
What does a jolly roger flag looks like in China then?

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Skull drawings are censored in China?? WTF!
What does a jolly roger flag looks like in China then?

 

[Hoya Destroyer]

lol. It seems most of the time Asians are (rightly) pissed at us Westerners for lessening their games with censorship and now its the other way around.

 

[VulcanRaven]

I was thinking about buying this but now I'm not sure. This doesn't sound good.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

lol. It seems most of the time Asians are (rightly) pissed at us Westerners for lessening their games with censorship and now its the other way around.

That's not really Chinese consumer's fault.
No one at China went and said how overseas versions should be, or whether they should exist. I bet there are Asian people mad that no version is safe from the local policies.

Ubisoft is doing two releases anyways for the matchmaking and lootboxes, they deliberately chose to make the global non-Chinese version carry the Chinese version's censorship that not so surprisingly happens to be the sort of content a lot of the usual suspects (you can see a lot of cheering for this in other places) would, conveniently, love to see disappear forever.

Even Nintendo, which is often criticized for being too censorship happy, made sure for the period of time they were doing operations in China to localize their games with as minimal censorship as they could manage (their decision to localize Sin and Punishment there, skirting regulations dangerously, was qualified as "audacious" even), the Stalfos in Zelda localizations are intact, and their recent more risque games for the Nintendo Switch are published in Hong Kong and Taiwan territories in both traditional chinese (for those territories) and simplified chinese (a dialect no one there speaks, but spoken in mainland china) completely unaltered.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

Sony is censoring every game globally to please west coast American SJW's. How does it feel? I believe I brought one of these examples up. When you give them an inch, it can go miles in any direction. Beware censorship.

 

[Senhua]

Nice, I like this. Hope this will keep it up to another AAA games with extreme violence like TLOU2. Only mass serial murderer play that kind of game.

 

[brap]

Nice, I like this. Hope this will keep it up to another AAA games with extreme violence like TLOU2. Only mass serial murderer play that kind of game.

Or you could just not play them

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Nice, I like this. Hope this will keep it up to another AAA games with extreme violence like TLOU2. Only mass serial murderer play that kind of game.

TLOU2's artistic expression is safe, it had the BEST kind of marketing that cemented it as the RIGHT kind.
The director and people involved have valiantly had success in purging problematic concepts like sexual content in GoW, problematic Kratos masculinity, fat Nathan and horrifying other things. And even if mistakes were made, it would be just one strike.

 

[Senhua]

Or you could just not play them

I know but I will not satisfield until others cannot play that kind of game too.

Spoiler

/s

 

[DeleteriousObnoxious]

Rainbow Six Raven Shield is still active online... if anyone wants to join the heaven of no censor ^^

 

[GrayFoxRJ]

lol. It seems most of the time Asians are (rightly) pissed at us Westerners for lessening their games with censorship and now its the other way around.

Japanese scene is strong. Don't blame them. They've been playing the same game as us since day 1.

It is the Chinese regulation that is giving the cards here

 

[Jill Valentine]

It's not censorship because our governments aren't doing it, the developers are free to do what they want with their game. Really, it's time for blood in games to go away, there's no reason for it to be there in the current day and we should be on the right side of history on this matter. Nobody has to platform the opposition to removal of violence, a bunch of assholes deserve to be shown the door. Nobody is going to take your games away. Games are for everyone.

Spoiler

 

[archvile7]

Bowing down to actual totalitarians seems to be in vogue these days among huge corporations. They join the angelic chorus of Google and Facebook as complicit megacorps to a murderous machine.

I was about to say the same thing. Apple is guilty of this too. And don’t get me started on Diablo immortal - clearly geared towards the Chinese market. It’s all pretty strange.

 

[archvile7]

It's not censorship because our governments aren't doing it, the developers are free to do what they want with their game. Really, it's time for blood in games to go away, there's no reason for it to be there in the current day and we should be on the right side of history on this matter. Nobody has to platform the opposition to removal of violence, a bunch of assholes deserve to be shown the door. Nobody is going to take your games away. Games are for everyone.

Spoiler

Fuck, you almost got me before the spoiler. I’m glad GAF has changed for the better.

 

[michaelius]

This looks just like laziness on Ubisoft part - if all they are doing is changing assets they should be able to make Chinese version with those altered versions and keep old ones for everyone else while still keeping the ability to play between both versions.

 

[anthraticus]

Rainbow Six Raven Shield is still active online... if anyone wants to join the heaven of no censor ^^

And if you're not into mp download the supply drops mod for SP.

 

[Shifty]

They don't seem aware that branching and merging is a thing in source control software.

...Who am I kidding, of course they are. They're just using big words to bamboozle the listener as they explain why cost-cutting biz-niz is affecting their gameplay experience.

 

[Ballthyrm]

What i don't get is that the USA is doing the exact same thing.
They are a huge market and they push their puritans view on all the big games.

It is adapt or die, so the European developpers have to make games that pass the ESRB.
Any sexual content would get immediately flagged. How is China doing anything different here.

Every AAA is safe because they have to be.
I get it, why do they censor everybody instead of only the chinese, they told us the answer, Time and money.

Chinese people get their way, just like Americans get their games devoid of sex.
In the end the only ones that are really screwed are us european that want both sex and violence .

 

[kunonabi]

I wouldnt think my opinion of Ubisoft could get any lower but here we are.

 

[Three]

In the end the only ones that are really screwed are us european that want both sex and violence .

Germany has its fair share of censorship. There is some nice info about what has changed in games in the past for all regions not just Germany

https://www.destructoid.com/censorship-in-germany-how-they-changed-your-fav-games-268854.phtml

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

Well, guess I can forget about this game.

 

[JunkerWoland]

Glad this isn't a game I care about, so at least it's not another product I have to feel bad about either not buying or deciding to no longer play/support.

 

[Madonis]

Not interested in the game, but this is a sign of bad things to come.

 

[Halo is Back]

Wow, all of that good will Ubi was making to just get thier heads stuck up their asses again? I mean dose china even care about this game? This is so pointless.

 

[5secondrulesucks]

thats some straight up bitch shit. fuck you ubisoft

 

[Insane Metal]

Rated M for Manipulated.

Communism approved!

 

[gela94]

Well it's not like companies didn't play this game already with countries like germany.

 

[Fbh]

WTF.
I'd get making the changes for the Chinese version but altering the content worldwide just to please China is ridiculous.

Well it's not like companies didn't play this game already with countries like germany.

But normally the content only gets cut in the country/region where it's problematic.

In this case the changes will affect every version, not just the Chinese one. This is as if they had taken out the Nazis from every version of Wolfenstein because they weren't allowed to use them in Germany