The Stellar Blade battle isn’t over, and distributor Sony has taken sides against its customers. Yesterday, reports came in that the highly-anticipated video game from South Korean developer Shift Up had censored some of the more revealing outfits worn by its lead character, Eve. Stellar Blade received criticism from games journalists (who must be the life of every party they ill-advisedly get invited to) due to the overt sexiness with which Eve is portrayed, but many gamers liked the sense of fun she represented, as well as the gameplay in the demo released in March. Now that people are getting to experience the game, however, it appears to have been toned down to appease its critics:
It's looking confirmed. Stellar Blade is censored.
Reports from NG+ players on Reddit, Twitter, and Streamers (via 4-chan) confirm the swimsuit is altered even in NG+.
Physical disc seems to have the uncensored versions.
Reviewers copies and Day 1 patch have this version. pic.twitter.com/2fdW6gaYoc
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
Stop messing with #StellarBlade pic.twitter.com/SJ9cF8l8Tt
— BadMan (@BADMANMEDIA) April 26, 2024
It’s not just the sultriness of Eve’s costumes, either; the violence has been diminished, with less blood visible in certain shots after Eve kills a bad guy:
They censored gore efforts as well pic.twitter.com/pgpsKnBPUA
— Artur Magomedov (@ArturMagom58186) April 26, 2024
Mark Kern, the former Blizzard producer who goes by Grummz on social media, explained that Sony is almost certainly responsible for this:
I'll explain something about game dev, especially console development.
Sony has to approve everything in the game. They have testers go through the build right up to moment of release.
If Sony doesn't want it in there, the dev has zero choice, and must change it.
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 25, 2024
An X user called K.A.B. posted a thread explaining how Sony operates when it comes to censoring games and why the developers can’t even talk about it:
https://twitter.com/ironageaussie/status/1783829888430178674
Livestreaming is the reason DoA was also targeted.https://t.co/YOaEP9D8b8
And now, thanks to the social media buzz surrounding SB, Sony could no longer ignore what they believed was a controversy worth addressing (conveniently, only in the direction that appeases Marxists).
— K.A.B. (Project TBA) (@ironageaussie) April 26, 2024
Why did Hyung-Tae Kim pause?
One factor was intimidation.
The other, is because he isn't allowed to blame Sony for any potential changes made to his game. How do we know?
Because Capcom found themselves in the same position after DMC5. December 2019.https://t.co/NdH2VbXiHb
— K.A.B. (Project TBA) (@ironageaussie) April 26, 2024
You can find the full history of Sony's censorship policy here: https://t.co/kOHaEVQG6j
— K.A.B. (Project TBA) (@ironageaussie) April 26, 2024
That explains the sexy stuff, but I don’t recall anyone complaining about the violence in Stellar Blade, even games journalists awaiting a vaccine to protect them from smiling. This strikes me as vindictiveness on Sony’s part, a way to rub gamers’ noses in their inability to get what they want from a game they were excited to play for what Sony, journalists, and the rest of the scolds deemed the wrong reasons.
It’s important to note that these changes appear to have been made in a patch, so if you ordered a hard copy of Stellar Blade and don’t update it, you should be okay (provided you don’t have to update it to play, which I’m unsure about). People who purchase or pre-ordered digital copies, on the other hand, will almost certainly have the censored version. And on that score, Kern has a plan to get this situation rectified, which he lays out in this thread:
I reached out to Kim Hyung Tae, creator of Stellar Blade. While we have had some casual DMs before, I sent him this, this morning.
Launch day is very busy. He will not be in the office for some time, or if he is, it will be in meetings. So I don't expect to hear back. That's… pic.twitter.com/j1x4Y2gWXU
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
Step 2.
He follows me.
As I tweet about what we're going to do, you can leave replies and he will likely see how many there are and read them.
Everything we say matters. The goal is change, and this is a different culture. Let's set the tone for what they see. Be polite. Be… https://t.co/luKaSyl5Xd
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
Step 3.
I am search banned on Twitter, like a NSFW tag artists get. Even though I don't post NSFW.
This is likely to anti-Grummz forces falsely mass reporting me for NSFW (likely Stellar Blade images) and triggering automated responses. This limits people searching for my… pic.twitter.com/RCoBjI8Ryf
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
Step 4. Contact Shift Up offices.
To be most effective, you need to mail a physical letter. Ex-pats or Korean fans need to also politely visit their offices to physically drop off a letter. But ALSO email. You can send it here: [email protected]
Asian cultures are different,… pic.twitter.com/SzD6crbYse
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
Step 5: Sony North America and @PlayStation
Sony is different, NA offices are very sensitive to social media. You need to post to them, tag them, and get #FreeStellarBlade trending.
There is a double standard. Cyberpunk, Balder's Gate 3. Post comparison images with those and… pic.twitter.com/ltaN26yPVT
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
Step 6:
We gonna boycott. But we're also going to Support Stellar blade.
Send the real target SONY a message. Cancel your @Playstation Playstation+ subscription. Give the reason as #FreeStellarBlade and get them to allow Shift Up to change it back.
Buy physical copies of the… pic.twitter.com/L5mbt4oLBB
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
Step 7:
The petition to #FreeStellarBlade is up. Sign it, spread it, get it trending: https://t.co/fmskN74BUy
Electronic petitions carry less weight in Asia than physical. We will print the petition in Korea and have it delivered to Shift Up offices and Sony offices.
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
Step 8
Contact Youtubers.
Send them this list (I will assemble as a thread and pin). Get the word out and get them to make content about it.
Get loud. #FreeStellarBlade
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
And if you think this is a waste of time, Kern has some history for you:
"This plan won't work, we should just cancel and go home."
Sorry, you are wrong. I've used it before and I've won.
I lead the change to bring WoW Classic back. I brought the Nostalrius petition to Blizzard and we got it back.
We can change it here too.
Shift Up would… pic.twitter.com/LPQSQQDPNl
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 26, 2024
This is why the companies and games journalists hate Mark Kern so much; he worked in the video game industry and knows how it operates, so he understands how to fight them. He’s exactly the kind of leader the anti-woke movement needs on the gaming front; he knows how to affect change better than anyone else. And he’s showing gamers that they aren’t as powerless as Sony wants them to think they are, even after it looks like they’ve lost; they have the power to control the purse strings. Kern says the petition needs 100,000 signatures “to make a difference;” so far, it’s got 5,402, which is, by my count, about 1000 signatures an hour. Despite the annoyance, these are exciting times, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Kern and a bunch of dedicated gamers can do.
If you’d like to sign the petition, you can do so here.
After what Nintendo just pulled I am SERIOUSLY thinking of buying a PC
It’s been so long since I’ve had one, though. Are disc copies of PC games still a thing? Do you have to have an Internet connection? There really are a lot of PC only games I want to play like Welcome to Pine Harbor, Echoes of the Living, and Nazraleth The Fallen World. Anyway, let me know if you can if there are any PCs out there that still have disc drives and don’t require Internet connections.
I don’t play PC games, but according to this, they mostly don’t have physical copies anymore: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/bnv1sk/what_are_reliable_places_to_buy_physical_pc_games/
Now would be the perfect time to bring this to PC. the pc market knows modders will find a way around the censorship. this will sell like hotcakes on pc