@SLIGEACH_EIRE There's Switch ads all the time here in the US. Over the summer they were pretty much the only video game commercials (little bit of PlayStation for Uncharted, zero Xbox).
The past few weeks they've been airing fairly frequent ads for Super Mario Odyssey, FE Warriors, and NBA 2K18. The 2K commercials are on pretty often during the nationally televised NBA games too.
@Ralizah I was hooked on that SkyForce for a while a couple of years back. For a mobile shoot-em-up it's really good. I always thought it would really benefit from having proper controls and I recall saying I'd like to see it come to Wii U on here a couple of years ago. I look forward to it's arrival.
I've seen a few Switch ads in the UK since I've been back and I hardly watch the TV. Only really when I'm having my dinner.
Why? Most 'millennials' don't watch much TV and what they do watch they're watching pre-recorded with the ads resembling a very quick and very quiet flip show.
If you want to target the sub 30 year old demographic (particularly the sub 30 year olds who spend money on video games) then YouTube is a better place to spend your advertising money.
There's still a place for TV ads but the people who tend to sit through ads on TV in 2017 tend to be of a different demographic. They're typically older, less tech savy and are definitely not early adoptors for video game consoles.
I see a bunch of those ads. Back when my little sister and I used to watch more TV, we saw a bunch of commercials on Disney XD and Cartoon Network. I've also seen several on YouTube and Twitch pop up, and advertisements on other websites.
@Snaplocket Removing entire gameplay mechanics (Fire Emblem: Fates) and changing entire storylines (Tokyo Mirage Sessions) in games don't count as "minor edits." And, frankly, "minor edits" don't belong in the M-rated games like Fatal Frame 5, which sanitized the costumes (both in the game and an unlockable one).
Many other games published by Nintendo also got hit with censorship (although usually not as major). It was ridiculous. Hopefully the American branch has gotten the memo to not alter elements of the games in the localized versions as well, although, if push comes to shove, at least the Switch is region free, so people can bypass the censors entirely if they wish without having to purchase entirely separate systems.
This shouldn't be as much of an issue now that Japanese devs are being advised by foreign branches about the content in their games, though. Everybody will get one version of the game. Which is how it should be, considering Nintendo's brand appeal is international.
@Snaplocket They're not "making a mountain out of a molehill." You want content arbitrarily censored in your games, and others don't.
Nothing disgusting about the petting feature. It was funny and a great use of the 3DS touch-screen. What's disgusting is literally tearing creatures apart in games like DOOM, but I don't see people like you railing against it. I also don't want that content censored for other people who happen to like ultraviolence.
And one could do any number of terrible things without anyone else being disturbed by it because it never came to light, so I'm not sure I see the relevance of that comment.
I want the game as envisioned by the game designer, not the sanitized version that was changed because somebody at the Nintendo Treehouse has different values than I do.
@MegaTen In terms of censorship, I do agree with that. Sadly, localization tends to put a wedge in that, though Nintendo seems far more open to that this time, so hopefully it'll be left alone.
@Ralizah But then they'll argue that it had to be done because of localization. So far I know, only companies like Xseed will give you the product that wasn't changed for the sake of localization.
Censorship is removing content for the sake of limiting artistic vision and/or ideas. See: Soviet Union and general non-socialistic ideas.
Localization is adapting a product for another audience. This can be done for multiple reasons. See: Fatal Frame and "cleaning up" costumes for underage girls.
@Caldorosso-E But then you assume that this "other audience" does not understand what they're buying. These games are niche, they come from Japan, they'll be bought by those in the know, or people will know. Most of those who want it do not care to have it "adapted" to them. In fact, they want it the way it was intended, as it was originally. To then "localize" it is to ruin it for them.
a: assumes that there is a pure artistic intent. In many cases in the video games industry the 'artistic intent' is to create a work that is as profitable as possible.
b: not something that exists in isolation.
For instance the HBO show Deadwood was heavily 'localised'. They set out to use the original authentic swearwords that would have been used in the real Deadwood in the 19th century... but they realised that words like 'god damn' that would have been shocking at the time are completely quaint to a modern audience. So they swapped out for words that have a similar impact to a modern audience (and the end result is the most god damn sweary programme ever put to TV).
So to bring this back to video games - in Japan to a Japanese audience dressing a 13 year old girl up in a bikini may have a different set of connotations and elicit a very different response that it would if you showed the same thing to a Western audience. It's no longer the reaction the original artist had intended anyway and it has to be changed just to achieve remotely the same effect.
@Caldorosso-E But then you assume that this "other audience" does not understand what they're buying. These games are niche, they come from Japan, they'll be bought by those in the know, or people will know. Most of those who want it do not care to have it "adapted" to them. In fact, they want it the way it was intended, as it was originally. To then "localize" it is to ruin it for them.
I don't think my explaination of limiting information for the sake of ideas or for the sake of selling a product assumes that certain parties are ignorant of their purchases' content in other cultural contexts.
If I did make that assumption, I'd be a case of selling to a general appeal or to a niche audience. In the end, what we call "art" is intended as a product, not a statement on anything vastly important to be included in all contexts. The games in question were intended for a Japanese audience, not an American or European one. Localizers have to weigh the wants of a few dedicated fans vs. potential new purchases, which is no easy task that I make no claim to have a mastery over.
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