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[jigglet]

For those of you who don't know, a few years back Ubi attempted to censor Siege for the Chinese market, instead of creating two separate versions like most other companies do.

Controversy About Changes to International Version of Rainbow Six Siege | Digital Trends

Developer Ubisoft has caused controversy by announcing that they will be releasing an update to Rainbow Siege Six which will streamline the game for the international market. The changes include removing background graphical elements which reference sex, gambling, or death, and have angered many...

www.digitaltrends.com

This included the removal of all sexual references, depictions of drugs, skulls, gambling and blood. Yes blood, in a FPS game. The saddest part is there's no explicit rule in China that skulls aren't allowed - Ubi self-censored preemptively. If preemptive self-censorship isn't the most fucking cowardly outcome you can think of, I don't know what is.

So it's just cosmetic you say, who cares? I'd agree normally, but it's the reason behind it that matters - this is a creative medium at heart and should not be at the mercy of a totalitarian government.

Anyway due to public outrage, Ubi backed down...

...instead, over the years they have been quietly updating their maps and, slowly but surely, all these things have been disappearing in the non-Chinese version. Theme Park lost all depictions of drugs (bags of cocaine) and the name "Drug Lab" was renamed "Lab". Underhanded as fuck.

In the latest season, the Skyscraper map has been reworked to also remove all depictions of drugs, cash, and also signs of a shoot out (blood spatter, bullets, gang activity etc). It's 100% sanitized now. For those of you who are unaware, the game is about laying siege on a building, so thematically it makes sense that criminal activity may have taken place in said building.

I think it's absolutely pathetic.

 

[tillbot8]

Well it looks like China is going to get very cosy with the US again in the near future, so expect much more of this!

 

[Craig of War]

Well it looks like China is going to get very cosy with the US again in the near future, so expect much more of this!

As long as they just censor for the China Version only and not forced it here in the west too than im fine with it.

 

[Yoda]

As long as they just censor for the China Version only and not forced it here in the west too than im fine with it.

So the OP has stated the "main" version is being incrementally changed to appease the chinese censors and avoid PR problems.

 

[RedVIper]

As long as they just censor for the China Version only and not forced it here in the west too than im fine with it.

Doubt it. It's much easier to just have one version than to maintain two different ones, so it goes down to the common denominator.

 

[jigglet]

So the OP has stated the "main" version is being incrementally changed to appease the chinese censors and avoid PR problems.

Yes this is the point I'm trying to make.

 

[Plantoid]

They can't overlook the chinese market, just play by the rules and make money.

Right move by ubisoft

 

[Yoda]

Yes this is the point I'm trying to make.

Yep the poster either didn't read it or was confused.

 

[Vick]

Well it looks like China is going to get very cosy with the US again in the near future, so expect much more of this!

 

[jigglet]

They can't overlook the chinese market, just play by the rules and make money.

Right move by ubisoft

No one is saying don't try to tap the China market. We're saying they should create a second version, like LoL, Counter-Strike...every other game.

 

[wipeout364]

Tom Clancy must be rolling over in his grave seeing his property being dictated to by a communist entity.

Frankly I find this disgusting. Very disappointing move by Ubisoft. I say this as a big fan of the game. Bowing down to Chinese censorship should be not even be part of the conversation for any western company.

If they want to release a Chinese version be my guest but don’t make me be subservient to what the Chinese government thinks I should see and think.

 

[jigglet]

Tom Clancy must be rolling over in his grave seeing his property being dictated to by a communist entity.

Frankly I find this disgusting. Very disappointing move by Ubisoft. I say this as a big fan of the game. Bowing down to Chinese censorship should be not even be part of the conversation for any western company.

If they want to release a Chinese version be my guest but don’t make me be subservient to what the Chinese government thinks I should see and think.

THIS.

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

Good thread jigglet . All of this AFTER they walked back their plans and said they would reevaluate. Rather than making sweeping changes all at once as planned they incrementally changed things piece by piece to standardize the game. Now the differences between the Chinese game and the rest of the world will be minute.

The rest of the world should not be offered a compromised version because of the laws of a corrupt dictatorship.

 

[Stephen Curry]

Well it looks like China is going to get very cosy with the US again in the near future, so expect much more of this!

triggered

 

[Mike Zhang]

I don't think their games can be published in China mainland. We always import games from other region

 

[Vick]

If they want to release a Chinese version be my guest but don’t make me be subservient to what the Chinese government thinks I should see and think.

 

[jigglet]

I don't think their games can be published in China mainland. We always import games from other region

Not yet, but they are working with Tencent to release it in China. CoreRoss did an early walk through of the Chinese version here (this was long ago and more changes have since taken place, approval has yet to be granted so there's likely going to be even more changes before release):

 

[jigglet]

Good thread jigglet . All of this AFTER they walked back their plans and said they would reevaluate. Rather than making sweeping changes all at once as planned they incrementally changed things piece by piece to standardize the game. Now the differences between the Chinese game and the rest of the world will be minute.

The rest of the world should not be offered a compromised version because of the laws of a corrupt dictatorship.

Agreed 100%.

 

[regawdless]

Haha really? Ubi slowly removing all that shit, to avoid the backlash?

Of course it's the right move as a business, but man, that's weak.

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

Lol remove all references to gambling. But they're keeping the lootboxes?

 

[Rean no Kiseki]

 

[Kupfer]

For some, progress prevails, for others the opposite is unfortunately the case. At this point we were already.
*pondering.in.german*

Yes, everybody in SoF 2 is a robot.

When an adult is not trusted to deal with content in a reflective manner , this BS happens.

 

[Gandih42]

For some, progress prevails, for others the opposite is unfortunately the case. At this point we were already.
*pondering.in.german*

Yes, everybody in SoF 2 is a robot.

When an adult is not trusted to deal with content in a reflective manner , this BS happens.

Everyone being robots sounds like the kind of cheat/mode you'd find in older games. I'd like if those kind of silly things would make comeback in big modern games, rather than mostly being relegated to DLC/MTX.

But in the context of changing content for China - obviously it makes sense from a business perspective to try and tap into that market. If it really ends up affecting the content for everyone else, that is quite shitty. I wonder if we'll start seeing more of that kind of stuff, given the massive population there. In that case, I imagine it would leave an open space for other/smaller developers focusing on western audience to grow quite a lot. At least I hope so.

 

[The_Mike]

Had to check if this was a old bumped thread. OP is exactly 2 years late with this news.

Also, AFAIK while not being illegal to have skulls etc in the game, there's something with China doesn't like death, skulls and bones in their games.

Blizzard did the same thing with World of Warcraft.

 

[jigglet]

Had to check if this was a old bumped thread. OP is exactly 2 years late with this news.

What are you talking about, the latest rework only hit the TTS today.

 

[jigglet]

But in the context of changing content for China - obviously it makes sense from a business perspective to try and tap into that market. If it really ends up affecting the content for everyone else, that is quite shitty.

Yup that's exactly it. No one has any issues with them chasing that market, but leave the international version alone. Games like LoL and CS Go have two distinct versions. They say development costs will increase? Well if they're also saying they stand to profit handsomely by selling in China, then that should more than offsets their expenses.