Given today’s political and social climate, this news (sadly) comes as no surprise. Fearing backlash, Koei Tecmo has decided to not release Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 outside of its homeland of Japan.
When asked by fans whether or not Western gamers would be able to buy Xtreme 3 in their respective homelands on Dead or Alive‘s official Facebook page, the community manager responded with the news that this would not be happening.
“We do not bring DOAX3 to the west and won’t have any plan change in the future. Thank you for asking,” said the community manager. They went on to explain why in another reply: “Do you know many issues happening in video game industry with regard to how to treat female in video game industry? We do not want to talk those things here. But certainly we have gone through in last year or two to come to our decision. Thank you.”
The translation isn’t precise, but it’s clear what is happening here. Techmo Koei simply doesn’t want to deal with the fallout that this game would bring from video game sites and critics with a certain political agenda/worldview. They’d rather just release the game in Japan and avoid all the controversy that a game like Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 would bring nowadays.
Though many who want better depictions of women in gaming have noble intentions, they fail to see that their outcries are leading towards an industry (and world) where anything could be deemed offensive and end up being censored. A game like Xtreme 3, which features well endowed women in bikinis, doesn’t harm women or anyone. The country won’t fall apart because of a game that features big breasted women.
While this isn’t a case of anyone taking games away from us, it is a perfect example of censorship, even if it’s self-imposed censorship.
Source: Dead or Alive on Facebook via NicheGamer
