- Jun 24, 2018
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There are tons of Japanese works published underneath their original Japanese names, creators, and/or labels. And no, they are not just thrown "a couple bucks." A lot of them get really good deals to split profit in exchange for translation work, and they don't redraw the art, they use originals or redraw just the censored part. That's why dlsite became strict on censorship and required them to be baked onto assets, because the vast majority of games on DLSITE didn't have real censorship, but barebones post-production censorship. No one draws mosiacs as part of their artistic style, lol.
And I really don't think you know what you're talking about. This same exact issues apply to visual novels, many of which are from huge professional labels and circles with huge libraries worth thousands and maybe millions in some cases, and they also release uncensored.
Yes, it's usually (but not always) a third party, but that's normal for a lot of games, even SFW games (and a lot of other media, actually). They use local distribution partners (or global ones with established local offices) to make things easier for them. What these distributors actually do is translate the games usually (which is part of overall localization), the censorship is a distant perk but sometimes they censor even more if they have to depending on the region, like with China.
Japan's laws regarding censorship only matter for products in Japan, even if it's purchased internationally. So if the store is Japanese-based, Japanese laws apply... like literally everywhere else in the world. What third parties do is offer localization services, and since they're not being sold in Japan, they don't have to abide by Japanese laws but by local laws.
They're not risking being sued at all. Once again, just because you have someone else commit a crime on your behalf doesn't mean you're scot-free from the crime. Native laws usually apply abroad. That's why you will get in trouble for prostitution as a US citizen even if you go to a country where it's legal, because as a US citizen it's illegal to you.
There's nothing shady or under the table here, they are complying with the law faithfully by having someone else localize the game for their respective region or doing it themselves in accordance with Japanese law which specifically allows this, as the trade laws of all major countries do. Usually, the single requirement is that it's not being sold to Japanese or on a Japanese store.
The only real reason a dev/circle releases the game censored outside of Japan is stupidity or laziness. They were either too stupid to keep uncensored assets stored or they were too lazy to pay someone to clean up their mistake properly for a western release.
There's a reason why Ghenna is like the only of a very few Japanese games on Steam that are still censored and why everyone here is so surprised, lmao. It's not normal. There's a reason for that.
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