Indeed... it is probably enforced by the shops themself, not caused by politics and its laws.

They want to "play it safe"... so anything even barely a risk, is "not worth it" to them. Sure, Steam can easily tackle any costs of possible "law issues" yet it is just not worth it to them as the big cash cows are just a few games generating massive wealth. "Small games" such as this one is just "not worth the troubles" for them.

GOG is a good bit more open minded i say, at least if a game is passing a certain minimum quality. On Steam as good as any game can become released, as long as it is not nearly causing any conflict with the law or the society in general.
Of course Steam was doing a good bunch of "illegal stuff" already but it was always done "out of having a massive self centered gain out of it"... never because of some moralistic views such as "able to provide the freedom of expression, including art".

I was going to buy this too but if they want to remove content then they will not get a cent out of me.

You seem to forget, this game was developed in Japan. Sold UNCUT in Japan on Vita and deemed suitable for 17 year olds. There is no law in Japan that would prevent GOG selling in Japan. The problem, as always, is localisers not licensing for release in Japan and then LYING about selling worldwide.

You also don't seem to realise that one of GOG's original principles was that they would NEVER sell any game that could not be sold worldwide. Many here might not care that they dropped that, but I do. And I will remind them of it every single time they pull a stunt like this.

Let me dive into this entire issue, as i now checked its entire history.

It seems this game has been released in Japan only (!) on PS Vita in the year 2017, so 7 years ago, developed by Compile Heart.

Now, some team, Eastasiasoft to be precise, was translating and porting this game to PC and Switch, as a "world wide release" and now they apparently seem to have issues releasing this game on Steam and even more platforms... as a cut version (awesome in a bad way)!

The Japanese language is completely removed because they probably lack any rights to it...

Some people say "nude stuff... (i would not call it porn in this case)" is forbidden in Japan, India... whatelse... but so far no specified law was actually forbidding it. So it was "out of fear" or lets say "self censorship" from the shop owners telling us "it is forbidden by law" and/or whatever they got in mind. Ultimately they simply do not want any hassles which may come with it.

My statement simply is: They got the option to make a region lock and yes they are always using it on regional pricing, so it works. Just in case this entire "law issue" is a matter to them...

I do not know why the publishers say "It is a world wide release" but Japan and/or other countries are locked out of this release. Perhaps they need to execute a "special licensing" for Japan only... i lack any insight here. Fact is simply, they do not own a license for distribution in Japan so it can not be offered there... and in this case even lacking Japanese language, which is actually available because this is the "source language" of the original version.

No, i am not so happy what is happening here... indeed... so they should get over it and try to make a "true world wide release" and provide a uncensor patch at some external site... in case GOG is refusing hosting it on their site because way to dangerous for public mental health or whatever.


Indeed, i think the word "worldwide" in this case is dishonest... but i never said "they always spell out the truth".

The correct words would be "english release".
GOG got in overall a limited customer base and i think not really deserved because they are better than what they get "credited for".

Another issue on top of that is: The majority of their customers are from Europe and US... the other customers are already the minority it seems. So we can say, GOG is mainly a Europe and US distributor.

In this case... the Asia market for GOG is so far still very tiny and it is not worth it to them selling any game "Asia" or even "Japan" only.

We could argue because GOG is not offering sufficient stuff for those in Asia and Japan.... but on the other hand those customers are as well very rarely "to be seen" on GOG... it is "vice versa" and somehow GOG and their Asian/Japanese customers need to "get out of this unhealthy spiral which can never reach a new level this way".

Actually, today i got "PS5: Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament - Collector's Edition" from Eastasiasoft. the same publisher involved with the release of "Tokyo Clanpool". It is a "numbered" (probably limited to uhm... 1000?!°° it seems) HK-Import with apparently english and japanese text (chinese included as well), although spoken language is chinese. Currently almost for free on Steam but no GOG version... i dunno why... i think many GOG gamers may have enjoyed a release here. To me not a biggie yet because i enjoy a shiny CE box for the PS5, yet, if there is any GOG version i surely may still get it as well.

Another thing i am not sure is why the game is another HK only release, Probably because the licensing for HK only was way cheaper than a "world wide licensing" and the customer base is very tiny as well, so they probably had in mind... another time "to play it safe". It may be able to grant some more insight on how this publisher is behaving.

The Steam release is most likely from another publisher known as "Softstar Entertainment". Yet, the same language is "used" for this game, it seems, so it is essentially the same version with some improvements such as a 100% gamepad-compatibility on PS5. It can get confusing i feel, as the entire "rights situation" and how those companies involved are making their decisions seems with limited transparency.

Surely very fair pricing, it is not the price tag of a NIS game.

°°Probably true because 99% of the people either buy it from the PSN store or from Steam (which is both DRM as a side note). So the CE is truly extremely rar. Oh and do not forget the "digital issue": Saving is not possible offline. This is similar to Softstar Entertainment's other game Empire of Angels IV which has never been fixed.