Update 16/11: Responding to Kotaku, Ubisoft have decided to take action. They responded:
While Watch Dogs 2 is a mature-rated game, we apologize and will update this NPC model to make it more consistent with other NPC models in the game in a patch to be released this week. We also are working with our first-party partners to ensure that players can continue to play and share all content from the game within the bounds of the first parties’ respective codes of conduct.
Clarifying, they’re patching out the one specific female NPC model that Goron2000’s account was flagged for, as it is “rendered in a way that is particularly explicit.” To be fair, the context of this screenshot – that he was taking a photo up the skirt of a sex worker he’d hit with a car – is pretty extreme, so it seems as though the more innocent instances of nudity will remain.
At the same time, the most likely reason why Goron2000 was flagged was because he shared the image to Twitter via PSN, which then proceeds to cheerily display that image within the What’s New feed. Personally, I feel this wouldn’t have been an issue if he could have checked a box to mark it as mature and NSFW content.
The original story follows:
It seems that Ubisoft have a bit of a thing for featuring nudity and the full glory of the human anatomy in their games.
Think back to February and you might remember that beneath every loincloth was a… well, a loin. Now there’s Watch Dogs 2, with women in the game who have vaginas and boobs and men who aren’t afraid to wander around naked and relieve their bladders in an alleyway when the need takes them.
To be fair, Watch Dogs 2 and Far Cry Primal are both 18 rated games, and WD2’s PEGI rating says “It contains: multiple, motiveless killing, graphic sexual activity showing genitalia, strong language.”
Just be warned that if you spot any of this and decide to share it, you might fall foul of Sony’s Code of Conduct, which reads:
Make sure your Online ID, messages, forum posts, user generated content or any other form of communication are not offensive to others: do not post anything that is defamatory (making an untrue statement that may be damaging to the person concerned) or racially, ethnically, religiously or sexually offensive.
So it’s all in the interpretation of those rules. Explicit? absolutely. Safe for work? I’d argue not, but you have to question where the line is being drawn when a picture of human genitalia is considered “offensive”. In some parts of the world it’s illegal to show naked genitalia, and Japanese law is a particular example where genitalia is considered obscene and must be censored. You can’t even make a canoe modelled on your own vagina without getting arrested.
Sony’s sentencing is a little less sever for NeoGAF user Goron2000, but having shared an image to Twitter of a vagina in Watch Dogs 2, he was handed out a one week PSN ban with the following note:
We’re writing to inform you that your Sony Entertainment Network account has been temporarily suspended.
We’ve made this decision based on your online activity in Live from PlayStation on 14-11-2016.
Content of an adult or sexual nature is against our Code of Conduct.
The suspension will last 1 week and will be lifted on 21-11-2016. You won’t be able to access online multiplayer, PlayStation Store and other network features until the suspension is over.
We take the decision to suspend an account very seriously, and we only do so after one of our moderators has carefully analysed the situation. PlayStation Support therefore cannot overturn this moderation decision.
We ask all our players to act decently, respectfully and with consideration for us and other players while using PlayStation Network. To make sure you understand the behaviour we expect from our community, please review the Code of Conduct here before returning to PlayStation Network. Please be aware that any further breaches of the Code of Conduct may result in a longer suspension or even a permanent ban.
Yours sincerely,
SIEE Moderation
We’ve reached out to Sony for comment to find out if these kinds of bans will be handed out universally, but in the mean time, think twice before you use the Share button to share a vagina or penis that you’ve spotted in a videogame.
In other news, there was a patch for Watch Dogs 2 that just went out a little while ago. We’re trying to find out if this was the patch to fix the seamless multiplayer issues that were reported over the last few days.
MrYd
Having seen those videos, I’m just going to assume San Francisco is unusually cold during the time the game takes place.
bunimomike
Yet warm enough to have the women in crotchless knickers. Got it.
Stefan L
Haven’t you heard? La Niña arrived this month.
bunimomike
First game Donald Trump will buy, I bet.
TSBonyman
Exactly like real life – just because vaginas exist doesn’t mean you should walk around pointing at them all the time! ;)
Tuffcub
Why hasn’t Tef been banned for tweeting and pictures of willies and testicles? This is just sexism, plain and simple.
The Lone Steven
Says the man who got banned from Game for a variety of reasons and this most likely being the true cause. ;)
Stefan L
I didn’t do it via the PS4, it featured in what was clearly a NSFW news story, and journalistic integrity.
Tuffcub
Bollocks.
hazelam
sony banned him from the playstation network for posting on twitter?
excuse my language but that’s fucking outrageous.
if he’d posted that in the psn community or something, fair enough, but they can’t fucking police every social media service.
and they let the game release with that content, bit fucking hypocritical to ban somebody for showing it.
so, do something they don’t like anywhere online and they can ban you?
fucking fascist bullshit.
RFC2007
Completely agree. Ridiculous!
Paranoimia
Anything you post from your PS4 to Twitter also gets shared on your PS4 feed, where anyone of any age on your friends list can see it. So it is effectively in the PSN community, and that, I think, is the problem.
Same as if he were to buy a porn mag and walk around the streets showing it to kids.
Not saying I necessarily agree with it (presumably he knows who is on his friends list and that they’re of a suitable age), but I can understand it.
The Lone Steven
Whilst it is bloody stupid, it may be Twitter leaning on Sony due to their no nudity rules. But I could also see this being a major precaution by Sony as I could see the likes of the Daily Fail going “VIDEO GAME SHOWS BREASTS! THEY CORRUPT OUR CHILDREN! SONY ENCOURAGES SUCH NUDITY! BAN SONY!”. Though that said, I do recall Sony placing all nudity on their instant ban rules after people(and some TSA staffers :P )used streaming on the console as porn.
But it is bloody stupid that something on twitter can get one banned from PSN.
Andrewww
I still don’t understand why all types of extreme violence are perfectly fine, and that you probably won’t get banned for posting pictures of heads or limbs being chopped off in a game, etc., but if the slightest bit of nudity is shown, the whole f*** US (and some brainless others) go ‘Oh my God..!’, and a massive scandal with lawsuits follow.
I’m just glad my kids grow up in Europe, where guns are not kept in the kitchen drawers and considered the most normal thing in the world.
bunimomike
Couldn’t agree more. The laughably disgusting horror-fest stuff we see in the likes of The Walking Dead and yet there’s nary a decent profanity amongst the lot of them. Meh.
Sorry. I meant “fuckers!”. :D
ron_mcphatty
Well put! And I think it’d be a good thing to see a few wonky boobs, little willies, beer guts and wobbly bums in games, I’m sure people of all ages could do with either the education or confidence building. Less tits and guns, more real women and fat men with tiny knobs!
The Lone Steven
Ah, nudity, the biggest border in gaming and film whilst extreme violence, gore and other stuff is allowed. Apparently, adults can’t handle breasts and vaginas and penis in virtual or film form. Ok, they can but that is porn. Tis bloody stupid. I mean, how does stuff like SAW not get affected yet a bit of nudity is suddenly cause for bans?
It may not even be for pornographic purposes, it may have been “Huh? They included that,” type post.
Surely, (if it’s not Twitter leaning on Sony for PR reasons), Sony can adjust it for adults. I mean, Kratos wears nothing but a loin cloth and murders people. He isn’t censored. Heck, his games has tits in it. Pretty sure people have shared it and not been banned.
leeroye
“Ah, nudity, the biggest border in gaming and film whilst extreme violence, gore and other stuff is allowed. ”
Unless its an artsy fartsy film, those seem to allowed to go further than nudity and show penetration but thats ok as its artistic!!!
camdaz
“Japanese law is a particular example where genitalia is considered obscene and must be censored” – It didn’t stop the japanese women shown on ‘World of Weird’ floating down a river on a giant penis!
MrYd
The Japanese seem to be quite weird about these things. You can show whatever you want, and indeed whole new words have been invented for some of those things, but no downstairs front parts unless it’s censored.
Violence seems to be fine, and I’m not even sure they have any swear words.
The Americans have that whole free speech thing that means everything’s allowed except when it isn’t. Horrible violence but nothing stronger than a “shit” and no nudity in The Walking Dead? But then violence, all the strong language, and tits and even a large floppy cock in Westworld (which is obviously the new Game of Thrones)
camdaz
Since the Americans relaxed the rules for swearing some shows have gone way too far. I used to watch Ice Road Truckers but the latest series has so much f***ing I’ve stopped watching.
MrYd
Technically, the Americans haven’t relaxed any rules. You can’t get away with much on the free channels, and you can do what ever you want on the expensive cable channels. That’s your HBO type things, because obviously if you can afford that, then you can raise your children properly and they don’t need protecting. Only poor kids need protecting from these things.
And then there’s the “basic cable” channels. Not covered by the legal rules, but they set their own standards that allow horrible violence, but not swearing or nudity. The only thing that’s relaxed recently is they let people say “shit”. Nothing more though.