Sony Adopting a Worldwide Approval Process?

[schild]

Concept approval at Sony is moving over to a worldwide process from a region-specific one and it will be rolled out shortly.

That came out at D.I.C.E. today during the Q&A with Phil Harrison. What does this mean? Well, theoretically, games approved for Sony Japan would be approved for Sony America would be approved for Sony Europe. With the PS3, this is exceptional. It could result in publishers picking up shooters, 2D titles, and other obscure games in Japan that would never see our shores. Being able to skip over SCEA's draconian approval process would be fantastic.

Of course they very well could adopt the SCEA guidelines in Japan. If they don't, this is a huge step in the right direction.

[stray]

Hopefully this doesn't backfire and have some games not approved at all?

Or, am I being too negative? Could that even happen? Like, if SCE thinks something couldn't be marketed in America or EU, will that have some general, trickling down effect for the Asian region (even if it's exactly what Asian gamers would want?)?

[EDIT]

Oh wait, you said that. ;)

[stray]

Should add another thing:

How will this effect violence and gore? I know EU and JP have some restrictions on that.....Would a worldwide approval process effect titles for America? Or is that another issue, left strictly to publishers?

As for Japanese titles, I can't really think of any reason why more of them don't come to the States to begin with (other than marketability).

[Trippy]

As for Japanese titles, I can't really think of any reason why more of them don't come to the States to begin with (other than marketability).

Cause it costs money to translate/relayout the UI/etc.

[Trippy]

Not enough information -- I can't tell if this is good or bad.

[schild]

That's where I'm erring right now.

[Evangolis]

I'm not savvy to the console terminology you're using, but extrapolating from the general context, I'd say this is probably less than meets the eye.  Just because there is one release process (insert One Ring joke of choice here) does not mean that there will therefore be a universal release.  Or is your excitement simply based on the dispelling of some bureaucracy that lies beyond my ken?

[schild]

Yea. Ok, I'll explain.

SCEI (Sony Japan) is far more lenient on what can be made for the Sony systems. For example, Tokimemo (the huge dating game over there) is completely 2D. Also, a number of PSP games were completely 2D.

SCEE (Europe) allows some stuff to be localized from Japan, but for the most part, new titles must be 3D.

SCEA (America) simply doesn't allow 2D titles because they're a bunch of assholes.

As such, some of the greatest titles in Japan (shooters from Treasure, etc) would never make it out over here. If it's a universal concept approval, it will either lean in the way of Japan or America. Which is either good or BADDDDDDD. Either way, America will probably profit. See, if it's approved in japan, the concept is approved in America. So games would simply need a publisher. Though, for the sake of development costs, let's hope they go with 2D stuff, that way indie developers wouldn't have to spend massive dollars to compete.

[Riggswolfe]

On the surface this sounds like a good idea, though I am doubtful it will result in things like many more Japan games being converted. I wish it would though. I have no idea if gaming consoles are region encoded (it seems to me they are but I can't remember for sure.) but if so, I would like that disabled too.

[schild]

The PS3 is not region encoded.