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The story
Rumors that the Japanese PS5 version of GTA6 will be a censored release have sparked discussion on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (“Geha”) board. It started with a jab: “Only Japanese PS5 owners are stuck getting the censored version, yet PS5 users themselves don’t seem to care.” Some countered that GTA5 already had content differences between PS5, Xbox, and PC, and that regions beyond Japan — like the Middle East and India — have their own restrictions too. In practice, though, the thread quickly drifted away from the censorship issue itself and into the usual PS5-vs-Xbox sales-numbers slap fight.
What people said
GTA's whole appeal is that anything goes — a censored version kind of defeats the point, doesn't it?
And everyone's just ignoring this and screaming about FPS instead.
The Middle East often gets restrictions similar to Japan's, so the Japanese and Middle Eastern versions frequently end up bundled together.
GTA doesn't really lean on gore, so Germany probably won't cut much.
But if there's LGBTQ content, India and Pakistan might censor it.
Huh, guess quite a few countries have restrictions then.
I'm on Series X, but honestly I wish they'd censor just the gay stuff lol
There's already an arachnophobia mode, right? lol
It's PC and Xbox that are the weird ones for letting you play a version that's banned in Japan.
Sony's the one actually following the rules.
PS5 can boot overseas-region discs and play them too, though.
Isn't that against the terms of service?
I have no clue how the PS Store actually works — if you enter a download code, does it pull the overseas version regardless of the country set on your account?
Even if you buy the physical version, it's just a code-in-a-box these days, so what actually downloads is still the Japanese version anyway, right?
Nobody in here is even planning to buy it.
Have you ever once seen a "Goki" (a derogatory nickname for PlayStation fanboys) actually talk about the content of a PS5 game? Never happens.
Pokémon, Splatoon, Xenoblade threads — people dive straight into discussing the actual content.
Marathon, Saros, Toukon threads — literally nobody talks about the content.
That's what happens when nobody's actually bought the game.
Most people don't care either way — isn't that exactly why the PS version outsold the Xbox version?
The ones going on about "censorship this, censorship that" are just Xbox fanboys who don't want PS to sell well.
You can trash-talk PlayStation all you want, nobody's buying that garbage Xbox.
Wonder what'll happen in the retail version.
Oh wait, sorry — guess that won't apply to the "walled-off edition" 🤣
Dismemberment's fine in something like Monster Hunter or against monsters, but I don't really want to see it happen to humans or everyday animals.
Though it sounds like there won't even be an option to turn it on or off, which is probably why this whole thread exists.
Adding more animations like that is just going to tank the frame rate even more.
I'm Japanese, sorry for owning your "super-niche" console I guess.
Sorry, the Xbox version's actually selling like crazy in Japan too lol
It's a console where even a huge title like Forza Horizon 6 only moves 1,400 units.
If a globally huge Marvel game only does 2,800, then 1,400 is actually a pretty solid showing.
Xbox users are buying the digital version instead.
The media hyping it up this hard is honestly kind of unsettling.
The last one blew up because VTubers and streamers played it, so this one probably will too.
Sakura Miko's already reacted to this one, in fact.
PS gets its own quarantined server lol (Xbox's dead server population is the real problem though)
Sounds like you've never even played GTA5.
This is the trash console that got Marathon and Toukon depopulated worldwide in record time — and you think a "quarantined" server won't end up just as dead?
You really think Japanese players are all going to rush out and buy the censored, gutted version?
Think this'll finally be Sony trash's first domestic million-seller?
Xbox server
PS5 censored server
PS5 uncensored server
?
There's no way they'd split servers by censored/uncensored.
Why would they pour that much resource into such a minor region?
For PS, Japan doesn't even get its own server — you get routed to the Asia server.
Even if you managed to boot the North American version, you'd get sent to the US server, and you probably can't even log into the account in the first place.
Xbox basically quarantines players too, you know.
You can't play PS-exclusive content on it, so it's not really the "best" experience.
"Exclusive content"? Like what exactly? The faith born out of persecution?
PS's "exclusive" is RTX 2060-tier 1440p at a variable 30fps, right? lol
Spec-wise, Xbox actually looks capable of a locked 30fps.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Content restrictions on Japanese game releases are usually decided by each publisher’s own judgment, based on CERO’s ratings guidelines as well as an eye toward alignment with overseas rating bodies — GTA5 itself had certain scenes adjusted only in the Japanese version. This thread, too, started from unconfirmed information that “only the PS5 version will be censored”; it’s worth noting that neither Sony Interactive Entertainment nor developer Rockstar has made any official announcement about specific content restrictions. Posters also raised technical questions — like whether region-locked accounts can boot overseas-region discs, and which region’s data a PS Store download code actually pulls — but these remain speculation, and the real behavior will have to wait for an official statement. Where opinions diverged was over how many people actually care whether censorship happens at all; in practice, the thread drifted away from the censorship question itself and into the usual PS5-vs-Xbox sales comparisons and console-war sniping.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, “Geha”) thread “[GTA6] Only Japanese PS5 users get the censored version — but PS5 owners are ignoring it.”
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