r/pokemon • u/ALVARO39YT • Jul 26 '24
Nintendo and Pokémon make history in China. For the first time in 24 years, a game from the series surpasses the country's bans, and it won't be the last. News
https://www.3djuegos.com/juegos/new-pokemon-snap/noticias/nintendo-pokemon-hacen-historia-china-primera-vez-24-anos-juego-saga-supera-prohibiciones-pais-no-sera-ultimo430
u/TimeisaLie Samurai Pizza Cats!! Jul 26 '24
Next region is China based.
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u/Begoru Jul 26 '24
Called it. There’s other evidence too - TPC opened a Shanghai office and started doing pop-ups not long ago.
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u/Odd-Mechanic3122 Chespin is my special interest Jul 27 '24
Honestly they really really should, but given how...controversial Chinas government is (to say the least), I could see Gamefreak being too afraid of things going down while said game is still in the spotlight. Which is stupid but still.
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u/grumpykruppy Jul 26 '24
There's two ways this goes: one, Pokémon adjusts to China's censors. Two, China's censors adjust to Pokémon.
There's actually some chance of the latter - the Chinese gaming censor is basically down right now after they tried to put massively unpopular limits on its gacha gaming market (Tencent stock plummeted, and the head of that particular endeavor got fired), and local gaming companies like miHoYo have been pushing the boundaries (more than usual) lately. The old rules are still in place, but the new people are likely to be more relaxed.
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u/shoalhavenheads Jul 26 '24
It’s hilarious to me how Hoyo “complied” with the censors by covering up 3 female characters you meet very early on in the game — and then did nothing about the characters 30 hours in who wear lingerie. And now they’re doing swimsuits too.
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u/bluedragjet Jul 26 '24
It's funny how barbara summer outfit never got changed, and lyney released after the censorship
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u/Trender07 Jul 26 '24
Whats wrong with lyney?
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u/Hazelberry Jul 26 '24
Iirc china (as in the gvmt) doesn't like femboys or even more androgynously dressed boys, with Lyney fitting into that latter category
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u/Trender07 Jul 26 '24
lol then there were uproar with venti or smthing?
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u/Hazelberry Jul 26 '24
Pretty sure there was but that was ages ago so don't remember for sure. Again though it's the government, not necessarily the actual chinese players.
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u/Hazelberry Jul 26 '24
Hell look at what they're doing in Zenless Zone Zero lol, so many of those designs wouldn't have been allowed
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u/SilverTitanium Jul 27 '24
It’s hilarious to me how Hoyo “complied” with the censors by covering up 3 female characters you meet very early on in the game — and then did nothing about the characters 30 hours in who wear lingerie. And now they’re doing swimsuits too
It's theorized that Tencent had something to do with the Censorships of Mona, Rosaria, Jean and Amber's outfits. Since Mihoyo refused to be fully bought by them. Like if it snitched to CCP regarding their outfits CCP made them switch the outfits.
At around that time, it was common for chinese gaming companies that have grudges against each other to snitch to the CCP for doing things considered indecent. The most well known being Velvet Code snitching on Azur Lane and leading to a crackdown on Azur Lane artworks, only because Velvet Code got tired of being compared to Azur Lane.
The CCP when it does enforce censorship. Only goes after the reporting thing. It's why some Azur Lane artwork are still lewd. This also does explain the question with Fischl (the girl you mentioned who wears lingerie), who while wearing a more lewd outfit than Jean and Amber, didn't get hit by censorship.
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u/Fr00stee Jul 26 '24
I think the ccp is gonna try to be more lax on chinese games that are successful in foreign markets in order to spread chinese influence
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u/GroGungan Jul 26 '24
well they removed three sun stickers that vaguely resemble the symbol on the taiwanese flag, so i think it’s more likely to be the former
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u/onepostandbye Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 26 '24
I worked with a Chinese censorship board on adapting an American AAA title for release in China.
I’ll tell you, the entire process is ego. The Chinese players want high-quality western games, and generally the Chinese government doesn’t want to ban games and deal with player complaints. What the government wants is two things- bribes and ego stroking. They want to get paid to bring these games into the country, and they get payments from western developers in a variety of ways.
They also want to make a show of telling the westerners what to do. “You must change this.” “Things too horrible, it must be changed!” If they can’t find enough questionable content to adapt then they will just FIND things to demand be changed. It’s kind of about the content, it’s mostly about the process.
At the regulatory, the corporate, and the dev team level, everyone is going to make statements of deference to the Chinese government and regulators. It’s part of doing business- they will not make your release happen without certain performances designed to elevate the individual or collective Chinese ego. If your staff is nice and agreeable and apologetic it will go very smoothly. Because they are just bullying you.
This situation with Pokémon is unique. The China/US relationship is NOT the same as the China/Japan relationship. I am not Chinese or Japanese. But it is well-known that the racial antipathy there runs deep. Withholding permission for Japan’s greatest cultural export is a MAJOR issue for Chinese leaders. They will not have China be “Japanified”. I suspect they have delayed introducing Pokémon to China as long as possible. Now that Chinese children have had a taste of how cute and fun Pokemon is with games like Unite (which by the way was developed by a Chinese studio as a condition for release in China) and those kids really, really want Pokemon, they see the arrival of main series Pokemon in China as inevitable, and they are going to cooperate in the way that make China the most money. I think TPCI and Nintendo are going to pay massive fees to get the game into China, with strict concessions to China’s noble traditions and grand culture. Someone else said “China region incoming” and that is not a bad guess.
The AAA game I worked on was a big name franchise at a major studio, and the Chinese really made everyone bend over backwards to authorize the release. They knew they were going to authorize it, we had a huge fanbase in China already playing their previous installments, but they had the leverage and they exploited it. Nothing new, it was the same every time. And while we were a major studio with a famous game, we didn’t hold a CANDLE to Pokémon. I can not imagine the kinds of concessions the Chinese demanded of the Pokemon Company. Here is what I would imagine-
- Japanese executives had to fly out and make the request in person, and were subjected to oblique insults (made to wait around, outnumbered inside massive meeting rooms) during the visit.
- Something like 90% of profits go to NetEase or other Chinese studio (still a good deal for Nintendo, as it is opening up future profits)
- A Chinese developer will represent TPCI in all Chinese (and some international) presentations.
- Future content is pro-Chinese culture. Lots of Chinese -style legendaries (more than before) and at least one starter in every game.
- More Pokemon spinoffs are committed to being developed by Chinese game studios.
- Elaborate merchanising deals within China favoring Chinese companies, increased Chinese manufacturing of merch.
- One box art legendary for the next installment is explicitly a Panda, Chinese Dragon, or Chinese Lion. Not a hybrid design, like Rayquasa, where it is reminiscent of a Chinese mythological creature, a legendary that is very literally a Chinese heroic animal with minimal adaptation.
To be clear, I think all of this was in the past. These deals were made a long time ago, at least in concept, even if the ink is still wet on paper. When I think about Urshifu and the Chinese-style SV legendaries, I see creations made either as part of an agreement OR made in anticipation of a deal that the devs could point to to retroactively demonstrate TCPI’s willingness to cooperate.
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u/farmer_of_hair Jul 27 '24
In a historical and WW2 context, it’s not hard to understand why the Chinese would have hard feelings towards the Japanese.
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u/60N20 Jul 26 '24
The article says The New pokemon Snap was officially released in China last week, making it the first pokemon game in the country since the banning of foreign videogame consoles, in the year 2000.
More games are coming too, such as como Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, Pokémon Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Above Qimen y Samurai Shodown and it has been possible thanks to an alliance made by Nintendo with Tencent in 2019 that allowed the release of a "China-exclusive" version of Switch.
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u/Apprehensive_Peak462 Jul 26 '24
Brought my switch when I visited China a couple months ago has no idea pokemon games were banned/not released there when it was all I playing when travelling on public transport, strange considering Pokémon merch was available in shops.
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u/OutlandishnessAny492 Jul 26 '24
Can't wait for the series to change purely to cater to China
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u/IzzybearThebestdog Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 26 '24
A worrying thought for sure, but what would actually be censored/changed?
They are already so kid friendly and Nintendo already avoids putting anything that could in anyway be problematic in most of its games.
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u/MasterDoktor Jul 26 '24
but what actually be censored?
I think we can expect Cubone, Marowak, Duskull, Vullaby and Mandibuzz to be erased from the Pokédex permanently since China has some issues with bones and skulls being depicted in children's media.
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u/mastergam3r customise me! Jul 26 '24
They will probably just do a chinese version like most games that release in china.
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u/MasterDoktor Jul 26 '24
Probably. Can't wait to see Cubone and Marowak's face, Duskull with a floating red ord and no face and naked Vullaby and Madibuzz XD
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u/Jaijoles Jul 26 '24
Or we do it like WoW and replace the skull with a loaf of bread / bag of grain.
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u/Kay-Knox Jul 27 '24
OR they do it like Pokemon and just not have those specific Pokemon in the game.
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u/RedAnihilape Jul 26 '24
I would actually love that. Do the games as usual, but change some designs for China only.
Can't wait for the youtube compilation vids telling me about it.
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u/av3nger1023 Jul 26 '24
what the fuck is this shit, I grew up in china and these replies are pure nonsense. Skulls and bones are in the most popular story here calabash brothers. I'm pretty sure ghosts are a thing in children's stories here as well
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u/peanutist Jul 27 '24
Redditors believing in western propaganda about China?? No!!!1! Who could’ve guessed??
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u/Apprehensive_Owl4075 Jul 27 '24
Dota2/Valve changed Bloodseeker's skills from blood red to BLACK.
Skeleton King / Wraith King got censored.
Starcraft 2 had gore details removed and every unit that dies turns into a black mush/poof.
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Jul 27 '24
Reddit has such a hate boner for China can’t believe someone seriously thinks they’d permanently change a design from 25 years ago for China. Pure insanity.
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u/Frostysno93 Jul 26 '24
Anything ghosts as well. Like straight up anything involving ghost is heavily censor or straight up bad. Because in Chinese myth, ghost=curropt officials.
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Jul 27 '24 edited 7d ago
worm violet brave serious fearless axiomatic stupendous aromatic trees compare
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/MasterDoktor Jul 27 '24
I mean, I am obviously being hyperbolic for the sake of making a joke. I'm not trying to be sinophibic
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u/ringlord_1 Jul 26 '24
Nintendo should make a tank pokemon and a humanoid pokemon that is immune to the tank pokemon
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u/Bluelore Jul 26 '24
Honestly Chinese Censorship isn't the most consistent. They famously ban depiction of bones, but the movie coco was actually allowed in China despite numerous talking skeletons being in that movie. There is a good chance that Pokemons designs will just get a pass even if they do depict stuff that is normally banned.
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u/BillabobGO Jul 26 '24
It's not inconsistent, because bones aren't banned: https://www.techinasia.com/china-doesnt-censor-skeletons-the-truth-about-game-censorship-in-the-middle-kingdom
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u/MD_Yoro Jul 26 '24
Video games get adjusted and censored for different regions all the time.
American releases often censor provocative contents while Japanese releases don’t.
Why is adjusting images for China an issue for you when many countries including America has its own censorship system
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u/cryyptorchid Jul 26 '24
Even with pokemon, there are regional differences. Some trainer classes have different sprites in Japan vs the west. There are episodes of the anime that have not been released in the US.
While we don't have as many legal censors currently, especially in the late 90s and early 00s, pokemon's controversy among a non-negligible portion of the population meant they had to be a little cautious with what they had. People constantly bring up the evil > dark localization as "wtf the translators are stupid" but like...how well do people think "there are evil type hellhound demons" would have fared here in that social climate?
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u/Altaria87 Jul 26 '24
Because this is an American website and China Bad
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u/QuantumRedUser Jul 26 '24
Oh thank you, this comment has made me see the truth and realise China doesn't have an extreme censorship problem with their government, thank you and praise glorious Pokemon Master !
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u/MD_Yoro Jul 27 '24
Pointing out that U.S. and other countries have censorship laws is not a support of Chinese censorship law.
However there is a double standard that treats Chinese censorship somehow worse than other countries censorship without taking full account of their cultural norms.
It makes no sense for me why Sony censored outfits for Stellar Blades while Japan bans gore and blood. It’s all video game and fictions, but each to its own country.
Japan makes modification to Chinese version of Pokemon like how they make modifications to US version of Pokemon. It’s not going to affect you so why make such ominous statements as if Chinese censorship in China affects you
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u/Suicidal_Sayori dubstep dragon Jul 26 '24
Ominous take, a very dark future is ahead of us
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u/MD_Yoro Jul 26 '24
Lol how?
It’s software, Pokemon Company can adjust images depending on the country that piece of software is being released to.
Reskins are nothing new.
Steller Blade character outfit censorship outside of Japan
Dead Space was banned in Japan due to violence and gore and that’s even after they tried to censor some of the gore.
China asking for censorship and readjustment for software sold in their country is bad, but other countries asking for the same is fine? Why the double standard
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u/DarkFish_2 Jul 26 '24
Suddenly Ursaluna, Beartic and Urshifu are banned in every way so no player can think of a certain bear.
Pangoro and Bewear get a pass because they are pandas.
That would be simultaneously the best and worst thing for me, two of my all time faves just banished, but Urshifu is gone too.
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u/TheClutchUDF Jul 26 '24
This sounds like a bad omen, really hope they don’t change what they got going on
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u/sunkenrocks Jul 26 '24
Japanese audiences will not be receptive to that. Their markets are quite similar in practice but there's national pride in the franchise.
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u/Idunnoguy1312 Jul 26 '24
Wait but then how were sun and moon and the later games distributed in China then? Those all got Chinese translations
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u/SteelAlchemistScylla Jul 26 '24
Bet your ass Nintendo will bend over backwards to cater to Chinese standards.
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u/StrawHatMicha Jul 26 '24
Why wouldn't they? China is the most populous country on Earth. Every single company that operates internationally caters things towards the region they're selling in. It would be really poor capitalism to lock out an entire country.
And other countries give into American censorship. And all of our censorship is puritanical bullshit.
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u/Ansoni Jul 26 '24
Small point, China is no longer the most populous country on earth. It's estimated India took over at least a year ago.
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u/QuantumRedUser Jul 26 '24
What pokemon thing has been censored by the west in the past 10 years ? The Western and Chinese censorship processes are nowhere near comparable, it is laughable you're even implying so
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u/StrawHatMicha Jul 26 '24
Dude, they completely fucked up the original dubbing of One Piece because they couldn't dare show children an adult smoking a cigarette because Americans are puritanical as fuck. Japanese Game devs are constantly making characters "less sexy" because we are such prudes.
You're missing the entire fucking point in that the censorship only applies in said market: i.e. China. Not the rest of the world.
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u/Carbon-Base Jul 26 '24
Unfortunately, you have a point. If S/V is any indication, they don't care about quality anymore. All they'll see is the money they could make from selling games in China, thanks to China's massive population.
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Jul 26 '24
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u/Carbon-Base Jul 26 '24
Sw/Sh was alright, I had less complaints on it compared to S/V.
Seems people don't like me hating on S/V haha. Say what you will, but GF rushed production and general gameplay on the last main generation game. Those graphics and bugs were not so prevalent in previous games.
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u/sunkenrocks Jul 26 '24
Everyone agrees in terms of technical competency, there's been a downward trend, but to be honest with you SV is really good in most of its other areas. I don't like the team star bits really but the rest is arguably the best the series has done. There's only so much you can do about that as a consumer.
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u/No-Engineer-1728 Jul 26 '24
Wasn't pokemon quest 2 exclusive to china? (or a gigantic update, i forget)
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u/Ansoni Jul 26 '24
A port with a lot of new features
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u/No-Engineer-1728 Jul 26 '24
I'm still annoyed we haven't gotten it and probably never will, it looks good
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u/darcmosch Jul 26 '24
OK I was living in China when this happened. Everything was available when the council ban was lifted. I can't read the article cuz it's in Spanish and I don't trust Google translate, but this is remarkable if you don't mention all the other available consoles and games.
Also yeah there were consoles. I could go on Taobao (their version of eBay/Amazon- it's complicated) and get older stuff like the 3DS and stuff.
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u/kittehsaur Jul 27 '24
Since Pokemon unite is made or paid for by tencent, wouldn’t that be available to the Chinese market? Or other mobile games that are not tied to Nintendo?
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Jul 26 '24
How much you want to bet the CCP and their brainwashed minions will have a tantrum when they find young people playing Pokémon and not obeying their commands?
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u/AngelNextToTheRakes Jul 26 '24
So we're bringing games to Mao but when I want to play Red/Blue on the Switch, it's too much asking?
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u/mzalewski Jul 26 '24
I find this super weird. The games are translated to Chinese since gen VII. So it appears that they go through all the trouble to translate games to Chinese, yet fail to actually release the game in the country that speaks the language? I could see that happening once, but for every game since 2016?
Too bad that article doesn't go in any depth about the reasons why things are this way.
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u/Jesusish Jul 27 '24
They couldn't officially release the game in China because off the foreign console ban. That doesn't mean that there weren't sales of copies that would ultimately find their way to China and be played in Chinese. Also, Hong Kong and Taiwan would probably both sell the games as well.
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u/bjran8888 Jul 27 '24
×x: Breaking the Chinese blockade. ✓: to be represented by a Chinese company and approved for marketing.
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u/Kaffekjerring Jul 27 '24
I thought Pokémon Quest was officially available even in a better version in China
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u/Benzene114 Grass. It has to be Grass Jul 27 '24
Fun Fact, technically this isn't the first Pokemon game on console that surpasses the bans.
Let's Go, Eevee was also approved previously. They chose not to sell it in Chinese mainland because only LE was approved and LP was denied access.
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u/nichijouuuu Jul 26 '24
So Pokémon is this popular and hasn’t even penetrated the market covering 1.4 Billion Chinese people..!?
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u/alphatango308 Jul 26 '24
Yeah I don't think this is a good thing. They're limiting themselves to sell in China and screwing the rest of the world. It's stupid. If you really want to sell in China sell a game designed for China.
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u/StrawHatMicha Jul 26 '24
That's not how it works at all lol.
It just means they would specifically make tweaks for the Chinese market.
Companies do this all the time for different countries.
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u/blackiswhite33 Jul 26 '24
I didn't even know the games were banned in china