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Judgment (Judge Eyes in Japan) Sold Through 97% of Stock, Nagoshi's Thoughts on Pierre Taki's Arrest

Aurica

Aurica

音楽オタク - Comics Council 2020
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
23,525
A mountain in the US
Some thoughts and info from Sega chief creative officer Toshihiro Nagoshi on Pierre Taki's arrest.
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Gematsu said:
• I was surprised to hear Pierre Taki was arrested.
• When I looked at Yahoo! News in the middle of the night, it seemed like my phone was ringing through the screen. (Laughs.) From there the calls and messages wouldn't stop all night, and eventually I was like "I know!" (Laughs.)
• After that we started discussing how to deal with the problem.
• We decided to halt the game's sales fairly quickly.
• There is no correct way to deal with the situation. In the end, I also cast my vote for halting sales. Some thought and pointed out "This is going too far" and "It's unrelated to the game itself," and I don't think those opinions are unreasonable either—I can see it from both sides. So when it comes to why I voted for halting sales, it's because it was just after release. If it was an older game released a considerable amount of time ago, our priorities may have been different, but when it was something that had been released only several months prior, I think it's a different conversation.
• I saw news stating that Judgment 2 had been decided and that we had plans even for Judgment 3, but I thought "Who the hell?" (Laughs.) They're talking nonsense; absolutely none of that is true. (Laughs.)
• Regarding the incident, there were both messages of support and comments like, "Serves you right," but to speak against that, just because you use a celebrity, it doesn't mean that these kinds of situations are easy to get into at all. Even if our own staff crosses a dangerous bridge, these kinds of things could happen—it is not just celebrities. If you do something bad, you have to take responsibility.
• I'm bummed that it sold like there was a last-minute surge in demand. It reached number three on Amazon's sales rankings. But I did kind of think, "Why didn't you just buy from the start?" (Laughs.) Of course I'm glad in any case.
• Sell-through was about 97 percent. Worldwide inventory is nearly gone.
• If there is a sequel, Hamura won't appear in it at all. (Co-host Ayana Tsubaki: "Will you change the character or something?"). Regarding that, I think there'd be various ways to approach it.
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A commenter named Rob on Gematsu pointed out that it actually reached the number one spot on Amazon, and not three as Nagoshi believed:
get

Source: Gematsu
Japanese Source: Gamestalk

I'm still really annoyed about this, because I didn't buy the game right at launch. I really enjoyed the two demos and intended to buy the game a few months later when I had more time, but I'm not sure when I'll get to play the Japanese release now.

Scrub my existence from history for using drugs if old.
 

Deleted member 2618

User requested account closure
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I'd bet money on this game getting a sequel in 2020 or 2021. Like, cmon there's 12 console Yakuza games.

Shame that it's under this circumstance but good sales are good.
 
Danthrax

Danthrax

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Oct 25, 2017
2,467
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So what I get out of this is that Judge Eyes 2 was never planned

Doesn't surprise me that sellthrough is 97 percent now, but that doesn't mean a lot when they can't even print more copies.
 
Vic_Viper

Vic_Viper

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Oct 25, 2017
29,124
This whole situation must have been really difficult. Im happy the game sold so well, but now I wonder how well it was selling before this whole controversy started. If they havent had talks about a sequel, I wonder if its because the game wasnt selling as well as they would have liked at launch. Although, they probably wouldnt want to even talk about sequels yet anyway.

Still super looking forward to the western release. Really glad there wont be a long wait for it. The story/setting looks really interesting and im ready for something different. Plus im not the biggest fan of the character design for the new Yakuza lead character.
 
convo

convo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,456
Getting a star like that to reprise his role again seems like asking for too much. Other non-actor characters should be no problem to reappear somewhere. Too bad about this drama, but the international release will be a good thing no matter what.
The team has got Shin Yakuza to work on, and the story for its sequel is already being written, so a sequel to judgement can wait till next generation.
 
Jecht

Jecht

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Oct 25, 2017
2,650
"There was no correct way to deal with this situation"

Yeah, there was and you decided to ride the fuckery train instead.
 
Tohsaka

Tohsaka

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Nov 17, 2017
6,802
They should've at least let the western release use Taki's likeness still, no one over here cares if a celebrity uses drugs.
 
Strings

Strings

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Oct 27, 2017
31,594
Jecht said:
"There was no correct way to deal with this situation"

Yeah, there was and you decided to ride the fuckery train instead.
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It would reflect poorly on them if they were the only ones not to pull their product after the incident. Like, it's fucked to us from an outside perspective, but /shrug.
 

Deleted member 42

user requested account closure
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Oct 24, 2017
16,939
Jecht said:
"There was no correct way to deal with this situation"

Yeah, there was and you decided to ride the fuckery train instead.
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You go rogue on something like this in Japan and you get your entire company boycotted, so

Tohsaka said:
They should've at least let the western release use Taki's likeness still, no one over here cares if a celebrity uses drugs.
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Japanese players could import the game still would probably be their logic behind changing it
 
--R

--R

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Oct 25, 2017
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Tohsaka said:
They should've at least let the western release use Taki's likeness still, no one over here cares if a celebrity uses drugs.
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Even if we don't care, they still care and they still have to pull them from both releases.
 
Shy

Shy

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
18,520
"There was no correct way to deal with this situation"

Yes the was, Nagoshi. And it was, to do nothing at all.
 
--R

--R

Being sued right now, please help me find a lawyer
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Oct 25, 2017
12,919
ZeroX said:
yes, start a PR nightmare in their main market. very good idea.
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I don't know why people can't understand this. If they kept him in the game, it would have been horrible in PR terms. It's like people forget they're not the center of the world and that their culture doesn't work the same everywhere.
 
Jecht

Jecht

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,650
BronsonLee said:
You go rogue on something like this in Japan and you get your entire company boycotted, so



Japanese players could import the game still would probably be their logic behind changing it
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I'm supposed to care about this as a Pr move and not about doing the right thing just because it's Japan?

Nah. Don't think so. He made his choice and voted how he voted and I'm free to critize it because it's ass backwards morally.
 
werezompire

werezompire

Zeboyd Games
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Oct 26, 2017
11,543
I saw a copy of the Chinese version at a local game store in Taichung while I was searching for Super Robot Wars T. Was tempted to grab it as a collector's item.
 
Araujo

Araujo

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Dec 5, 2017
2,196
Jecht said:
I'm supposed to care about this as a Pr move and not about doing the right thing just because it's Japan?

Nah. Don't think so. He made his choice and voted how he voted and I'm free to critize it because it's ass backwards morally.
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No, you are suppose to understand that your worldview is not universal.

Yes it's crazy how Japan deals with stuff like this.

It is also absolutely insane in THAT market to do nothing about it when it surfaces likes that.

If anything, their actions allowed for a far better chance of new games and the continuation of the job and work of all those people instead of any chance they would have if they "stood their ground" by following a mindset that is 100% not that of their main market.
 
Shy

Shy

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Oct 25, 2017
18,520
ZeroX said:
yes, start a PR nightmare in their main market. very good idea.
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--R said:
I don't know why people can't understand this.
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I do understand, and appreciate it. I just don't agree with it.
--R said:
If they kept him in the game, it would have been horrible in PR terms. It's like people forget they're not the center of the world and that their culture doesn't work the same everywhere.
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Where the fuck did i say, or even imply that shit ?

I'm well aware of Japan's drug laws. Again, i just don't agree.
 
ZeroX

ZeroX

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Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
Jecht said:
I'm supposed to care about this as a Pr move and not about doing the right thing just because it's Japan?

Nah. Don't think so. He made his choice and voted how he voted and I'm free to critize it because it's ass backwards morally.
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Shy said:
I do understand, and appreciate it. I just don't agree with it.

Where the fuck did i say, or even imply that shit ?

I'm well aware of Japan's drug laws. Again, i just don't agree.
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Yeah it's really easy to disagree and make calls based solely on morality when you don't have people's jobs or a company's future on the line
 
ValKiryuSonicEX

ValKiryuSonicEX

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,265
Can't blame Nagoshi, SEGA, or Taki for this mess, the series would face scrutiny from the Japanese audience/public by association even if they had kept his appearance overseas. It's a fucked up situation, but unless laws, industry, and public perception change in Japan, this is how it goes.

As others have mentioned it's not just them scrubbing Taki, it's the entire industry, even his hometown.
 

Deleted member 5535

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Jecht said:
I'm supposed to care about this as a Pr move and not about doing the right thing just because it's Japan?

Nah. Don't think so. He made his choice and voted how he voted and I'm free to critize it because it's ass backwards morally.
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Every company in Japan that was related to Pierre did it. Sony Music, Square Enix, Disney, etc. You can think this is wrong and all as a law and view of society, but those companies acted like that because that's the mindset of their country (and Asia overall, in different ways). If they didn't, the consequences would be on them instead for public perception and such.
 

Deleted member 1041

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Jecht said:
Oh give me a break. Yeah Sega was gunna go under if they didn't replace this actor. Please. Unreal the lengths some of you will go to stan Japan.
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I mean, you would think seeing the reaction to how multiple companies decided to deal with this would show you the severity of the situation would make you understand, but I guess nobodies going to convince you. Would Sega go down? No. Would they get scrutinized and probably black balled by other companies that work with them? Yeah, probably.
 
Shy

Shy

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Oct 25, 2017
18,520
ZeroX said:
Yeah it's really easy to disagree and make calls based solely on morality when you don't have people's jobs or a company's future on the line
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WHERE. THE. FUCK. DID. I. SAY. THAT ?

Don't fucking put words in my mouth. I said i understood, and appreciated why.
 

faced

Member
Dec 17, 2017
178
Are they planning on re-releasing the game with a different actor or something? I know they're doing that for the English version, they've committed to still hitting the original release date
 
matrix-cat

matrix-cat

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Oct 27, 2017
10,284
Gonna put my kids through college with this original Japanese copy, baby. Smell ya later, proletariat-Era.
 
lemonade

lemonade

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May 8, 2018
3,044
More people on Era now like to hold moral high ground and openly shame others for trying to think realistically.

It's always black or white for these people and trying to point out the complexity of real life situations make you a "stan".
 

Deleted member 17676

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,454
People don't really get it.

They want to normalise drug culture in the West. I applaud Japan for what they doing. They setting a good example that if you mess with drugs then you are fucked and so is your career.

I'm shocked people saying they overreacted. Go to Japan and say that. They have a different opinion on drugs to you.
 
BBboy20

BBboy20

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Oct 25, 2017
22,283
Jecht said:
I'm supposed to care about this as a Pr move and not about doing the right thing just because it's Japan?

Nah. Don't think so. He made his choice and voted how he voted and I'm free to critize it because it's ass backwards morally.
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I mean, this is the Japanese goverment we're talking about here. I mean...using a convicted criminal for profit else where...you don't think they would start investigating Sega themselves for that? I mean, you're talking about "taking a stand" against the cops now. In the end, I don't think Sega wants the Heat on them.
 
Bashteee

Bashteee

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Oct 27, 2017
1,193
Jecht said:
Oh give me a break. Yeah Sega was gunna go under if they didn't replace this actor. Please. Unreal the lengths some of you will go to stan Japan.
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Different culture, different social dynamics. It's the same with US and anything related to sexual content or like germany and violence (at least in the past, they kind of pass almost anything these days). For Japan it's drugs and they seem to be quite extreme with it, too.
 
PLASTICA-MAN

PLASTICA-MAN

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Oct 26, 2017
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Huh? Why the name change? Is it because the western version will be different than the Japanese version?
 
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