They can't. His hold over the music is pretty ironclad. Has his own company managing it too. The silver lining is that there are two absolutes in life - death and taxes.
A man like that isn't going to retire. But since he is mortal like all of us, eventually nature will retire him.
I think the game will get a lot of scrutiny when it releases here. Having an person so closely associated with your game say all these toxic things won't be just ignored. Not in today's climate. How Square will respond to this is a whole nother story. We will see come release day.
To add to your last point, Dragon Quest Builders recently performed very well outside of Japan. There's a chance that opens up a bunch of new folks to experimenting with the mainline games.
So why is Holocaust denial illegal in Germany? By law people are literally not entitled to that "opinion". Please explain.
Hopefully he means the people who will avoid the game in light of Sugiyama's involvement. At least that's how I read it.
They know it's a bad look, and they will just roll with it. Other options are even more damaging to them.
He put ads that deny Imperial Japan's war crimes on big western newspapers, with his own money. He's definitely not just a "talker".
I see you don't know Japan well. The biggest reaction will be "pathetic foreigners ruined out national treasure". Why do you think he can make such outrageous statements in the first place if the society is so against them?
It's more complicated than that, since hundreds of other people worked on this game too, and it even has a surprisingly well done lgbtq character for a Japanese game.
No it's not complicated at all. By buying the game knowing he funds japans version of holocaust deniers and anti lgbtq and he earns a fair bit more than most people on the game most likely. Your are funding those causes indirectly.
Lots of people worked really hard on the product, should it really be boycotted for one guy's opinion?
"This old man doesn't like gay people so fuck the entire team that's been forced to work with him." If you boycotted every business that has a racist, bigot, anti-LGBT member you'd have to build your own house and grow your own food. I respect someone willing to sacrifice a little of their own entertainment to make a statement by not buying the game but that old man and those couple of Square management members are a tiny portion of the team that have poured blood, sweat, tears, and time into this game to entertain us. This board always bemoans when a studio or development team is shuttered due to mismanagement and always comes around and posts a bunch of, "It's not their fault, they didn't deserve this!" "The team shouldn't be punished for mismanagement by a few, hope they land on their feet!" and then turn around and make these statements.
