PQube issued a statement to clarify the delay of Song of Memories for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch. In the statement they made it known that the delay had nothing to do with the requirements, regulations, or rules of the platform holder (i.e., Sony) but was entirely due to performance related issues such as crashes and bugs, which are common factors that can also affect a game being certified for release on a platform.
The news came courtesy of a tweet posted on December 18th, 2018 from PQube Games, which you can check out below.
Please see below our statement regarding Song of Memories. We would like to apologize to everyone for the delay. pic.twitter.com/VT6j8EWgEp
— PQube Games (@PQubeGames) December 18, 2018
If you’re unable to read the statement in the image, it says…
“We are very sorry to announce that Song of Memories will be delayed to 2019. While we had hoped to bring you the game this year, we have seen unexpected development issues that are not related in any way to the platform holders. We are doing our best to bring you the game as early as possible and we will communicate a release date in the new year.”
As reported by Sankaku Complex, gamers were quick to ask if there was going to be any secret censorship or content removal to comply with Sony’s new censorship policy. PQube, however, responded by stating that there were no content removal requirements from the platform holder and everything from the Japanese version will make its way into the Western release, save for “School” being referred to as “Academy” and the character ages being removed.
Content-wise the game is the same as the Japanese version, in terms of localisation, ages have been removed from the characters, and the term School has been changed to Academy. This was to placate age rating boards and has nothing to do with recent platform holder changes.
— PQube Games (@PQubeGames) December 18, 2018
What’s interesting here is that according to some developers depicting “school” settings in games being reviewed for release on Steam could be grounds for expulsion. There are no official policies, but certain employees at Valve have been banning games within school settings and featuring students, regardless of whether they have defined ages or not.
If we’re going by what PQube is saying, apparently it’s not just Valve who is now upping the scrutiny on games with “school” settings, but the ratings boards, too.
But PQube’s decision is completely unrelated to the nebulous new rules being sporadically enforced over on Steam, since they won’t be handling the PC release of Song of Memories in the West, informing users that they’re focused strictly on the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch release of the game.
We are not involved in the PC version. We had to specify the ages as there was the Valkyrie Drive incident two years ago where people felt that it was indeed censorship.
— PQube Games (@PQubeGames) December 18, 2018
Most gamers are just pleased to know that Song of Memories won’t be censored. And PQube confirmed to a few others that so far they’ve been certified for release on the PlayStation 4. So barring any other unforeseen circumstances, once the developers get the bugs and crashes handled, you can expect a final release date announcement from PQube.
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