Over the last few years it has lost some of its reputation as a show full of new reveals and announcements (bar some games that never make it out of Japan), but the craziness of Japan shines through the whole festival giving show goers experiences not seen in western shows such as PAX, E3 and Gamescom. It's my opinion that Tokyo Game Show should be on the annual to do list of any game lover. Tokyo Game Showing - How much does it really cost? And because they have so much influence on the industry, that’s one of the blockers. It would have to go up the chain, it would get to Japan, and they’re not going to like it.” We talk to Nintendo about including queer characters in Tomodachi Life, and they say, “We didn’t want to make a political statement.”It comes from a very-the Japanese just don’t really understand the social changes going on right now in America. Every year I ask them if they want to be part of GaymerX, and every year they say, “Well, you know how it is. I can’t understate-because the core of the video game industry comes from Japan, and you have companies like-we see a lot of games from PlayStation.
GamesBeat: Would you say that LGBTQ issues are maybe a little behind other diversity initiatives?Ĭonn: Part of it is. Video games are still a very conservative industry, especially the Japanese base. It’s interesting that it hasn’t really reached the top yet, though. I’ve heard all these stories about what it’s like at Namco Bandai or other places, where if you’re gay, that’s it, you’re out.For a lot of companies, they can’t-these last five years have changed things quite a bit. They’re at Sony or other Japanese companies and they’re terrified, because they remember what it was like 10 years ago or more when that was like a death sentence. There’s a level of-at least within the industry, I’ve met a lot of people 35 and up who are-I meet them and they’re openly gay with me, but they’re not out at work. We talk to lawyers about the No Man's Sky false advertising investigationĬonn: It’s tough. So basically they’ve told Steam not to use the ad again (although the sale has been over for months) and to adhere to advertising standards guidelines in future. The verdict I seem to read most often on upheld claims is that the ad mustn’t appear any more in its current form and the organisation mustn’t do this sort of thing again. But the ASA’s own clout hinges around bad publicity – companies being listed as non-compliant on the ASA’s website, the ASA asking search websites to remove paid-for ads that lead consumers to misleading marketing, or launching an AdWords campaign against a business to warn consumers about your services.īut that only happens in extreme circumstances. For repeat offenders there are other organisation to which the ASA can refer the matter if fining or legal action is to be brought. The ASA is more about ensuring compliance with codes than issuing punishments.