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If you haven't figured it out yet, the underlined stuff are links.
Quote from Anonymous
I FOUND THE SMOKING GUN
TENCENT AND CHINA CAUSED SOYNY'S CENSORSHIP
TENCENT WAS ALSO MESSING WITH SENRANS FROM THE START
I know this is more something for the GG thread, but I don't think anyone will disagree about what I'm about to reveal being significant enough to warrant its own separate thread.
The news about Tencent and Marvelous both depressed me and seriously pissed me off. But reading over one of the articles I noticed an interesting tidbit in it which mentioned in passing that Marvelous and Tencent had cooperated before (I will bring this up in the infodump). This set off alarm bells in my head and kicked my digging autism into high gear. I spent the past few days going through my materials, searching for the information that fills the gaps, and assembling a timeline and paper trail to piece together a coherent motive behind Sony and Marvelous' actions over the past two years.
Also, there is an extremely important detail near the end of my dump that you need to pay very close attention to. Believe me, you'll know exactly which detail that is when you get to it.
Now then, without further ado...
Sony Finally Reveals Its Plans to Bring the PlayStation Brand to China (May 2014)
The timeline begins with Sony revealing its plans to release the PS4 in China in May of 2014. They chose to partner with the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group, which is a part of the Shangai Media Group and one of the largest media conglomerates in China. Though they do not appear to have any direct connection with Tencent, being a large business like Tencent they are effectively another branch of the CCP. Any large company disloyal to the CCP would not be allowed to exist for very long. (We here all recognize this as self evident, but I am writing to inform, so I must state the obvious at times.)
Sony says China sales of PlayStation 4 limited by censorship rules (September 2015)
The PS4 launches in China less than a year later in March 2015, but struggles to take off. Sitting CEO Andrew house mentions in the above archive that they "...are still challenged somewhat with a censorship regime that we have to work with." and that, "This can be time-consuming...". Despite this, he also mentions there is “tremendous potential for gaming as an entertainment medium in China”. Given the nature of the CCP it is extremely unlikely that Sony can convince them to lax up on their censorship rules. So in order to break into the Chinese market Sony must formulate a new strategy. And how does that strategy manifest itself?
Behold: The "China Hero Project"
Sony Announces “PlayStation’s China Hero Project,” Including Lost Soul Aside and Many More Games (March)
The "China Hero Project" was initiated by Sony in mid-2016 in a partnership with various companies and was officially announced in March of 2017. This is their official website: https://asia.playstation.com.cn/en-cn/hero/ [ https://archive.is/hoHBp ]
From their home page:
Notice some familiar names among those partners? Epic Games is listed as a chief partner for the China Hero Project, and who controls the most shares (40%), and thus the most sway, over Epic Games? None other than Tencent, the most powerful company in China, and the very same Tencent likely soon to own a large stake in Marvelous. This can only mean that Tencent is heavily involved in Sony's China Hero Project. And it also means that Tencent has had its tentacles around Sony since at least early 2017.
But what about their financial backers, these "Whiz Partners" mentioned on the first page? This is their website: http://www.whizp.com/e/ [ https://archive.is/Ldaiv ]
Get a load of this "Corporate Philosophy" page they have: http://www.whizp.com/e/philosophy/ [ https://archive.is/OaT3R ]
Quality mission statement. Not one shred of self-incrimination on that page. Or anything else, for that matter.
Going through their corporate website this group seems to be a Japanese equivalent of the antics the banksters get up to here in the west. This looks like a rabbit hole all by itself and is something well worth digging into. But for the time being let's focus on how they relate to the China Hero Project.
Their Official statement announcing their involvement with the China Hero Project: http://www.whizp.com/2016/07/27/21/ [ https://archive.is/yDHdZ ]
The pdf points out that two of the initial partners of the project (including Tencent controlled Epic Games.) are investment partners of Whiz Asia, Whiz Partners' asia region affiliate branch (which is full of Chinese bankers, by the way [ https://archive.is/M6tz4 ]). These announcements are also present on the site.
CRI Middleware: http://www.whizp.com/e/profile/asia/ [ https://archive.is/M6tz4 ]
Hearts United Group Co., Ltd. :http://www.whizp.com/2015/11/12/343/ [ https://archive.is/g2VPP ]
The CRI Middleware announcement is especially interesting, because it highlights that CRI Middleware is a partner of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media, the same group that Sony initially partnered with to bring the PS4 to China. That makes two Chinese conglomerates that have their fingers in the "China Hero" pie. Tencent and Shanghai Media Group.
But how does this all culminate into Sony's current censorship policy?
On August 2nd, 2018, the official China Hero Project blog posted an important press release detailing major updates to the project, to coincide with ChinaJoy, China's largest gaming convention.
https://archive.is/eBc6M
https://archive.is/zwG6n (via Google Translate)
The press release is only in the Chinese language (all of the press releases are the same way). The entry mainly focuses on highlighting a number of games being backed by the project and the progress they have made, to coincide with the ChinaJoy event. It is by far the most significant promotion of the China Hero Project up to this point in the timeline.
The translated archive is somewhat screwy, as some parts are still left untranslated. But the most important text to point to is this batch at the end of the blog post: https://archive.is/zwG6n#selection-2745.0-2749.179
Plugged into Google Translate this returns the following:
"An important point about the target companies and teams of the plan is that it should be not only applicable to the Chinese market, but also projects and teams that can develop in the global market."
A reminder of the similar line on the China Hero Project english home page I mentioned earlier:
"A key point of view for the program's target enterprise and team is that the project and team should not only be applicable to development in Chinese market, but also in global market."
THIS IS THE MISSING PIECE OF THE PUZZLE. SONY'S CENSORSHIP WAS IMPLENTED PRIMARILY ON BEHALF OF TENCENT, CHINA, AND THE CCP THROUGH THE CHINA HERO PROJECT.
But wait, there's more!
Like I said earlier, Tencent was messing with Kenichiro Takaki and the Senran Kagura games since the very start of Sony's censorship shenanigans. And like with the China Hero Project, the proof is in plain sight.
This was the makeup of Marvelous' corporate officers as of September 2017: https://archive.is/LLyF9
And this is the makeup of Marvelous' corporate officers as of now (In between which detailed profiles for each member have been added): https://archive.is/Rw8tZ
There are two important members on the board which relate to what's going on at Marvelous
Ken Sato (Standing Statutory Auditor)
A former longtime Sony employee and higher up. He joined Marvelous in August 2017, first as an advisor for the administration, but was later promoted to the board as a "Standing Statutory Auditor". This man is most certainly the censorship officer for Sony, given his euphemistic title. There doesn't appear to be any other noteworthy aspects about him, at least that I've dug up, so I won't be mentioning him any further, at least for now. I will instead be focusing on the other member.
Shuichi Motoda (President, formerly Vice Chairman)
Joined AQ Interactive in 2007, which is currently a part of Marvelous. Since may of 2018, Motoda has been considered a "special advisor" to Tencent Japan (Yes, they have a Japanese national branch). Remember the timeline of events, he was already getting cozy with the CCP's funny money for several months before shit the fan in September 2018 when Sony's censorship went into full throttle.
At the beginning of February of 2019, Kenichiro Takaki had an interview with Japanese site inside games, in which he brought up that he'd like to make Senran Kagura games for the Switch instead of the Playstation in the future:
https://archive.is/xWgi6
https://archive.is/Y1o0Z (Original Japanese source)
But less than two months later on March 26, 2019, it was announced that instead Takaki had departed from Marvelous: https://archive.is/xLyuo
Takaki is quoted as having his reasoning being "restrictions on sexual content". But this is not the truth, or at least not the whole truth.
Only two days after the announcement of Takaki's departure, Marvelous announced a partnership with Tencent for a Story of Seasons mobile game.
https://archive.is/vuJHY
It is plainly evident from this that Takaki left Marvelous not merely because of "restrictions on sexual expressions", but because of Tencent's involvement with those restrictions, as well as Tencent's increasing involvement with Marvelous in general.
This also explains both Takaki and Marvelous' general reluctance to talk about the status of 7EVEN in general. They would more or less be forced to confess one way or another the truth behind Tencent's meddling in the series.
In the middle of May 2019, it was announced that then President Haruki Nakayama would resign from Marvelous in June due to "decling health" and that Shuichi Matoda (Tencent's asset) would take his place: https://archive.is/uoPR8
Attached is the current brochure for Marvelous available on its website: https://corp.marv.jp/english/company/img/brochure2004e.pd f
It's worth reminding everyone that Marvelous doesn't just make video games. They are also involved in many anime production committees, through audio and visual support. (Apparently they're involved with anime-based theatrical performances as well, apparently.) So Tencent gaining a share of Marvelous doesn't just mean they're getting involved with Marvelous' games, they're getting involved with anime production as well. This is the statement by the Tencent asset himself taken directly from the brochure:
"Leveraging our strength in “multi-content, multi-use and multi-device,” we transcend changes in the times to consistently create fresh entertainment."
Is that so? Because going off of Kandagawa Jet Girls bombing as well as you last financial reports it doesn't look like you "transcended" the change in Soyny's content policies very effectively. You could have listened to Takaki, taken the D3 Omega Labyrinth route, and come out of this ordeal whole. Instead, you're bleeding money and are looking towards Tencent and the CCP to be your sugar daddy. The very same Tencent and CCP who, which I will remind you and everyone else reading this, were DIRECTLY responsible for the very censorship policies which caused you to bleed money in the first place, via the China Hero Project.
But of course, that was all according to plan, wasn't it, Mr. Motoda?
Personally, I’m really looking forward to justice being served for your treachery, one way or another.
Which brings us to the current state of affairs, with Tencent's and Marvelous' most unholy alliance finalized. Mission accomplished...
...Or is it?
According to several reports, the actual transaction of the sale of Marvelous shares to Tencent is not supposed to occur until sometime in June:
https://archive.is/DjaYo#selection-3741.144-3741.231
https://archive.is/M6ztw#selection-703.179-703.218
IF THIS IS TRUE, IT MAY NOT BE TOO LATE TO COMPELL MARVELOUS TO REVERSE THEIR DECISION.
We should have, at minimum, at least a couple of days to get the word out and mount enough external pressure against Marvelous to get them to bail on their deal with Tencent. But if we are going to have enough of an impact, action will have to be swift and organized. These are my following suggestions:
- Immediately start relaying this information to our own megaphones such as NicheGamer, OneAngryGamer, Bounding into Comics, RGE, appabend, Vara Dark, basically anyone who has spoken negatively about Sony's "China first" censorship policy. Cap or link this information, send it to them, and make sure to spread it around.
- Relay this information directly to the Japanese on sites like 2ch and 5ch. Get the Japanese Learning threads working on a summary that can be relayed to Japanese-speaking online communities. Get /animu/ and smuglo.li involved as well, since again, Marvelous works on anime, and Tencent infecting Marvelous is a way for Tencent to infect anime. Even though twitter's censorship is prevalent and makes it hard for us to spread our message, their algorithms probably aren't as refined when it comes to Japanese twitter. And Marvelous is certainly going to be a lot more likely to listen to the angry otaku that don't have to cross large bodies of water to come knocking on their doors. Much more-so if they're throwing them under the bus to sell out to the CCP.
- THE MEMES, JACK. Start dunking on Marvelous, Sony and Tencent HARD. The CCP really, really HATES IT when you meme on them. That should be obvious enough with how they've reacted to Winnie the Pooh, Honk Kong Mei, and others. So dial it up to 11. The Senrans themselves are already great meme material, so why not make them an anti-China symbol? With enough luck Marvelous might even be forced to sell the IP back to Takaki even if we fail to stop Tencent.
- Even though it's on the cringy side, a change.org petition might not be a bad idea. Back when Sony's censorship started there was a change.org petition against the censorship policy that managed to muster over 10k signatures, which was enough to garner a response (though it was ultimately hand-waved). With more concrete information and anti-CCP sentiment being the highest it's been in a long time I can realistically see a second attempt getting even better results, possibly good enough to exert meaningful pressure upon Marvelous.
- Raid the PS5 event! Soyny is still reeling from the TLoU2 leaks. They just announced a major event highlighting most of the details of the PS5 scheduled for June 3rd. If the information I've revealed here goes viral before this event takes place then it will drown out the hype and hurt their promotion. Back to back crises are absolutely disastrous PR-wise and we have ample opportunity to make lightning strike twice.
I would encourage anons to brainstorm and add throw any other good ideas they may have in the pot.
TL;DR & TIMELINE OF EVENTS
>Sony has been chasing Chinese funny money for a while, but for the first few years were not seeing the success they had hoped for because of CCP roadblocks.
>Sony addresses this by cultivating Chinese developers through the China Hero Project.
>China Hero Project is bankrolled by a shady group of financiers, "Whiz partners", and has CCP members involved, including Tencent via Epic Games.
>Meanwhile Shuichi Motoda, one of Marvelous' most influential members, is also getting involved with Tencent in a more direct manner.
>ChinaJoy showcase of China Hero Project is a success. Sony/CCP are confident enough to start implementing the censorship policy.
>Senran producer Kenichiro Takaki tries to reason with Motoda, is unsuccessful.
>Tencent starting to get more involved with Marvelous is the final straw for Takaki, ends up resigning in protest.
>Old Marvelous president steps down, Tencent cocksucker Shuichi Motoda takes his place.
>Tencent-approved Marvelous president complies with Tencent-approved Sony censorship policy, costing the company money.
>Tencent-approved Marvelous president's solution to the problem he also created is to sell a significant number of shares to Tencent like a good CCP asset.
>This will give Tencent much more influence over Senran and other Marvelous IPs, as well as a way to influence anime production, if not stopped. (And will happen VERY SOON.)
>You are here.
TENCENT AND CHINA CAUSED SOYNY'S CENSORSHIP
TENCENT WAS ALSO MESSING WITH SENRANS FROM THE START
I know this is more something for the GG thread, but I don't think anyone will disagree about what I'm about to reveal being significant enough to warrant its own separate thread.
The news about Tencent and Marvelous both depressed me and seriously pissed me off. But reading over one of the articles I noticed an interesting tidbit in it which mentioned in passing that Marvelous and Tencent had cooperated before (I will bring this up in the infodump). This set off alarm bells in my head and kicked my digging autism into high gear. I spent the past few days going through my materials, searching for the information that fills the gaps, and assembling a timeline and paper trail to piece together a coherent motive behind Sony and Marvelous' actions over the past two years.
Also, there is an extremely important detail near the end of my dump that you need to pay very close attention to. Believe me, you'll know exactly which detail that is when you get to it.
Now then, without further ado...
Sony Finally Reveals Its Plans to Bring the PlayStation Brand to China (May 2014)
The timeline begins with Sony revealing its plans to release the PS4 in China in May of 2014. They chose to partner with the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group, which is a part of the Shangai Media Group and one of the largest media conglomerates in China. Though they do not appear to have any direct connection with Tencent, being a large business like Tencent they are effectively another branch of the CCP. Any large company disloyal to the CCP would not be allowed to exist for very long. (We here all recognize this as self evident, but I am writing to inform, so I must state the obvious at times.)
Sony says China sales of PlayStation 4 limited by censorship rules (September 2015)
The PS4 launches in China less than a year later in March 2015, but struggles to take off. Sitting CEO Andrew house mentions in the above archive that they "...are still challenged somewhat with a censorship regime that we have to work with." and that, "This can be time-consuming...". Despite this, he also mentions there is “tremendous potential for gaming as an entertainment medium in China”. Given the nature of the CCP it is extremely unlikely that Sony can convince them to lax up on their censorship rules. So in order to break into the Chinese market Sony must formulate a new strategy. And how does that strategy manifest itself?
Behold: The "China Hero Project"
Sony Announces “PlayStation’s China Hero Project,” Including Lost Soul Aside and Many More Games (March)
The "China Hero Project" was initiated by Sony in mid-2016 in a partnership with various companies and was officially announced in March of 2017. This is their official website: https://asia.playstation.com.cn/en-cn/hero/ [ https://archive.is/hoHBp ]
From their home page:
Quote from Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc
"China Hero Project (CHPJ)"is a program based on PlayStation platform, which strongly support Chinese funded game developers (mainly start-ups) to enter the whole Chinese and global market, committing to" create a successful game works (=star) worldwide" and "cultivation and development of Chinese game industry".
The project is supported by partners such as Epic Games, Inc., CRI Middleware, Digital Hearts HLDGS., Silicon Studio,Streamline Studios、WACOM、 Unity Technologies (Shanghai) Limited, who look to further increase on Chinese console game market, and provide development techniques of game engine, middleware etc. and debug services in order to improve the quality of game for Chinese game developers. In addition, Whiz Partners provides financial support for CHPJ.
A key point of view for the program's target enterprise and team is that the project and team should not only be applicable to development in Chinese market, but also in global market.
The project is supported by partners such as Epic Games, Inc., CRI Middleware, Digital Hearts HLDGS., Silicon Studio,Streamline Studios、WACOM、 Unity Technologies (Shanghai) Limited, who look to further increase on Chinese console game market, and provide development techniques of game engine, middleware etc. and debug services in order to improve the quality of game for Chinese game developers. In addition, Whiz Partners provides financial support for CHPJ.
A key point of view for the program's target enterprise and team is that the project and team should not only be applicable to development in Chinese market, but also in global market.
Notice some familiar names among those partners? Epic Games is listed as a chief partner for the China Hero Project, and who controls the most shares (40%), and thus the most sway, over Epic Games? None other than Tencent, the most powerful company in China, and the very same Tencent likely soon to own a large stake in Marvelous. This can only mean that Tencent is heavily involved in Sony's China Hero Project. And it also means that Tencent has had its tentacles around Sony since at least early 2017.
But what about their financial backers, these "Whiz Partners" mentioned on the first page? This is their website: http://www.whizp.com/e/ [ https://archive.is/Ldaiv ]
Get a load of this "Corporate Philosophy" page they have: http://www.whizp.com/e/philosophy/ [ https://archive.is/OaT3R ]
Quote from Whiz Partners Inc.
In 2010, we created Whiz Partners seeking to combine our feeling of “with” and the word “whiz.”
Quality mission statement. Not one shred of self-incrimination on that page. Or anything else, for that matter.
Going through their corporate website this group seems to be a Japanese equivalent of the antics the banksters get up to here in the west. This looks like a rabbit hole all by itself and is something well worth digging into. But for the time being let's focus on how they relate to the China Hero Project.
Their Official statement announcing their involvement with the China Hero Project: http://www.whizp.com/2016/07/27/21/ [ https://archive.is/yDHdZ ]
The pdf points out that two of the initial partners of the project (including Tencent controlled Epic Games.) are investment partners of Whiz Asia, Whiz Partners' asia region affiliate branch (which is full of Chinese bankers, by the way [ https://archive.is/M6tz4 ]). These announcements are also present on the site.
CRI Middleware: http://www.whizp.com/e/profile/asia/ [ https://archive.is/M6tz4 ]
Hearts United Group Co., Ltd. :http://www.whizp.com/2015/11/12/343/ [ https://archive.is/g2VPP ]
The CRI Middleware announcement is especially interesting, because it highlights that CRI Middleware is a partner of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media, the same group that Sony initially partnered with to bring the PS4 to China. That makes two Chinese conglomerates that have their fingers in the "China Hero" pie. Tencent and Shanghai Media Group.
But how does this all culminate into Sony's current censorship policy?
On August 2nd, 2018, the official China Hero Project blog posted an important press release detailing major updates to the project, to coincide with ChinaJoy, China's largest gaming convention.
https://archive.is/eBc6M
https://archive.is/zwG6n (via Google Translate)
The press release is only in the Chinese language (all of the press releases are the same way). The entry mainly focuses on highlighting a number of games being backed by the project and the progress they have made, to coincide with the ChinaJoy event. It is by far the most significant promotion of the China Hero Project up to this point in the timeline.
The translated archive is somewhat screwy, as some parts are still left untranslated. But the most important text to point to is this batch at the end of the blog post: https://archive.is/zwG6n#selection-2745.0-2749.179
Quote from Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc
关于“中国之星计划”（China Hero Project）：
“China Hero Project （中国之星计划）”是一个通过PlayStation®平台大力支持以初创企业为主的全中资游戏开发商走向中国及全球市场 ，致力于“创造出全球范围内成功的游戏作品（=明星）”和“培育和发展中国的游戏产业”的计划。对于该计划的目标企业及团 队的一个重要观点是，其应当为不仅仅是适用于中国市场的，更是能在全球市场上发展的项目和团队。
“China Hero Project （中国之星计划）”是一个通过PlayStation®平台大力支持以初创企业为主的全中资游戏开发商走向中国及全球市场 ，致力于“创造出全球范围内成功的游戏作品（=明星）”和“培育和发展中国的游戏产业”的计划。对于该计划的目标企业及团 队的一个重要观点是，其应当为不仅仅是适用于中国市场的，更是能在全球市场上发展的项目和团队。
Plugged into Google Translate this returns the following:
Quote from Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc
About the "China Hero Project":
"China Hero Project" is a PlayStation® platform that vigorously supports all Chinese game developers, mainly start-ups, to the Chinese and global markets and is committed to "creating successful game works worldwide = Star) "and" Cultivate and Develop China's Game Industry "plan. An important point about the target companies and teams of the plan is that it should be not only applicable to the Chinese market, but also projects and teams that can develop in the global market.
"China Hero Project" is a PlayStation® platform that vigorously supports all Chinese game developers, mainly start-ups, to the Chinese and global markets and is committed to "creating successful game works worldwide = Star) "and" Cultivate and Develop China's Game Industry "plan. An important point about the target companies and teams of the plan is that it should be not only applicable to the Chinese market, but also projects and teams that can develop in the global market.
"An important point about the target companies and teams of the plan is that it should be not only applicable to the Chinese market, but also projects and teams that can develop in the global market."
A reminder of the similar line on the China Hero Project english home page I mentioned earlier:
"A key point of view for the program's target enterprise and team is that the project and team should not only be applicable to development in Chinese market, but also in global market."
THIS IS THE MISSING PIECE OF THE PUZZLE. SONY'S CENSORSHIP WAS IMPLENTED PRIMARILY ON BEHALF OF TENCENT, CHINA, AND THE CCP THROUGH THE CHINA HERO PROJECT.
But wait, there's more!
Like I said earlier, Tencent was messing with Kenichiro Takaki and the Senran Kagura games since the very start of Sony's censorship shenanigans. And like with the China Hero Project, the proof is in plain sight.
This was the makeup of Marvelous' corporate officers as of September 2017: https://archive.is/LLyF9
And this is the makeup of Marvelous' corporate officers as of now (In between which detailed profiles for each member have been added): https://archive.is/Rw8tZ
There are two important members on the board which relate to what's going on at Marvelous
Ken Sato (Standing Statutory Auditor)
A former longtime Sony employee and higher up. He joined Marvelous in August 2017, first as an advisor for the administration, but was later promoted to the board as a "Standing Statutory Auditor". This man is most certainly the censorship officer for Sony, given his euphemistic title. There doesn't appear to be any other noteworthy aspects about him, at least that I've dug up, so I won't be mentioning him any further, at least for now. I will instead be focusing on the other member.
Shuichi Motoda (President, formerly Vice Chairman)
Joined AQ Interactive in 2007, which is currently a part of Marvelous. Since may of 2018, Motoda has been considered a "special advisor" to Tencent Japan (Yes, they have a Japanese national branch). Remember the timeline of events, he was already getting cozy with the CCP's funny money for several months before shit the fan in September 2018 when Sony's censorship went into full throttle.
At the beginning of February of 2019, Kenichiro Takaki had an interview with Japanese site inside games, in which he brought up that he'd like to make Senran Kagura games for the Switch instead of the Playstation in the future:
https://archive.is/xWgi6
https://archive.is/Y1o0Z (Original Japanese source)
But less than two months later on March 26, 2019, it was announced that instead Takaki had departed from Marvelous: https://archive.is/xLyuo
Takaki is quoted as having his reasoning being "restrictions on sexual content". But this is not the truth, or at least not the whole truth.
Only two days after the announcement of Takaki's departure, Marvelous announced a partnership with Tencent for a Story of Seasons mobile game.
https://archive.is/vuJHY
It is plainly evident from this that Takaki left Marvelous not merely because of "restrictions on sexual expressions", but because of Tencent's involvement with those restrictions, as well as Tencent's increasing involvement with Marvelous in general.
This also explains both Takaki and Marvelous' general reluctance to talk about the status of 7EVEN in general. They would more or less be forced to confess one way or another the truth behind Tencent's meddling in the series.
In the middle of May 2019, it was announced that then President Haruki Nakayama would resign from Marvelous in June due to "decling health" and that Shuichi Matoda (Tencent's asset) would take his place: https://archive.is/uoPR8
Attached is the current brochure for Marvelous available on its website: https://corp.marv.jp/english/company/img/brochure2004e.pd f
It's worth reminding everyone that Marvelous doesn't just make video games. They are also involved in many anime production committees, through audio and visual support. (Apparently they're involved with anime-based theatrical performances as well, apparently.) So Tencent gaining a share of Marvelous doesn't just mean they're getting involved with Marvelous' games, they're getting involved with anime production as well. This is the statement by the Tencent asset himself taken directly from the brochure:
Quote from Marvelous President, Shuichi Motoda
For games, video, music and stage.
Excitement has no borders.
After food, clothing and shelter comes fun. To have fun is to live.
The more we keep our hearts entertained, the more fulfilling our lives will be.
Marvelous Inc. is an all-round entertainment company that produces fun.
We create interesting and original intellectual property (IP) for games, video, music and stage.
Leveraging our strength in “multi-content, multi-use and multi-device,” we transcend changes in
the times to consistently create fresh entertainment.
We strive to deliver wonder and excitement never seen before to the people of the world.
Before you know it, we will be one of Japan’s leading content providers.
And we will be an entertainment company that offers a multitude of challenges and thrills and
leaves people wondering, “What’s coming next from this company?”
Personally, I’m really looking forward to what lies ahead at Marvelous.
President, Shuichi Motoda
Excitement has no borders.
After food, clothing and shelter comes fun. To have fun is to live.
The more we keep our hearts entertained, the more fulfilling our lives will be.
Marvelous Inc. is an all-round entertainment company that produces fun.
We create interesting and original intellectual property (IP) for games, video, music and stage.
Leveraging our strength in “multi-content, multi-use and multi-device,” we transcend changes in
the times to consistently create fresh entertainment.
We strive to deliver wonder and excitement never seen before to the people of the world.
Before you know it, we will be one of Japan’s leading content providers.
And we will be an entertainment company that offers a multitude of challenges and thrills and
leaves people wondering, “What’s coming next from this company?”
Personally, I’m really looking forward to what lies ahead at Marvelous.
President, Shuichi Motoda
"Leveraging our strength in “multi-content, multi-use and multi-device,” we transcend changes in the times to consistently create fresh entertainment."
Is that so? Because going off of Kandagawa Jet Girls bombing as well as you last financial reports it doesn't look like you "transcended" the change in Soyny's content policies very effectively. You could have listened to Takaki, taken the D3 Omega Labyrinth route, and come out of this ordeal whole. Instead, you're bleeding money and are looking towards Tencent and the CCP to be your sugar daddy. The very same Tencent and CCP who, which I will remind you and everyone else reading this, were DIRECTLY responsible for the very censorship policies which caused you to bleed money in the first place, via the China Hero Project.
But of course, that was all according to plan, wasn't it, Mr. Motoda?
Quote from Marvelous President, Shuichi Motoda
Personally, I’m really looking forward to what lies ahead at Marvelous.
Personally, I’m really looking forward to justice being served for your treachery, one way or another.
Which brings us to the current state of affairs, with Tencent's and Marvelous' most unholy alliance finalized. Mission accomplished...
...Or is it?
According to several reports, the actual transaction of the sale of Marvelous shares to Tencent is not supposed to occur until sometime in June:
https://archive.is/DjaYo#selection-3741.144-3741.231
https://archive.is/M6ztw#selection-703.179-703.218
IF THIS IS TRUE, IT MAY NOT BE TOO LATE TO COMPELL MARVELOUS TO REVERSE THEIR DECISION.
We should have, at minimum, at least a couple of days to get the word out and mount enough external pressure against Marvelous to get them to bail on their deal with Tencent. But if we are going to have enough of an impact, action will have to be swift and organized. These are my following suggestions:
- Immediately start relaying this information to our own megaphones such as NicheGamer, OneAngryGamer, Bounding into Comics, RGE, appabend, Vara Dark, basically anyone who has spoken negatively about Sony's "China first" censorship policy. Cap or link this information, send it to them, and make sure to spread it around.
- Relay this information directly to the Japanese on sites like 2ch and 5ch. Get the Japanese Learning threads working on a summary that can be relayed to Japanese-speaking online communities. Get /animu/ and smuglo.li involved as well, since again, Marvelous works on anime, and Tencent infecting Marvelous is a way for Tencent to infect anime. Even though twitter's censorship is prevalent and makes it hard for us to spread our message, their algorithms probably aren't as refined when it comes to Japanese twitter. And Marvelous is certainly going to be a lot more likely to listen to the angry otaku that don't have to cross large bodies of water to come knocking on their doors. Much more-so if they're throwing them under the bus to sell out to the CCP.
- THE MEMES, JACK. Start dunking on Marvelous, Sony and Tencent HARD. The CCP really, really HATES IT when you meme on them. That should be obvious enough with how they've reacted to Winnie the Pooh, Honk Kong Mei, and others. So dial it up to 11. The Senrans themselves are already great meme material, so why not make them an anti-China symbol? With enough luck Marvelous might even be forced to sell the IP back to Takaki even if we fail to stop Tencent.
- Even though it's on the cringy side, a change.org petition might not be a bad idea. Back when Sony's censorship started there was a change.org petition against the censorship policy that managed to muster over 10k signatures, which was enough to garner a response (though it was ultimately hand-waved). With more concrete information and anti-CCP sentiment being the highest it's been in a long time I can realistically see a second attempt getting even better results, possibly good enough to exert meaningful pressure upon Marvelous.
- Raid the PS5 event! Soyny is still reeling from the TLoU2 leaks. They just announced a major event highlighting most of the details of the PS5 scheduled for June 3rd. If the information I've revealed here goes viral before this event takes place then it will drown out the hype and hurt their promotion. Back to back crises are absolutely disastrous PR-wise and we have ample opportunity to make lightning strike twice.
I would encourage anons to brainstorm and add throw any other good ideas they may have in the pot.
TL;DR & TIMELINE OF EVENTS
>Sony has been chasing Chinese funny money for a while, but for the first few years were not seeing the success they had hoped for because of CCP roadblocks.
>Sony addresses this by cultivating Chinese developers through the China Hero Project.
>China Hero Project is bankrolled by a shady group of financiers, "Whiz partners", and has CCP members involved, including Tencent via Epic Games.
>Meanwhile Shuichi Motoda, one of Marvelous' most influential members, is also getting involved with Tencent in a more direct manner.
>ChinaJoy showcase of China Hero Project is a success. Sony/CCP are confident enough to start implementing the censorship policy.
>Senran producer Kenichiro Takaki tries to reason with Motoda, is unsuccessful.
>Tencent starting to get more involved with Marvelous is the final straw for Takaki, ends up resigning in protest.
>Old Marvelous president steps down, Tencent cocksucker Shuichi Motoda takes his place.
>Tencent-approved Marvelous president complies with Tencent-approved Sony censorship policy, costing the company money.
>Tencent-approved Marvelous president's solution to the problem he also created is to sell a significant number of shares to Tencent like a good CCP asset.
>This will give Tencent much more influence over Senran and other Marvelous IPs, as well as a way to influence anime production, if not stopped. (And will happen VERY SOON.)
>You are here.
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