Sony tries to pull Beyond nude shower scene reports
PS3 maker asking sites to unpublish stories about hidden debug option in Quantic Dream's latest
David Cage has been vocal about trying to push the envelope of emotional storytelling in games, but the Quantic Dream developer's latest work may be pushing a different sort of envelope. As reported by Kotaku, a Reddit poster claimed to have discovered a debug menu in Beyond: Two Souls that allows users to choose alternate camera angles, including one for the game's shower scene that reveals a detailed nude version of the game's main character, who was based on Ellen Page.
That doesn't sit well with Sony, which has asked multiple sites to pull down their coverage of the incident. Cinema Blend reportedly received a pulldown request from Sony Computer Entertainment America, while Eskimo Press received a similar message from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
As a representative explained to Cinema Blend, "The images are from an illegally hacked console and is very damaging for Ellen Page. It's not actually her body. I would really appreciate if you can take the story down to end the cycle of discussion around this."
While the game's overt nudity isn't accessible through the course of normal gameplay, such distinctions haven't meant much to the Entertainment Software Rating Board ever since the hidden "Hot Coffee" sex minigame in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was discovered by hackers in 2005. That was enough reason for the ESRB to rescind the game's M for Mature rating and assign it an AO for Adults Only, prompting Take-Two to stop selling that version of the game. At the time, Take-Two trimmed its full-year sales forecast by more than $1.25 billion, attributing the hit specifically to the game's re-rating.
Take-Two ran afoul of the ESRB again the next year with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. When a third-party PC mod for the original game allowed users to play with topless women using art assets already in the code, the ESRB bumped that game's rating from a T for Teen to an M for Mature . The ESRB said that re-rating was made partly because of that nude skin, and partly because the title was more violent than it had originally considered. Take-Two insisted that it had made a full disclosure of the objectionable violent content in the game during the ratings process.
In both the San Andreas and Oblivion situations, the BBFC (whose game ratings have since been replaced by PEGI) stood by its original ratings of the game. Currently, Beyond: Two Souls carries a PEGI 16 rating, and an ESRB M for Mature rating. GamesIndustry International has reached out to Sony, the ESRB, and PEGI regarding the issue.
The real problem here are rating agencies re-rating games based on 3rd party involvement and the liability this poses to multi million dollar productions. Somebody hacks your game, changes it and suddenly you're responsible. Ridiculous.
Im guessing it went something like this "Shall I texture the nipples?" "Might as well just incase we have a nude scene" or there was a nude scene and it got canned.
It's likely that instead of actually "texturing" anything on they just left most of the scan the same. Konami is using a similar technique with the Fox Engine for the upcoming Metal Gear game, where instead of texturing/modeling many of the actors they're just directly scanning in a lot of the props/assets.
Then somebody please give me some light here: Why is it damaging then?
Imagine someone recorded your speech and them put it online but reordered each word so that it seems you said something you actually didn't.
And now I am commenting on it. I hate myself.
The part of it not actually being her body sounds more like a legal excuse. I'm pretty sure they did a full body scan, so it is, for all intents and purposes, her body. She may have been wearing underwear or some other concealer, but it's not like they scanned someone else's body and propped her head on it. It wouldn't make sense since they need her exact proportions and measurements to have a good result of the mocap/performance capturing.
According to "Mass Media Law", by Don R. Pember, privacy is the expectation that confidential personal information disclosed in a private place will not be disclosed to third parties when that disclosure would cause either embarrassment or emotional distress to a person of reasonable sensitivities. Information is interpreted broadly to include facts, images, photographs, videotapes, and disparaging opinions.
Sony should have made bloody sure there was nothing like that left in the game.
Plus the odds are fairly good, this being the age of the internet and all, that people are going to be seriously... There is no word I can use that isn't a profanity here. And profanity doesn't cover it.
And since Sony Pictures Entertainment, like all Hollywood studios uses body and stunt doubles in practically all productions, I don't understand the claim from Sony that this is very damaging for Ellen Page because it's not actually her body.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by David Serrano on 23rd October 2013 5:38pm
Wow, they sure capture quite a few points to recreate detailed facial expressions these days.
This is just the start. Wait until technology improves, you'll get much more controversial celebrity model 'hacks', and they will make them do and say anything - to the point you can't really tell if it is computer generated or not. Although it may come in handy for celebs to create fake alibis.
@ Bonnie: I don't think there's much Sony could have done about this - there is no way QA can spot things like that. It took a while to surface up, and it's not entirely unlikely the debug menu accessibility leaked from the source in the first place. This is all on Quantic Dream - their programmers shouldn't have left a debug menu in the game (to avoid any troubles), and, quite obviously, their art department shouldn't have let something like this sneak into the game in the first place. Scan or not (and I *know* many people [would] draw the nipples just for fun), it only takes 10 seconds to fudge a texture. No excuses.
@ Emily: As for covering the story, I for one am glad this gets covered here. We are all adults and, while I don't read any kotaku or reddit, I do want to know what's going on in the industry. It's unfortunate that this affects Ms. Page, but the monster is out anyway.
@ Philip: I like your sentiment about agencies re-rating games based on illegal modifications to a game, but this is clearly Quantic Dream's fault - the content shouldn't be there. Period. Since it's there, it gotta be rated.
Good point. But it's as easy as saying "it's a virtual body, not a real one" Anyway I'm sure Ellen Page did read the script of the game when she agreed? she knew there would be a shower scene. (Although they provably told her "no nudity here, no worry")
The question still remains: if the didn't want to show nudity why did they add nipples in the body textures? this is what it is about after all... (reminds me the issue with oblivion.
I personally don't see the big problem: she is an actress and she is acting. What worries me is that, as always, sex seems to be more terrible and taboo than violence. A naked scene is damaging for her, but (SPOILER STARTS) impaling a guy's neck with a stake is not? (SPOILER ENDS)
It's just acting...
The actors performances in Heavenly Sword really elevated the experience. I hope stories like this won't discourage actors.