Judgment
Judgment could end with the second chapter, which will not arrive on PC, due to a strange problem in which Sega is in the running due to the agency that takes care of the image rights of the actor who plays the protagonist of the series.This is not official news yet, but this is what is reported by the Japanese site Nikkan Taishu, quite well known at home as regards the local showbiz. It seems that the agency "Johnny's", which takes care of the interests and image rights of the actor Takuya Kimura, has prevented Sega from bringing Judgment and the new Lost Judgment to PC.
The motivation, however, is rather strange, although it is possible that it is also a translation or interpretation error from the article in Japanese: based on what has been found, it seems that the Kimura agency, historically very protective as regards image rights, does not want them features of the actor may appear in a PC game, since it is a hardware connected to the internet and therefore less controllable in terms of content distribution.
In fact, the same company is so attentive to these aspects that it obscures , often, the photos of models and actors who are part of your booklet from the previews of the covers of online magazines, just to give an idea of the level to which it can reach.
Finding us in 2021, the question seems rather strange, a even because it is not that the consoles are not connected to the internet, but it could make sense as regards any phenomena of piracy or modification of the contents through mods. In any case, it is a very incomprehensible motivation and could also cause the end of the Judgment series.
It seems that Sega, wanting to focus particularly on the PC market, has assessed the impossibility of converting the game on this platform to be unprofitable, thus deciding not to continue beyond the second chapter. The first chapter of Judgment hit one million copies recently, while its follow-up, Lost Judgment, is back with a new trailer from the July 2021 State of Play.
Source Did you notice any errors?
Report: Judgment Series Is Ending Over PC Version Disagreement
© Screenshot: Sega Takuya Kimura stars in Sega’s Judgment series.Sega scored a big coup by signing up Takuya Kimura, one of Japan’s biggest celebrities, to star in its Judgment games. With Kimura comes bonafide star credentials, and of course talent agency power. That last point, according to one report, could be the budding franchise’s downfall.
According to weekly publication Nikkan Taishu, a Japanese entertainment insider is quoted as saying that the upcoming Lost Judgment will be the last entry in the series. “Because,” the insider explains, “those on the side of the game developer and those on the side of [Kimura’s talent agency] Johnny’s are said to have been unable to reach an agreement regarding the platforms to sell the game.”
Kotaku reached out to Sega for comment but did not hear back prior to publication.
Judgment was originally released on the PlayStation 4, but a remastered version came out on PlayStation 5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X/S. Lost Judgment will be released this fall on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.
However, this past spring, when the game was announced, the Japanese website listed Windows 10 and Steam. Yakuza fan site Tojo Dojo points out that even after the listings were removed, the website code still showed a Steam logo—something Twitter’s Wario64 also noticed.
“The game is being announced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One,” a Sega spokesperson later told PC Gamer. “Sega has no plans to bring Lost Judgment to PC at this time.”
According to Nikkan Taishu, Kimura’s talent agency will not okay the release of the game on PC, which might seem odd because the previous game was released on Stadia (but, to be honest, it’s unclear if the agency fully understood the platform). The issue appears to be a proper PC release and how that would impact the talent agency’s management of Kimura’s likeness and a general dislike of a PC-based platform.
The point of contention, as explained on Nikkan Taishu, is that Sega apparently sees the PC as vital from a business point of view. For Johnny’s, which still hasn’t quite fully embraced the internet like others in the music business, releasing a game directly online through a PC platform could be problematic for their business model. Because of this apparent disagreement, Nikkan Taishu reports that Lost Judgment is said to be the last in the series. (If so, I do wonder if the franchise will continue with another big star attached to a more amiable talent agency.)
Some background: Johnny’s is responsible for Japan’s biggest boy bands and has traditionally been internet shy. As Music Times explains, “Johnny & Associates had, in the past, refused to allow photos of its talents from press conferences to be published online and has since kept all of its artists from using social media.” Johnny’s didn’t open a YouTube channel until 2018!
The control that Johnny’s has over the likenesses of its artists has meant power. By allowing Takuya Kimura, one of the agency’s most famous stars, to appear in a game released on an open platform like PC, the agency might think it’s giving that up. Thus, this could explain why Johnny’s is rumored to be against a possible PC version.
Kimura was previously in a boy band called Smap, which imploded after three of the group’s members left Johnny’s in 2017. Another former member, Masahiro Nakai, left Johnny’s last year, and Kimura is now the only ex-Smap member still belonging to the powerful boy band agency.
The source tells Nikkan Taishu that Kimura, who is said to be quite the gamer, really got into the role of Judgment’s Takayuki Yagami and very much wants the series to continue. Because Kimura is such a huge star in Japan, he has operated under slightly different rules from other talent in the agency, including, most famously, his marriage and kids were not a secret.
If the talent agency is, in fact, preventing this all from happening, hopefully Kimura can help bring about a compromise that ensures more future Judgment games.