General Gaming Dispute between SEGA and Japanese talent agency over PC version of "Lost Judgment" may bring the series to an abrupt end, update: RIP in Peace, Judgment series

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Dispute over a PC version of Lost Judgement may see the series come to an abrupt end | PC Gamer

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Sega can't seem to reach an agreement with a Japanese celebrity's talent agency.

 

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Johnny's (the talent agency)  reportedly has strict policies regarding how images of its talent are distributed, which apparently extended to showing Kimura's likeness on PC. Sega, meanwhile, has been on a big PC push for some time, with the entire mainline Yakuza series (developed by Judgement developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) now available on Steam.

 

According to Japanese outlet Nikkan Taishu (via Kotaku), the publisher and the talent agency haven't been able to come to an agreement. If they can't come to one, it's not just hopes for Judgement on PC that die—it may mean an end to the series entirely.

 

[Brian]

[Bacon]

Sega could just disfigure his face IRL and then he wouldn't even share his likeness with himself! 

[Keyser_Soze]

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One wrinkle in the story is that the first Judgement was available on PC via Google Stadia. But considering how reluctant Johnny's has been to adopt the internet (previously refusing to even publish press images of its talent online), it's possible the agency simply wasn't aware of how Stadia worked.

 

Sounds like an old out of touch talent agency.

Like, these "images" are already on the PC.

[ThreePi]

I wonder if this is more about nude mods and weird things people would do with the models if they were stripped out of the PC version. I would be incredibly bummed if this were the case. I own the original Judgement on PS4 but didn't get very far before the performance started bothering me too much. Really would like these on PC.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

15 minutes ago, ThreePi said:

I wonder if this is more about nude mods and weird things people would do with the models if they were stripped out of the PC version.

 

This is absolutely one of the considerations.

 

This particular talent agency is incredibly protective of its clients to the point where they will have them cropped-out of online versions of magazine covers:

 

 

[XxEvil AshxX]

See, in Normal People World, those talent agencies would go out of business because nobody would bother with them. But Japan gonna Japan.

 

Even some of our own talent agencies here can be stupid. We've turned away a couple of ladies who wanted to work with us the second they gave us a talent agency card. We're small potatoes, I'm too busy jumping through my own hoops to have to jump through someone else's too.

[chakoo]

I read about this earlier. It's silly but Japan can be odd/backwards on things like this. I hope this doesn't lead to the ending of the series but if it does hopefully they can come up with another spinoff of the yakuza series that continues the action combat system of the old yakuza & judgment series.

[Keyser_Soze]

Also from what I've heard this talent agency is somewhat predatory towards their clients.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

52 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Also from what I've heard this talent agency is somewhat predatory towards their clients.

it’s always the ones you most suspect. 

[stepee]

Good timing to finally make a yakuza cinematic universe game staring a woman!

[Brian]

Seems like the Judgment series is done

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Just now, ManUtdRedDevils said:

Seems like the Judgment series is done

 

Oh wow!

[ThreePi]

Bummer. I had bought Judgement on PS4 but didn't get very far because the performance on a base PS4 was rough. But at the time I figured everything was coming to PC anyhow, so I'd just wait it out. But its a shame they're going to put an end to the series.