Censorship Explanation

[Ratsplat]

Can't say it's 100% true, but this was the 4chan explanation.

"CN resident here, I can explain how the age technicality works, even if it's retarded. The whole reason why the pre-rating skins are censored is not due to obscenity laws, but "dishonesty" advertising laws. It's a really vague piece of lawfare that's brought up very frequently here where if the image of something doesn't match an expectation, it can be invoked and an investigation launched. Because in this case, the image of these skins did not match the expectations of the age rating, they have to be censored or removed to some degree to adhere to the rating /at the time/ and it is not retroactive. So the image will now have to be updated to the new "honest" standard post-new rating or they stay removed. It actually had nothing to do with the lewdness itself which is why all the post-rating change stuff is OK but if they fail to muster to pre-standards, they have to go."

If this is true, then future censorship will likely not happen.

Edit: Adding something from Reddit.

Translation Summary:
Message: Regarding the censorship of 《Snowbreak Containmentzone》 on August 26th, as a consumer & player, I felt that my legitimate rights and interests are harmed. I would like to inquire on whether any relevant authorities have enforced a notice/report on this matter? Thanks.

Sichuan Provincial Economic and Information Department: Hello, after checking the game u mentioned under Seasun Games, the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party (中宣部) issued a notice in May 2024 this year towards Seasun Games on this matter.

TLDR: On May 2024, a big government authority issued a notice to Seasun Games regarding Snowbreak.

Private Speculation (TAKE WITH BIG GRAIN OF SALT):

Snowbreak changed their rating to 18+ in May after getting this notice and they thought that was enough for the censorship.

Three months after May, on August 26th, the government authority rechecked whether Seasun Games followed their notice or not and found out that they did not change/censor anything so they "warned" Seasun on this matter. Which in result caused the 26th August censorship.
This can be backed up by all the censored stuff are before 1.8 where 1.8 is on 30 May 2024 which I reckon why they(1.8-2.1) escaped the censorship.

[renanqi001]

Yeah the translation was obviously butchered here, and sounds a bit too optimistic. I still stand by the contents of my essay. This law is obtuse and strange, but it was used in the first place because the competitors of Snowbreak and woke 'feminists' keep reporting this game to the government. Again, such laws being applied to games at all is again, because of the censoring branch of the government.
Now, to clear up on the OP, it is true that such regulations exist, but again, saying that the censoring is solely due to this is too optimistic. It is not unimaginable that some ancient conservative, woke 'feminist' or a corrupt official who took money from other devs chose to 'censor' Snowbreak, within laws and regulations, this time for now. But ignoring all those people wishing only death upon this game because of this is just naive.
Another running theory is that the Google Play fiasco also played a role here, and I can't with good conscience deny that allegation. Google certainly blocked the new update due to 'obscenity', and that is much easier to prove.
Also, the post by one of the devs on social media hinted at competitors being overly jealous and trying to kill this game, so it is almost without a doubt that any censorship coming is caused by their constant reporting.
I recommend everyone again to wait for a month, when the PV for patch 2.2 comes out. If the new character starts dressing a lot more conservatively, then you should bail if you're here for fanservice; if not, we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

[Ratsplat]

From the sound of things, everything that came out after the actual game rating increment wasn't touched at all, while most 'lewd' things that came out before it are all getting hit.

Likely just a case of them skirting the rule, perhaps unintentionally, but due to the huge amount of reports and complaints, the government or whoever decided to take action to appease the rabid complainants.

I wrote elsewhere that everyone should wait and see what 2.2 looks like. Just play 2.1 like you normally would, buy a skin or two in the next few days if one is really to your liking before they're gone for good, then pray that 2.2 is so good that you forget that the game ever got censored.

Lots of goodwill is going to be needed at this point, which will hopefully be rolled into 2.2 to make it the best patch yet. In a perfect world, they would rerun Katya, every BP skin, all other skins for the 3 days, as well as put everything into a discounted bundle. Then to appease veterans, they refund Bitgold to the tune of the difference between full cost and the discount.

[renanqi001]

Originally posted by Ratsplat:

Lots of goodwill is going to be needed at this point, which will hopefully be rolled into 2.2 to make it the best patch yet. In a perfect world, they would rerun Katya, every BP skin, all other skins for the 3 days, as well as put everything into a discounted bundle. Then to appease veterans, they refund Bitgold to the tune of the difference between full cost and the discount.

Yeah sadly refunding Bitgold isn't really happening, since CN players pay for their skins directly with cash, not Bitgold, and if this is happening, it's happening for every player. There are also conspiracy theorists popping up already, claiming that this is just a scam by the devs since the affected skins aren't sold at a discount and the sale lasts for only three days, making them appear limited. I personally think that they are among those wishing to ruin this game in the first place, yet I can't disprove their statement as of yet.
I appreciate you getting the message out there with me. People shouldn't get their hopes up too much with optimism, but also should at least give Snowbreak a chance and see what 2.2 looks like. The fate of this game will be decided in a month's time.

[11142]

That made me unistall the game, thanks god i didn't spent money on it.

[Groen90]

Saw that post too, gotta say it's at least more believable than walls of text going on about the usual woke boogeyman, especially considering the "censored" outfits are apparently going to be even more revealing than the old ones. This whole thing strikes me as a big nothingburger blown way out of proportion by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Lavian]

Honestly, a bunch of the theories floating around sound like giant loads of cope, including this one.

Other games with high age ratings get hit with the censor stick in China on the regular, so the idea what Snowbreak would be safe from it with just a ratings change seems unlikely.

As to why some skins, like the recent ones, haven't been hit, there could be any number of reasons, and I'm not going to get into coming up with theories as to what those reasons may be. All I'll say is that, in my experience with other CN games that get censorship pushed on them, the things that do or don't get hit don't tend to be particularly consistent.


Otherwise, there's plenty of games that bank on sex appeal in the Google Play app store, so the idea that that's somehow the problem seems even more unlikely.

Casting aspersions at other devs also seems pretty irresponsible. There's been some fan bases that have proven to have pretty competitive and toxic elements, but pointing fingers, even vaguely, at other developers seems just like feeding the fire that is those toxic fans.

[REhorror]

Even China ain't safe...

[Quetzalcoatl]

Give an inch, they take a mile, they take a mile...

[renanqi001]

Originally posted by Lavian:

Casting aspersions at other devs also seems pretty irresponsible. There's been some fan bases that have proven to have pretty competitive and toxic elements, but pointing fingers, even vaguely, at other developers seems just like feeding the fire that is those toxic fans.

You know the game from which your avatar comes from was proven to have killed its competition by censoring itself? When a new Kanten Collection like came out (Dawnbreak is its name), Azur Lane censored the names of all German ship girls because that game also does so, and pretended that the other game reported them to have Azur Lane censored as well. That game was basically stoned to death on launch by angry fans. When people start to realise that this was all a show, it's already a bit too late, isn't it.
I don't know which paradise you live in, but it must be so socialist that you don't even have a concept of corporate sabotage? Never seen companies trying to drive each other out of business? Even if the devs of Snowbreak are as evil as you fantasize them to be, it would not be wrong to say that its competitors want it dead more than anything.

[Lavian]

Originally posted by renanqi001:

Originally posted by Lavian:

Casting aspersions at other devs also seems pretty irresponsible. There's been some fan bases that have proven to have pretty competitive and toxic elements, but pointing fingers, even vaguely, at other developers seems just like feeding the fire that is those toxic fans.

You know the game from which your avatar comes from was proven to have killed its competition by censoring itself? When a new Kanten Collection like came out (Dawnbreak is its name), Azur Lane censored the names of all German ship girls because that game also does so, and pretended that the other game reported them to have Azur Lane censored as well. That game was basically stoned to death on launch by angry fans. When people start to realise that this was all a show, it's already a bit too late, isn't it.
I don't know which paradise you live in, but it must be so socialist that you don't even have a concept of corporate sabotage? Never seen companies trying to drive each other out of business? Even if the devs of Snowbreak are as evil as you fantasize them to be, it would not be wrong to say that its competitors want it dead more than anything.

lul.

I'm not even going to dignify this conspiracy theory with a real response.

[Ratsplat]

Originally posted by renanqi001:

Originally posted by Ratsplat:

Lots of goodwill is going to be needed at this point, which will hopefully be rolled into 2.2 to make it the best patch yet. In a perfect world, they would rerun Katya, every BP skin, all other skins for the 3 days, as well as put everything into a discounted bundle. Then to appease veterans, they refund Bitgold to the tune of the difference between full cost and the discount.

Yeah sadly refunding Bitgold isn't really happening, since CN players pay for their skins directly with cash, not Bitgold, and if this is happening, it's happening for every player. There are also conspiracy theorists popping up already, claiming that this is just a scam by the devs since the affected skins aren't sold at a discount and the sale lasts for only three days, making them appear limited. I personally think that they are among those wishing to ruin this game in the first place, yet I can't disprove their statement as of yet.
I appreciate you getting the message out there with me. People shouldn't get their hopes up too much with optimism, but also should at least give Snowbreak a chance and see what 2.2 looks like. The fate of this game will be decided in a month's time.

Yeah, I guess in that case... all they could do is give an equivalent amount in Digicash instead. But then they wouldn't be able to buy any skins with BitGold, just monthly pass cubes and battlepasses. I'm sure if they really wanted to they could probably figure something out, but the skins have already released at max price so I doubt much will change now.

[Elrodeus]

This is good news if true.

[Kurikuo]

Compensation is on the way with a fancy character selection box.

"The compensation will be sent to all players who has made a purchase in one of the following categories before 10:AM on August 30 (UTC+8):

Any limited-time outfit in the paid shop (includes outfit bundles, but not standalone weapon skin purchases and likely not the first-time-top-up bonus outfit Fenny - Lionheart: Delusional Starlet)
Any outfit in the Choice Products shop:
Yao - Quiet Quitter: Enduring Valor
Fenny - Lionheart: Indomitable Charm
Fritia - Little Sunshine: Unfading Glow
Acacia - Redacted: Unbeatable Rank
The Ultimate tier of any previous battlepass (the tier that includes the battlepass outfit)
Qualifying players will receive a selector that can be redeemed for 60 Manifestation Fragments (enough to unlock a character) of any of the following operatives:

Lyfe - Wild Hunt
Fenny - Coronet
Fritia - Hush
Yao - Winter Solstice
Marian - Swift
Acacia - Kaguya
Chenxing - Ethereal Cloud
Haru - Absconditus
Mauxir - Shadow Ka
Tess - The Magician
Katya - Blue Bolt
This selector is expected to be distributed between August 30 to September 26, UTC+8."

[Furia]

the compensation should scale up to the $$$ spent.

why? to show that this is a not an incident or FOMO cash grab that will happen on a regular basis in the future.

[Melchiah]

I still don't get it.

Someone mentioned in another post that this was because of radical feminist groups on china or something, while what I gather from here is that it was just an advertising mistake of sorts, but none of these explain why the censorship.

If it was due feminists, there's costumes that should be way more aggravating than the ones listed, and if it was due advertising well... can't they just provide the thing they advertised and these they are removing as a later alternative added to them?