It can be “just business” and still be censorship. In fact there’s a term for that: Corporate Censorship. In fact there are a whole host of activities which can be “economic decisions” which are nonetheless morally and ethically repugnant. The fact that a profit motive drove someone to do something does not in itself…

Is a wider audience really relevant to a niche horror game that no one under a certain age should be buying anyway?

Yeah that wider audience that is going to buy an Eshop only, M-rated, Eastern horror game with no marketing at all.

out of place? Its not your call, if you dont like the anime aesthetic than dont play it. This has a specific audience and having a lingerie be a hard completion bonus has always been a thing. I dont know WHY people are getting upset over all the japanese ports when witcher 3 just has upfront nudity and sex in it... i…

Everything you’re saying is valid and I agree, except it is still censorship. It’s self censorship that’s brought on by fear of upsetting some people or losing a few sales. The very definition of censorship is the removal/suppression of what is deemed unacceptable. That is what has happened here.

Still hate censorship. And I wish more companies has XSeed’s mentality. In a recent interview, this is what Ken Berry, VP of XSeed, have to say about censorship (and it’s not only him, quite a few representative from XSeed has made stands against censorship in the past):

You could have 100 arguments for Smash 4, and it still wouldn’t matter - this isn’t determined by what the games offer on paper. The community ultimately decides what they want to see. If Smash 64 tournaments had the biggest sign-ups and drew the biggest audience, then it’d be Smash 64 that was still the dominant game…

Because tournaments won’t agree to set that as a standard. In general Sm4sh is an acceptable and fun game until you get to high-level play.