Sega cutting Hostess Clubs from EU/US Yakuza 3

Yakuza 3 No Hostess Bars
Picture uploaded by Abriael

There are times in which you wonder how people manage to line up an unparalleled chain of blunders on the same product or franchise. This is one of such times.

Today Sega managed to put the final icing on the cake of blunders, clumsy translations, excessively late release dates and silly excuses that characterized the Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza) saga in the west.

They're going to release the game without english voice acting (that for many may be a blessing, mind you, but still it doesn't help giving the game any kind of mass appeal).
They're releasing the game with no marketing and promotion to speak of.
They are going to release the game more than a year after it's release in Japan, and only one week before the japanese release of it's sequel, managing, in the meanwhile, to nail exactly the same release date of Final Fantasy XIII, that will of course completely obliterate Yakuza 3 visibility-wise.

Could that be enough for the marketing geniuses that Sega happened to find in a random pack of potato chips? Not really.
In a recent interview with IGN (also reported by Kotaku), an unnamed "Sega Representative" said that certain elements that are peculiar of the Japanese culture wouldn't "resonate" (uh?!) with the western audience and as such they have been arbitrarily removed.
Two elements that were named were a quiz on Japanese history and the popular (in Japan) hostess clubs, in which businessmen and salarymen (and Yakuza) go to drink and socialize, while entertained by paid hostesses. Mind you, such hostessess in most cases aren't prostitutes, they just drink with the customers and chat with them.

So not only the game will be released in an absolutely reckless release window, with an half assed localization and no promotion at all. It'll also be cut and neutered, in order to appease to the (according to Sega, apparently) dumb westerner, that obviously would risk a seizure if faced with such outrageous elements of the Japanese culture.
After all, they're buying a game about Japan's underground, why would they want to experience the Japanese culture? Maybe they should rename the game Mafia 3, redesign Tokyo as New York and give Kazuma (pardon, Jack) a Tommy Gun and a pinstriped suit.

Sega of America isn't new to this kind of borderline idiotic statements.
Remember when their ex president Simon Jeffery drooled something like: "Much of the product that comes out of Japan isn't really suitable or appropriate culturally for the Western market," Jeffery notes, "and Sega has become the first of the Japanese gaming companies to recognize that the global market has various tastes and isn't necessarily just one great big Japanese market."
It was back in 2008, and I already talked about it in this article. In the meanwhile Jeffery has been (thank goodness) sacked, but looks like his omnious and damaging ideas still hold ground between Sega's marketing team.

The most funny part is that it's possible that the cuts have been done for timing reasons "in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so". Yes, I'm sure everyone at Sega is absolutely eager to publish the game exactly the the same day as Final Fantasy XIII. I can only imagine how disastrous it'd be for sega if such an absolutely convenient release date was missed.

To be honest, such an enormous amount of consecutive blunders definitely smells fishy. I'm almost led to believe that someone at Sega of America/Europe has an hidden agenda in order to persuade the higher-ups of Sega of Japan that strong Japanese-flavored games don't sell in the west.
If you think about it, every single marketing decision taken on Yakuza 3 and it's publishing in the west, seems to purposedly aimed to sink the game. No promotion? Check. Half assed localization? Check. Release in an overcrowded timeframe and simultaneous with one of the strongest titles of this generation? Check. Fanbase-alienating cuts? Check.

Coincidence?

At the very least, if they're so concerned about the "resonance" between hostess bars and japanese history and the western audience, they could offer such elements as DLC (free or very cheap, please, given that it'd be just giving gamers content that should already be included in the original game). After all it's not that such an action would require that much effort given that the game isn't even voiced in english.

Finally, it all boils down to a very simple concept. It's 2010, Sega sunshines. We live in a globalized world. It's not acceptable, nowadays, to see part of a culture cut out of a game because (according to an absolutely clueless publisher) it would not "resonate" with the local fanbase.

Yakuza 1 and 2 didn't sell much in the west for similar reasons, as I already explained long ago in this article. It's obvious that similar (or worse, at least Yakuza 1 and 2 weren't cut) conditions will bring to similar results.
My dear people at Sega of America/Europe: If Yakuza 3 won't sell well don't blame the Japanse culture of it's flavor. Don't blame the allegedly refractary western audience (so refractary to the Japanese culture that they absorbe Anime and Manga like hungry sponges).
Blame yourself and your borderline idiotic marketing theories, that hold absolutely no ground in reality. Your lack of contact with your customerbase is so dire, that i'd be surprised if you managed to sell a single toaster by visiting people door-to-door.

With all due respect, of course.

To conclude, I'd like to write an appeal to Atlus USA. Please, pretty please. Go knock on Sega's door and tell them that you'll take care of Yakuza 4 in the west for them. Pull another Demon's Souls out of your hat. With today's news I came to the dire realization that the Ryu Ga Gotoku series won't ever reach mainstream success in the west until it rids itself of Sega.
Sad but true.

Update: a new post on the Sega official blog "explains" why the cuts have been made. It says that "the choice that had to be made was either no Yakuza 3 in the west, or a version of the game that was almost exactly the same, but with a little less trivia."
They say they want to be "upfront", but they don't really explain why hostess clubs would be considered a deal breaker. It sure isn't a matter of ratings, considering that strip clubs and similar titillating environments have been kept into the game. The game is rated M for Mature after all. To get a worse rating than that, it'd require graphical sex and full frontal nudity, elements that are not included in the hostess club scenes. Mind you, the hostess club scenes do not include any sexual element.
So I'm sorry Sega, you haven't been upfront. You explained nothing, and honetsly, in 2010, I doubt there would be any logical explanation to cut from a game some elements just because they happen to portray a different and foreign culture.
A shame.

Update2: a Sega representative updated Kotaku, telling that the cuts have been done because of a "tight schedule". Excuse me? You release a game more than one year after the original Japanese, without even dubbing it, and you want us to believe you had a "tight schedule?".
Was releasing the game exactly the same day as another game that will completely overshadow it (Final Fantasy XIII) so important according to your schedule, Sega?
Paint me amused...