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    Summer Lesson

    Game » consists of 1 releases. Released Oct 13, 2016

    A virtual tutor game for PlayStation VR developed on the Unreal Engine 4 by the Tekken Team.

    E3 2016 - Summer Lesson launches in October in Japan

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    DarkbeatDK

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    #1  Edited By DarkbeatDK

    Project Summer Lesson has had it's name set in stone and been announced for an October release in Japan (presumably a launch title for PlayStation VR).

    The game also has it's own (rather barebones for now) website.

    I guess we'll have to see if it will show up in Namco Bandai's booth for E3.

    VR is coming!
    VR is coming!

    This news broke as part of a PlayStation Japan video message about PlayStation VR, which can be seen below. Included is also some footage from some of the other VR multiplatform games that aren't a complete nightmare on the PC... I suppose that's the benefit of the indies on PlayStation. It's acts as sort of a quality filter.

    Apart from Summer Lesson, there is also Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X (which will get a free update titled VR Future Live) and Cyber Danganronpa VR.

    There's also something Godzilla related, but I'm not sure what that is.

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    DarkbeatDK

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    UPDATE

    There are currently no plans of bringing Summer Lesson to the West, according to this article on Siliconera.

    “It’s difficult because lip syncing to do this properly for each language would be a lot of work. You really need this to be perfect to have immersion in gameplay,” Harada told Siliconera. “To do that for all of the languages would be quite intense with the scenarios themselves because the length would change with each language. That makes it quite difficult to localize.

    He continued, “Also when you think about the current game situation and the climate in different countries where you have to have characters from every different race or nationality, someone else would say ‘mine is not included,’ which is the climate we currently see with games. Since there are people who can’t set aside the game and the actual problems in society, I don’t want open that can of worms.”

    However, Harada added, “But, if there is a particular region with enthusiastic fans who say we ‘want Summer Lesson’ that does make it more possible. That was the case in Japan. It wasn’t scheduled to be an actual product, but there are so many fans who asked for it to be released as a game, and it actually happened.”

    Bummer news, but not completely unexpected. The problem of Western influence in gaming and the fear of backlash is real, but that's just the state of the current climate. A few years ago we were all playing the same games, but now we have all sorts of different experiences that go in so many different directions. Unfortunately, a vocal minority is currently preaching diversity and tolerance, while not practicing it, but this is hopefully just a phase.

    Music probably had the same problem at some point where vocal minorities called for banning of this and that, because it didn't fit their sensibilities, but these days most normal people can respect and tolerate that different genres exist. When someone writes an article about how "Rap music is bad and should be banned", nobody really takes them as seriously as the people who does the same about video games.

    For fans of eroge, I have no doubt in my mind that PlayStation VR will end up being the next PlayStation Vita, in that regard. As it stand right now, the most successful things in VR are still horror games and pornography (SFW link to Dan's twitter) and considering how big not-really-pornography-but-still-kinda is in Japanese gaming, I think it's gonna blow up on PlayStation VR, with a subset of those games getting localized by Inti Creates, Xseed and Marvelous.

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    Sherlock22

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    #3  Edited By Sherlock22

    Bummer, I really wish they would just do the work for an english translation and sell it in the territories where that makes sense. I don't really blame them for holding it back though, since i imagine that they would not only have difficulty turning a huge profit on the game, they would also have to deal with the inevitable backlash and articles shaming the product. I doubt it would ever happen but maybe PSVR will miraculously make it big and cause them to release the game in the west.

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    selfconfessedcynic

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    No western release makes sense but it's still a bummer.

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    Yummylee

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    I respect your dedication to being the one person on this site dedicated to keeping us all up to date with what's going with this thing.

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    DarkbeatDK

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    @yummylee said:

    I respect your dedication to being the one person on this site dedicated to keeping us all up to date with what's going with this thing.

    It's so dumb. How can I not? :D

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    SpaceInsomniac

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    #7  Edited By SpaceInsomniac

    @darkbeatdk said:

    UPDATE

    There are currently no plans of bringing Summer Lesson to the West, according to this article on Siliconera.

    Bummer news, but not completely unexpected. The problem of Western influence in gaming and the fear of backlash is real, but that's just the state of the current climate. A few years ago we were all playing the same games, but now we have all sorts of different experiences that go in so many different directions. Unfortunately, a vocal minority is currently preaching diversity and tolerance, while not practicing it, but this is hopefully just a phase.

    Music probably had the same problem at some point where vocal minorities called for banning of this and that, because it didn't fit their sensibilities, but these days most normal people can respect and tolerate that different genres exist. When someone writes an article about how "Rap music is bad and should be banned", nobody really takes them as seriously as the people who does the same about video games.

    Hypocrisy in the realm of social politics? You don't say?

    Remember "it's only censorship if the government does it" and "changing content for a different region isn't censorship, it's localization"?

    Someone might want to tell that to Polygon.

    With that said, as much as I believe that people should be free to play the games that they want, there's a logical part of me that realizes it could be a huge mistake for Sony to allow sexualized games on the PS VR in the US, at least at first. Like any new form of media or recreational activity, the mainstream media is going to try to sell fear, and tell you how this will be the downfall of human society.

    It happened to video games, movies, television, rap music, rock and roll, and comic books. It even happened to Chess and bicycles, for crying out loud!

    Now people on PC are going to do whatever, and I think most people realize that. I think people realize that if they buy little Timmy a PC, it's kind of on them if he decides to look at adult websites. People don't generally blame the internet or their computer for that. But Sony offers a closed platform, and it would only take one person to walk in on their teenage child during an "awkward moment" with a PSVR unit strapped to their head. At that point, the media would demonize Sony in a way that hasn't been seen since Night Trap.

    Remember Night Trap?

    Loading Video...

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    Itwastuesday

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    #8  Edited By Itwastuesday

    i think they probably dont want to release it in the west because they think not enough people would buy it to justify the cost of localizing it. and they're probably right

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    deepcovergecko

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    #9  Edited By deepcovergecko

    It's sad fear of backlash is a factor in releasing such games. I'm not interested in Summer Lesson but if I found it offensive or creepy, I would ignore it, I wouldn't join or start a campaign against the creators.

    You can easily ignore things you don't like, I wish more people would realise this. There are people upset that God of War is now a 'bad parent simulator'.

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    DarkbeatDK

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    @fredddi43: Oh rad. Sounds like something worth snatching up then. It's probably not that tricky to figure out if it's just a VR experience.

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    golguin

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    #13  Edited By golguin

    @dijon said:

    i think they probably dont want to release it in the west because they think not enough people would buy it to justify the cost of localizing it. and they're probably right

    I want to play it in VR. A large number of people want to play it. They simply don't want the controversy. It's that simple.

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    JesusHammer

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    @dijon: If Senran Kagura and the ridiculous amount of VNs coming out here are selling well enough to justify their cost I'm betting this would do fine. They'd just rather not see their games get dogpiled on and their twitter accounts overrun with people that don't like the game.

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    dagas

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    We cannot have a game like this but we have tons of VR porn already. Double standards.

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    SpaceInsomniac

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    @dagas said:

    We cannot have a game like this but we have tons of VR porn already. Double standards.

    I'm not sure how that should be considered a double standard, considering that Sony isn't supplying any of that VR porn.

    I don't think this is exactly a porn game, though. I don't know anything about this, so exactly how "adult" does this get? @darkbeatdk: I'm sure you know more than I do about this topic. Care to explain and give those who don't know an idea of this game's content?

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    DarkbeatDK

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    @spaceinsomniac@dagas: Well, it was really just a tech-demo by Team Tekken, as they tried to learn how to use VR to create an experience that will move the player in a certain way. It's really no different than all the horror games in VR, but rather than trying to scare the player, this is trying to make the player fall in love.

    Now, this sounds super weird to us, because we don't really have anything to directly compare it to in western games. The closest thing we have is probably something like Bioware's games. I mean, people don't fall for Garrus in Mass Effect because they find his weird lobster face sexy, but because they spend so much time with him and grow to love his character and personality. While you end up in bed with him in the game, it's not something overtly pornographic and that is exactly what this weird japanese genre of visual novel/dating sims are all about, which you can find for both men and women.

    They are games intended to tug at the players heartstrings, not at their junk, and some of them have even done it so successfully that a Japanese man ended up marrying a game character.

    Loading Video...

    Since it's such a foreign concept in Western games, I think a lot of the pushback you see in the media comes from people who either assume that it's porn or think that ogling some virtual boobs up close will cause people to go out and do that in the real world. They are a lot like our parents who didn't want us playing Mortal Kombat, in case we would go out and try to do Animalities in real life, aka. a bunch of LAME-O's.

    Summer Lesson is not a pornographic experience, but about the feeling of being next to a beautiful girl and experiencing a different form of presence and that's what I find so fascinating about this product, because nobody else seem to be utilizing VR like this, yet.

    The public demo they showed off ended with Harada coming out and throwing you into a volcano (or a pit, but I'd like to imagine that it leads to a volcano). I assume that the retail product will go further and have more options, but it's probably no more sexual than maxing out an Arcana rank with one of the girls in Persona 4.

    Loading Video...

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    Jesus_Phish

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    SpaceInsomniac

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    #20  Edited By SpaceInsomniac

    @darkbeatdk:

    Thanks for the explanation. It sounds even milder than I thought.

    @jesus_phish said:

    @spaceinsomniac: Forget Night Trap, remember Mass Effect?

    I remember Fox News saying things about that game that sound a LOT like the left-leaning game critics of today. So yes, I certainly do remember.

    To quote Fox News: "And here's how they're seeing women, they're seeing them as these objects of desire, as these hot bodies. They don't show women being valued for anything other than their sexuality." Sound familiar? Remember when such a claim was instantly rebuked by the entirety of the gaming press?

    Speaking of Mass Effect, perhaps they should just add some shooting to Summer Lesson to make it more palatable for a western audience. If games like Mass Effect or The Witcher are any indication, apparently having relationships and romance in our video games is fine, as long as there's a lot of killing to go along with it.

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    DarkbeatDK

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    #21  Edited By DarkbeatDK

    Pre-orders opened up in Japan and according to this Famitsu article (and google translate), a quick poll in the cue for Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara showed that Summer Lesson was the most anticipated game.

    No Caption Provided

    Granted, that was in Akihabara, the home of maid cafés and general otaku culture, so maybe take the general popularity of Summer Lesson with a grain of salt.

    Anyway, PlayStation VR online pre-orders sold out in seconds and cues at physical locations were huge, so there's definitely hype for VR in Japan. Looking at the announced list of VR stuff, there's not a ton of inherently Japanese stuff, so maybe it will face the same beginning problems as PlayStation 4? If this whole VR business doesn't take off, I'm still betting that PSVR end up becoming the next Vita, when it comes to those kinds of games.

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