Earlier this month, we relayed word of a PS4 and PS5 game being censored by PlayStation. Dubbed Martha Is Dead, not many had heard about the upcoming game, but when word of censorship started to make the rounds, it was suddenly on the radar of many. The game is out now not just on PS4 and PS5, but PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X. It’s only been censored on PS4 and PS5 though. At the time, we didn’t know what scenes specifically were being censored, but now we do. According to developer LKA, the censorship is aimed at both violent and sexual content.
One of the scenes in question involves peeling the face off a character’s face. Yes, this is as grisly as it sounds. Another scene is even more disturbing and involves cutting open a woman’s womb and removing the fetus. Both of these scenes caught the eye of PlayStation, and both had to be tweaked at the request of PlayStation. The scenes are still in the game, but they are no longer interactive. Meanwhile, for those who aren’t interested in grotesque scenes like this, LKA has implemented a mode that censors all content of the sensitive variety.ย
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These violent scenes aren’t the only scenes that caught the eye of PlayStation though. Some of the game’s sexual content also has been the subject content. And unlike the violent content, which was just tweaked, some of this sexual content has simply been removed wholesale. For example, all references to masturbation have been removed from the game.ย
“These [psychiatric hospitals] were places where patients were compulsorily admitted and where they often spent their entire lives. They were total institutions, like prisons, restricting every facet of a person’s life and, as such, masturbation was one of the few things patients were able to do,” said LKA of this specific contentย “In terms of this specific scene in Martha is Dead, the player walks in a field dotted with huge crosses with mask-wearing dolls hanging from them. A voice-over narrates the experience of living in an asylum, commenting that ‘there was this one young woman who would pleasure herself all day long… incessantly, to the point where she would bleed. It’s important to note this is a very dramatic moment in which the suffering of the forgotten is recounted. Unfortunately, part of this speech will not be present in the PlayStation version of the game.”
As you would expect, PlayStation has not commented on the situation in any capacity. We don’t expect this to change given PlayStation’s history of silence on situations of this ilk, but if it does change, we will be sure to update the story accordingly. In the meantime, and as always, feel free to share your thoughts and hot-takes in the comments section or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. What do you think of PlayStation censoring this content?
