>>1011843
>>1011888
Thanks to a friend over on PLW, got my answer:
>Although some consumers expected the porting of sexually explicit adult games (eroge) later on, the release of games classified as "X-designated" games was no longer permitted from around 1996.
>Since then, only "age-restricted (recommended age 18 or older, ie yellow label)" games have been allowed to be released in a manner that suppresses violence and sexual expression.
Looking further into this, here's another page that repeats much of the same, but adds a couple of details:
https://archive.md/CAn7y
<SS's game software system is slightly different from today's game classification, the most special is the X designation (equivalent to today's CERO Z classification), which is very rare for home consoles, but the X designation does have some game content that exceeds the limits of home consoles, such as the degree of nudity, etc. However, this classification was canceled in '96 because of a certain incident, and was changed to the "18+ Prize" classification (equivalent to today's CERO D classification). However, due to an incident in 1996, this classification was canceled and replaced by the "18+ Promotion Award" classification system (equivalent to the current CERO D classification), and basically there has not been such a more open classification system for home consoles since then.
Which then led to further searching:
https://archive.md/csjT1
<It was in the spring of 1996 that the "X-Designated" titles flourished. The "X" rating refers to the highest age group in Sega's original rating system, and refers to games for players 18 years of age and older. The Sega Saturn, which opened the door to games for adults, made it possible to port PC adult games, which had previously been considered impossible to port to home video game software.
<Elf, which was particularly popular on the PC at the time, entered the market and released "Nonomura Hospitals". Other adult-oriented games such as "Kyankyan Bunny Premiere" and "Bishojo Jakushi Suchie Pai II" were also released one after another.
<However, the hardware prices had come down, and the market was in a period of expansion for the light and younger age groups. As a result, the fact that adult games could be played made the Sega Saturn stand out from the crowd. As a result, in the fall, Sega made the painful decision to abolish the "X-designation" and restrict the adult-oriented genre.
But it looks like, despite the censorship, games having "Hard R" content still sold the console to Japan as "Romance games" didn't exist on the PS1:
https://archive.md/0cdgy
<However, more present than them in the specialized magazines were the adult adventure games "EVE burst error" and "Lower Class". With the abolition of the "X" rating last fall, the sexual elements were greatly reduced, but these titles attracted attention because they were games that tended not to be released on PlayStation in any case.
<Both games had interesting scenarios, and "EVE" in particular was so well received that it was ranked number one in the final readers' popularity ranking, which was a specialty of the specialized magazine "Sega Saturn Magazine.
<In addition, romance games featuring beautiful girls, but without sexual elements, also stood out on the Sega Saturn. In particular, "Sentimental Graffiti: First Window," released in a limited edition of 30,000 copies, was a big hit despite the fact that it was a preview disc that was neither an original nor a port. It may have been a monumental game title in which the media mix approach of promoting a single attractive character design was a commercial success.
The article further details that the Saturn last
ALL it's momentum after the PS1 release of
Final Fantasy . So it sort of makes me wonder if they really "gained" anything killing the immediately popular eroge genre of games in favor of aiming for kids.