Tom Lipschultz, a Localization Specialist at XSEED, has had his name removed from the credits of a game he worked on. In addition, due to company policy, he will also not be included in the credits of any future titles he works on. You may ask, “Why would that be?” Well, it’s because a game accidentally referenced the KKK and said reference was removed.
Wait, what? Let’s break this down. In Akiba’s Beat , there’s a reference to NKK Switches, a Japanese light switch company. In a lot of Japanese media, references will be made to brands by taking the name and making silly, superficial changes. For example, changing a letter or two in the name “McDonald’s.” No puns or wordplay, just changing a letter in a cheeky attempt to avoid copyright problems. This game had a small sign in the city that was initially a play on NKK Switches.
In Akiba’s Beat , the NKK was changed to KKK. Whoops! Obviously, that specific repetition of the letter K means a little something extra in America. While Japanese media has referenced the actual KKK plenty of times before, you probably wouldn’t expect anyone to immediately make that connection. Once the developer, Acquire, was notified of this extra meaning by XSEED and asked about the reference, it immediately changed the letters to ACQ. End of story, right?
Lipschultz took this as an infringement of the game’s “artistic value,” citing that as changing a part of the game to “avoid offending people and to avoid the possibility of retailers protesting” instead of helping “aid the player’s comprehension.” So he had his name removed in protest, which by XSEED policy effectively removes him from any future project as well. The policy states, “If someone is ashamed to be associated with one of our games, then they are ashamed to be associated with the company as a whole and won’t be credited in future games either.”
Here’s my take. This is the lamest hill to die on, possibly of all time.
Source: XSEED forums