Previously, we reported on how R.Mika’s taunt was changed to not show her butt slap (despite the sound effect still playing). We had reached for a comment at the time, but had received no response.

Now, Street Fighter V producer Yoshinori Ono went on record and explained why the change was made.

In an interview with Brazilian outlet UOL Jogos (with translations provided by NeoGAF user Moraizen), the reason for the change was to not alienate their potential audience. From the interview:

Our objective with Street Fighter ’ is to start over from zero[…] We want the professional players and the casual fans of the series to return, but we also want to reach those who have never even touched a fighting game. So we can’t have something in the game that makes people think, “This is not acceptable.”

According to him the decision was not made due to external forces, but rather was a decision made internally.

We didn’t make any change because of external influences[…]Those changes came up internally. We decided to remove that because we want the biggest possible number of people to play, and we don’t want to have something in the game that might make someone uncomfortable.

When asked what the objective of the company was, Ono explains that it’s to have characters that people can enjoy but not be put off by.

Probably we won’t be able to remove everything that could offend someone. But our goal is, at least, to reduce that number as much as possible so that they think ‘Ok, there is this issue here, but it is within the limits’. We want that everyone can play and enjoy without worrying about anything else.

Street Fighter V is launching for PS4 and PC February 16th, 2016.

How do you guys feel about the explanation of the changes being made? Is this censorship? Sound off in the comments below!