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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Are Porn Games a Viable Market?

Yes, probably. VR will be interesting in this regard.



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snyps said:

For the same reason that porno will never mix with big budget movies, no. Games based on pornography will never make the big time.

There are big budget movies that go pretty far, of course heavily censored for TV like Eyes Wide Shut.
https://decider.com/2015/01/30/eyes-wide-shut-censored-vs-uncensored-gallery/#4
Or you just get a lot of complaints of too much graphic sex with movies like Blue is the warmest colour.

There is a vast difference between Europe and USA as well. European movies don't bat an eye at nudity, yet for movies to get shown in the USA you have to censor and cover up. Makes me laugh every time there is a 'sex scene' where they're either dressed or fully covered up in bed. Way too hot under the blankets for any action! Meanwhile crime shows are half the time about sex crimes, sex parties gone wrong. I guess the mindset in the USA still is that sex is bad.



snyps said:

For the same reason that porno will never mix with big budget movies, no. Games based on pornography will never make the big time.

I mean, here's the problem with that: I don't think that's true.  Per the reply above, I think there are forces in play that wish to control it simply because they don't agree with it or want to see it.  Why?  Because tabloids.  Notice how THE biggest news for celebrities is who they shacked up with?  If anything, porn draws clicks HARD (he he), and both Pamela and Kim's sex tapes proves that without the forces that be who restrict these things, porn VERY easily would make it big time.  VERY easily, right up there next to our most violent action movies and most CG heavy movies.  The media circus around celebrity sex tapes is simple proof that the demand is there, it's just hidden away the (current) best it can be.

Right. Like it said. For the same reason big budget movies won’t make do porn. That reason being the forces that be (…. And terrible actresses in porn - except my favorite star)



SvennoJ said:
snyps said:

For the same reason that porno will never mix with big budget movies, no. Games based on pornography will never make the big time.

There are big budget movies that go pretty far, of course heavily censored for TV like Eyes Wide Shut.
https://decider.com/2015/01/30/eyes-wide-shut-censored-vs-uncensored-gallery/#4
Or you just get a lot of complaints of too much graphic sex with movies like Blue is the warmest colour.

There is a vast difference between Europe and USA as well. European movies don't bat an eye at nudity, yet for movies to get shown in the USA you have to censor and cover up. Makes me laugh every time there is a 'sex scene' where they're either dressed or fully covered up in bed. Way too hot under the blankets for any action! Meanwhile crime shows are half the time about sex crimes, sex parties gone wrong. I guess the mindset in the USA still is that sex is bad.

When I think of porn, I think of graphic sex pushing and boundaries of social norms. If you put powerful stories behind a story with intense graphic sex, it could shake things up and set new norms into motion. Powers that be won’t go for massive shifts they can’t control. 

USA has plenty of movies with sensual nudity and tasteful sex. But not a lot of them with Oscar worthy scripts or actresses. 



Jumpin said:

The problem is no one takes them seriously. If you go to a porn game site, usually it’s wall to wall cringeworthy apps that are more along the lines of gross-out games than something actually sexy and/or entertaining. The games are basically the same crap as they were on Newgrounds like 20+ years ago.

On the EShop most of the games are these very cheap soft core puzzle games that aren’t worth the 4 quid they charge. Also, they’re anime, which I don’t think is going to hook many people in any audience niche outside of (maybe) the virgin teenagers and Japan.

I think certain parts of Witcher 3 were on the right track, although the sex scenes were fairly tame and low-budgeted (no foreplay, reusing animations, etc…). Maybe the dev team was shy about sex? Either way, I think few people will deny that the wedding scenario and Shani hookup in Hearts of Stone was one of the best parts of Witcher 3 Complete (and that’s saying a lot for a game that extensive and high quality).

What I’d like to see is a developer making an attempt at a story based pornographic game geared towards couples. The Switch would be a fairly good console for that since each player can have their own screen. I think there’d be a big market for it. But yeah, I’m very much into the idea.

Just to clarify the part on anime games a bit. I’m not trying to shame anime porn game fans, just trying to be realistic. You can like what art style you want.

What I’m pointing out is that anime porn games are a niche genre and will stay a niche genre—at least, outside of Japan. They’ve also been around forever without seeing much success. I played them as a young teenager in the 1990s, and they were graphical adventures with full casts of characters, storylines, and such—yes, teenaged guys who hadn’t got laid yet were pretty into these games... at least, back in the 1990s, possibly not today (I can imagine today’s teens playing these games about a horny guy peaking in change rooms, looking up skirts, and groping and saying “That’s not appropriate! Hiroto really shouldn’t have done that…”). In nearly three decades (or longer), anime porn games have failed to penetrate the mainstream market, failed to make a splash, (I’m out of metaphors). These are in very low demand among mainstream audiences, but are all there is available on Platforms like the Switch EShop.

In short, if we’re looking for a mainstream successful pornographic game, it can’t be anime/cartoon. Even if 3D rendered, they probably can’t be any other uncanny valley art style.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

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snyps said:

When I think of porn, I think of graphic sex pushing and boundaries of social norms. If you put powerful stories behind a story with intense graphic sex, it could shake things up and set new norms into motion. Powers that be won’t go for massive shifts they can’t control. 

USA has plenty of movies with sensual nudity and tasteful sex. But not a lot of them with Oscar worthy scripts or actresses. 

Yeah that's always the thing, it has to be 'tasteful sex', what's the fun in that and what is tasteful sex anyway. A big budget movie about self discovery as a couple experiments with different sensations could go thousands of different ways.


The audience is certainly there for non tasteful sex

  • A recent study found that while the definition of "rough sex" differs from person to person, the practice should be considered normative.
  • Of participants in relationships, about 4 in 5 had engaged in rough sex with a partner, and almost all reported at least some enjoyment of it.
  • Transgender and non-binary individuals reported higher rates of rough sex enjoyment than others

    When it came to definitions of rough sex, the most commonly endorsed items were:
  • choking (77%)
  • hair pulling (75%)
  • spanking (69%)
  • being pinned down (66%)
  • being tied up (65%)
  • hard thrusting (64%)
  • slapping (59%)
  • biting (59%)
  • scratching (52%)

Put another way, more than half of the sample counted the above activities as forms of rough sex. Items endorsed by less than half of the sample included:

  • throwing someone onto a bed (49%)
  • tearing clothes off (45%)
  • punching (33%)
  • making someone have sex (17%)

According to a 2005 survey by Durex, 36 percent of adults in the United States use masks, blindfolds and bondage tools during sex. Worldwide that number is only 20 percent. Melanie Berliet at Pacific Standard reports that the trend isn’t new, either — a study from 1953 found that 55 percent of women and 50 percent of men liked being bitten, and a 1999 study said that 65 percent of university students dream about being tied up.

After polling more than 4,500 people about their favorite kinks, they found that 70 percent of women and 61 percent of men are turned on by spanking.
About 60 percent of both men and women also reported that they’ve tried BDSM with a partner, the survey found. Nearly 60 percent of women also said they regularly engage in nipple play, bondage, biting, and blindfolds.

You had American Beauty and Mulholland drive touching on taboos yet I can't think of any more recent examples. The Ice storm touches on swingers parties but puts it firmly in the past (seventies). It's still an uncomfortable subject most people don't want to talk about while pretending they either don't have sex or just the 'tasteful' variety. Basically fear of the unknown, however fear is also a great stimulant.

And yeah the 'powers that be' are no better. BDSM is still regarded as a mental disorder
https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/sexual-masochism-disorder-dsm--5-302.83(f65.51)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bdsm-practitioners-idUSBRE94U17J20130531

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some good news for people who enjoy restraints, riding crops and floggers in the bedroom: A new study says you probably don’t have a mental disorder.

The results “seem contradictory to what the general public and professionals believe,” said Andreas Wismeijer of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, who published the study along with Marcel van Assen.

Previous studies had suggested that BDSM activities were linked to mental disorders and vulnerability to abuse, according to the researchers, who published their results in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.

But in the new study, researchers found people who like BDSM, which stands for bondage-discipline, dominance-submission and sadism-masochism, were well adjusted and reported slightly better wellbeing than people who don’t take part in those activities.


Games are much further behind when it comes to touching sex. Either its used to make jokes like Leisure Suit Larry, or just cringe worthy cut scenes. There are plenty adults playing games now to afford publishing adult rated games. 80% of gamers are 18+ nowadays.



snyps said:
SvennoJ said:

There are big budget movies that go pretty far, of course heavily censored for TV like Eyes Wide Shut.
https://decider.com/2015/01/30/eyes-wide-shut-censored-vs-uncensored-gallery/#4
Or you just get a lot of complaints of too much graphic sex with movies like Blue is the warmest colour.

There is a vast difference between Europe and USA as well. European movies don't bat an eye at nudity, yet for movies to get shown in the USA you have to censor and cover up. Makes me laugh every time there is a 'sex scene' where they're either dressed or fully covered up in bed. Way too hot under the blankets for any action! Meanwhile crime shows are half the time about sex crimes, sex parties gone wrong. I guess the mindset in the USA still is that sex is bad.

When I think of porn, I think of graphic sex pushing and boundaries of social norms. If you put powerful stories behind a story with intense graphic sex, it could shake things up and set new norms into motion. Powers that be won’t go for massive shifts they can’t control. 

USA has plenty of movies with sensual nudity and tasteful sex. But not a lot of them with Oscar worthy scripts or actresses. 

Halle Berry won best actress for a film she had a sex scenes in. Sharon Stone was nominated for Casino and won the Golden Globe, she did sex scenes in that film (including a blowjob on Joe Pesci). Sharon Stone got a Golden Globe nomination for the controversial Vertigo inspired dark comedy thriller, Basic Instinct—I love Paul Verhoeven films… and adjectives (shut up Stephen King!). But yeah, both Berry and Stone got nominated for Razzies for the 2005 film Catwoman.

(just to explain the above, Stephen King famously hates adjectives. He’s not the first, Hemingway also famously hated adjectives. The hate goes all the way back to that quippy Parisian bastard, Voltaire).

Last edited by Jumpin - on 28 January 2023

I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

ZyroXZ2 said:
Norion said:

It is but puritanical forces hold it back massively. If that wasn't a factor a high budget pornographic game could easily be one of the biggest sellers of a given year.

Ehhhh, I partially agree with this.  For the same reason we wouldn't show or encourage violent TV shows/games to kids, a similar limitation exists on porn.  However, in terms of adult content, then I'd have to agree: it seems that once you get into the adult section, the primarily western world of media happily pushes extreme violence, gore, etc. but shuns away from sex.  This naturally extends to the avoidance of porn or pornographic scenes.

I'd actually find the balance to be better if, say, a horror movie had literal pornographic sex scenes along with its also horror.  We always use "sex sells" in horror movies, but then only use the tip (usually boobs).  Flip that into the gaming industry, and we imply sex for romance, but I think if a game is already at that maturity level, showing actual sex should just be the case (and have a toggle for turning that OFF if the viewer wishes to).

I was referring to adult content yeah. The US is pretty strange in how it handles this, being so prudish with sex but going hardcore with violence isn't really how Europe handles it.



gooch_destroyer said:

If people are horny enough

WHO HAS SUMMONED ME!?



That's wild.

Last edited by d21lewis - on 15 November 2023