kyrt

If they actually got their act together and got a proper translator and bothered releasing an adult and all ages version maybe they could actually release something decent. As it is I will be passing on this title just like I did for the last one. Why should I put my money to help them if they won't put the money in to make the product playable/readable? Shame this company is putting in so little effort for a good game release. It can't cost them that much to just hire a proper translator and find a means to release an 18+ patch for the game. Unless of course Debonosu is using steam as a last resort to try and earn some funding to prevent itself from going out of business.

Not really surprising considering most of the people that wanted the game actually backed it to begin with. To be completely fair since they didn't have to pay much to localize it (thanks to kickstarter) selling 2000 copies is actually quite good at what they were charging for it. You have to take in account there were about 1200 backers. Steam is not a good place really to sell really big visual novels like that because let's be honest most steam users just want to pay under 10 bucks for a quick read rather than read a multi-novel length visual novel priced at $30.00 +. Do take in account 2000 copies even if only half of them were at full price is still 30,000 in profit since localization was probably paid for. The issue is of course because of kickstarter they might have ended up paying more for extra merchandise and shipping and the like than they realized. Hard to say but doesn't seem too bad of a deal.
The other big issue is that visual novels have a negative perception in the west and because of that there is far less marketing OR people actually talking about the titles. The fact of the matter is that many visual novel readers don't like to say they read visual novels in public and because of this good games very rarely get any type of acclaim. It probably does not help that visual novels that take place in schools are kind of off putting for a western audience and they look at the description and don't give it a chance because of that material. The advertising for visual novels is also extremely limited with only a few websites actually seeming to care even somewhat about visual novels. It doesn't help that twitch bans most visual novels which means there can't be streams of them or even let's plays uploaded for the most part because of both youtube and their outdated mindset towards sexuality and Japan who have a business mindset of a decade ago. You don't see any big name visual novel youtubers (outside of the rare few here and there) so visual novels just don't have the marketability...yet. Time will tell if they ever manage to. Whether the game sold poorly compared to Japan is probably obvious but you can't grow a market without taking continual risks. All it takes is for one game to be noticed by the right person. 
Steam was not the right market for the game and it probably would have sold better at an actual visual novel store. Admittedly the fact the game was censored means a good portion of people will refuse to purchase it regardless.

Happy belated birthday to both of @Palas(25th years old) and @kyrt out there, and hopefully both of you will have a good year ahead.

For anyone currently affected by Steam not showing you particular content it's because they automatically uncheck the box for that content. All you need to do is the following;
Log into Steam.
Look in the Upper Right Hand Corner
Click the Arrow Next to your Name
Scroll down to "Store Preferences" and Click
Should see the following after a little scrolling;
                VIOLENT & SEXUAL CONTENT
Include products in my store that contain the following types of content: 
 Show products with frequent violence or gory content Applies to products frequently tagged as 'violent' or 'gore'. You may still see some of these products if they have not been labeled properly or if you specifically search for the title. 
Show products with frequent nudity or sexual content Applies to products frequently tagged as 'nudity' or 'sexual content'. You may still see some products with this content for the following reasons: (1) If the sexual content or nudity is only a small portion of the product, (2) if the products have not been labeled properly, or (3) if you specifically search for the title.
Check the Box for both.
No more problem. Might want to scroll through the entire list just to make sure nothing else is unchecked.
Upon doing this save and then try searching you shouldn't have an issue now. You can also exclude up to 3 tags if you don't want to see a particular type of content.
It isn't bad and it has been because of them working out the bugs for this that it has taken so long for VNs to get approved. Shouldn't take quite as long now in theory. If someone doesn't like seeing something in particular they now have the tools to block it so no reason for them to get upset. Steam should explain the system though to make things easier for people.
I've been reminded this has been around for quite some time...the main difference is it actually works now. Steam forums are also talking about another update that might introduce further features or change it altogether. Guess time will tell...the best thing to do is simply not buy visual novels on steam but eh whatever...

Yeah, I'm not a fan of that kind of content, but after the XChange 3 incident years ago, Jast promised to announce ahead of time whenever any such changes were going to be made.  Their track record honoring that promise has not been super great.

It's hard to edit your own work, as it's very easy to miss mistakes you made. Self editing can at best help kill some typos, but that's no better than simple proofreading, which is not at all what editing is about. 
For a VN this big, I strongly recommend you try to figure out a way to get an editor onboard. Self editing simply won't be enough. 

Oh, stop being a baby. MG has been releasing a shitload of other stuff lately. Don't throw a tantrum just because they're throwing fans of other stuff a bone this con.

Attendee: "Any plans for future 18+ otome games?" Kouryuu: "Absolutely. The year isn't over. Wait and see what we've got in store." 

Oh so MG also just announced Rance 10 (in addition to 9)...so it seems we're getting the full second half of the series. Not really surprising though.

A bit surprised there is no one posting news about Denpasoft acquisitions....
1.
;
9 Nine: Episode 1
This particular title has both an 18+ and an all ages version so we can expect sekai project to announce this one as well.
2.

Our current project Mischievous Sensation, a romance visual novel about making visual novels. Our protagonist is a programmer and a pretty normal boy who's starting a project in his free time, the deadline being the next dev-con. However, he needs to recruit someone to help him. Despite all the stress something more than just a game starts to grow, is this love? Or maybe something else?
3.

Gary Stuart, better known as "The Man," and his elite team of sexual counselors are on the verge of landing the contract of their dreams: a cushy deal with Industricorp, widely considered to be the greatest company of all-time. Industricorp's employee morale has been low, so they approach The Man's company, Bedside Logistics, about doing what they do best: making people happy through lots and lots of sex. The president suggests a one week trial with one of three "problem employees" in order to test the waters and determine if The Man really is the hero that Industricorp needs.
4.

For some reason, the protagonist ended up spending his spring break with four girls in a remote area that had no wireless reception and didn’t even have a convenience store. There was only a school building that seems to be on the verge of closure, a large dormitory that looked like a hot spring hotel and a chimney that stretched up to the sky as far as the eyes could see. He thought that he would just spend some peaceful days here, but that’s when one of the girls Shizuka declared that they will make this place his harem.
note: Don't let the premise fool you this is a highly anticipated title and in my opinion their best announcement...hopefully it releases sooner than later and doesn't have kickstarter attached to it.
5.

Alice attends Hekihou Academy with her friends Yakko and Keiko, where she's a member of the photography club. She lives alone except for her pet dog Qoo, and she holds down a part-time job as a waitress at Dragon Burger. Her life is busy and content, but sometimes she feels like there's something she's forgetting, something she left undone. Maybe even something important.

One day Alice and her friends visit the clock tower. There, an unusual book falls into Alice's lap: the diary of a mysterious and rather perverted young man. Why do all the girls Alice meets show up in the diary? Why does nobody remember the events in the diary? And why does Alice feel so strongly that she wants to meet that young man?
6.

This is the second episode in the Re;Lord series. After freeing Helfault from the witch Erika, Wilfred continued his quest to reclaim Groeson by attacking Cologne, held by the witch Iris. It is a vast tranquil grassy plain with the country’s fifth-largest body of water, the popular tourist spot Bebra Lake, and has a flourishing fishing industry. However, the residents had all been turned into crow familiars, spirits and imps. He didn’t know the motive behind the witch’s actions, but he attacked nevertheless in order to take back his land. At the same time, the military received news of Erika’s defeat to a mere student and dispatched a hunting unit to suppress the witch in Cologne.

7.

Yuusuke and Mitsuki rush to the city hall to have the municipal survivor group save Mitsuki's wounded brother. Mitsuki meets her childhood friend who proceeds to takes over Yuusuke's guardian role for Mitsuki. Yuusuke will have to decide either to stay and wait for the evacuation or not.

The sequel of eroge version of popular web novel of the same namel. The story taking place between chapter 3 episode 32 "Wakare" to episode 44 "Ibasho."
edit: Apparently vol.3 was also announced at the same time.
7 8 title announcements for Denpasoft is really quite good but it is also marred by a habit of releasing titles and then not seeing said titles for years. The JAST Effect if you will. Still there's at least two titles here that I'm quite interested in and mildly curious about another...that's pretty good as far as announcements go. as Mangagamer only has two partners and one current partner title to announce. Can 3 titles trump 7 8 guess we'll find out soon. Jast I'm sure won over more than a few people as well. AX seems to be going strong for visual novel announcements thus far.

My aren't you optimistic.

My aren't you optimistic.

So here's the thing if a vn company in Japan is not willing to put forth effort and research into what people think of their would be translators and publishers then why should we give them the time of day?

I have 17 hours in Pillars of Eternity 2 at the moment...loving it so far. It is definitely made for multiple playthroughs. Haven't had a huge amount of bugs but apparently one thing did glitch because for whatever reason one of my characters has the funny looking hat from 1 and he's supposed to have burned it. 

I want to join the team because, quite frankly, i loved the previous VN club months, it was fun to participate, and even organizing some of them, i had a lot of fun with the crew, definitely can't forget the crew 
@Nimbus @KosakiFag @kyrt @Kaguya

Pulltop/Moenovel deserves to fail if they don't listen to the people who actually care about their games. The visual novel market is saturated with both quality and crap everywhere and now people are cautious about picking a product up and no longer are limited in what is available to them. I like pulltop games but I won't support a censored or poorly translated release. We have plenty of options to choose instead of them. Hope the sales of this game make them realize that.

The patch for this game has finally released and is a pain to install by requiring the game to be played in Japanese Locale. To top this all off Mangagamer is currently offering the game for 33.00 for both games in one (DX version or something...think it's simply both games in one and you can pick which game but who knows). Why they couldn't do that for the backers version is beyond me. Quite disappointed in the way this has all worked out. Backers are supposed to more often than not receive the better deal but it seems anyone who has waited is definitely getting the best digital deal out of anyone. 
NSFW Link: Dies Irae Mangagamer

Pulltop/Moenovel deserves to fail if they don't listen to the people who actually care about their games. The visual novel market is saturated with both quality and crap everywhere and now people are cautious about picking a product up and no longer are limited in what is available to them. I like pulltop games but I won't support a censored or poorly translated release. We have plenty of options to choose instead of them. Hope the sales of this game make them realize that.

I think DC3 has a better chance than Dal Segno's at least. 

On a more serious note, social media has basically become a method for people to self-isolate from opposing opinions, which is one of the primary reasons I hate it in a more general sense...  while I'm not fond of social and peer pressure, I did like it when I didn't have to worry about racist politicians obtaining political power on the federal level... 

It seems like as otakon gets closer we're beginning to see more information about what to expect.
Mangagamer will have 5 announcements (4 with current partners) and 1 with a new partner at the upcoming Otakon event. It seems extremely likely that these will be the last big announcements for the year unless Mangagamer announces they will also be going to AWA again. Considering many visual novel fans consider their otakon announcements in 2016 to be bigger than there AX announcements we can probably expect some quality announcements if nothing else.
It is also extremely likely that their final secret project which is at 100% translation/editing will also be announced at this event along with probably another new yuri title. 
 

It seems like as otakon gets closer we're beginning to see more information about what to expect.
Mangagamer will have 5 announcements (4 with current partners) and 1 with a new partner at the upcoming Otakon event. It seems extremely likely that these will be the last big announcements for the year unless Mangagamer announces they will also be going to AWA again. Considering many visual novel fans consider their otakon announcements in 2016 to be bigger than there AX announcements we can probably expect some quality announcements if nothing else.
It is also extremely likely that their final secret project which is at 100% translation/editing will also be announced at this event along with probably another new yuri title. 
 

JAST USA does not exactly have the best marketing strategies in place but that is possibly do to not wanting overexposure. It's hard to really know what a company is thinking when they are creating material to try and help sell a product but JAST is probably one of the few places that actually bothers to create material and just doesn't say anything about it. The following is a compilation of as many JAST USA officially made websites that I was able to find both to share with you as well as discuss a bit more in depth. Honestly some of these you might actually be surprised exist in the first place; I will be updating this first post whenever a new website is created and if I happened to miss any please let me know so I can update this page accordingly. 
 
A number of these websites have trailers created by Primus Animations which are specifically made for the english market often adapted from the original japanese trailer. I for one ended up purchasing Hanachirasu when I did specifically because of their trailer. So props to them for making some cool trailers. With my rambling ceasing let's begin looking at the websites (and subsequently the trailers on the websites) and then when they are all listed let's talk about them.
 
Shiny Days: http://shinydays.us/
  Super Sonico: Communication with Sonico: http://sonicomi.com/index.html   Flowers-Printemps: http://flowersgame.com/   Raidy III: http://raidy.us/   Starless: http://starless.us/   Hanachirasu: http://hanachirasu.com/   Littlewitch Romanesque: http://littlewitch.us/index.html   Yumina the Ethereal: http://yumina-the-ethereal.com/   Steins;Gate: http://steins-gate.us/   Aselia the Eternal: http://aselia.us/   School Days: http://schooldays.us   My Girlfriend is the President: http://mygirlfriendisthepresident.com/   Demonbane: http://demonbane.us/index.html   Moero Downhill Night Trilogy: http://moeronight.com/   Yukkuri Panic: Escalation: http://yukkuripanic.com   Princess Waltz: http://princesswaltz.com/   Cosplay Fetish Academy: http://cosplayfetishacademy.com   Seinarukana: The Spirit of Eternity Sword 2   Nympho Sensei Ryoko         My hopes for the future: It would be nice if they actually bothered marketing these a bit better admittedly half of these are able to be found on their website although a few of them you have to scrounge around to find. It's a decent step. I think the most recent trailers are definitely a step in the right direction as far as trailers go. I think that JAST really needs better marketing of it's actual gameplay visual novels. The websites have basic information and are generally decent overall. I did notice a few of the websites seem to have nothing until you scroll down a bit which I think is rather bad design at least put something there (littlewitch romanesque is one of the examples I'm talking about).   So which of these websites JAST has created is well the best designed and what additional features would you like to see on their websites in the future? Personally for me I think having links to reviews or possibly allowing user reviews (similar to mangagamer) would be a good step to take with these websites. A little bit more user interaction as well as keeping the websites up to date with any new details (School Days, My girlfriend is the President, Raidy III, and Aselia the Eternal should all have links to their sequels, prequels, and fan-discs). One specific detail that more of their websites need to have in the future is a goodies page with the ability to download wallpapers and other cool little things like a lot of the Japanese websites have. School Days is one such website that they actually did have the wallpapers for.    The main website on the other hand is currently lacking a proper forum (the way it currently works is absolutely horrendous), the website itself is rather not fully up to date...it would be nice to get progress updates a minimum of once a month considering we sometimes go a lot longer than that without any type of news. The JAST Devlog (tumblr) page is a step in the right direction but some aspects of that should be carried over to the main website in my opinion. The website also needs to let people know when there are sales...there is a sale currently going on and I could not find any information about it on their main website outside of the fact that the prices have been reduced. It doesn't say when it ends, what percentage off, any potential deals, etc... The website could use a bit of work...but JAST is not the only english visual novel company that has some major issues with its website but that will be for another post.   Just my opinion, and as new websites get created I'll add them to this list do let me know if I happened to miss any for JAST. 

I'd prefer that they went out of business 

Going to compile all AX 2017 (new licenses only) announcements in one place and I will be putting all announcements in spoilers by company. 
Aksys
Mangagamer Announcements
Sekai Project Announcements
Denpasoft Announcements
JAST USA Announcements
Frontwing Announcements