Nandemonai

Both aspects of the OP are correct. VNs are growing in the West. And they still do pretty crappy numbers. Eight years ago, MangaGamer removed the voices from Koihime because they were too expensive to license. They said they'd get added back when the title sold 2K copies. That did eventually happen, a year or so later. After MG decided to cheat a little bit and count the first print run of the hard copy as 'units sold' (they didn't want to print voiceless copies). That is ... terrible performance. But it was enough to make the title one of MangaGamer's most successful. VNs sell so poorly that even a huge improvement still leaves them pretty awful.

No, it probably wouldn't. It would sell a lot better than it did back in 2011, that's for sure. (Heck, I believe Nutaku and Fakku report it as selling very well for them.) But the game sold so poorly that it could do several times what it sold before and still not even get close to what it probably sold in 2007 in Japan. In 2007 the market was a lot bigger and it was the #3 game in the sales rankings that year. There are a few VNs that have sold well: https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/8wpse6/with_the_recent_leak_of_steam_sales_figures_heres/ But the vast majority sell a few thousand units. Only a very few very successful titles have sold more. By and large, people don't buy VNs, they steal them.

Even though sales of VNs in Japan are collapsing, and have been for years, they're still far greater than Western sales. Remember Koihime struggling to sell two thousand copies? How MangaGamer estimated that it wouldn't sell that many, so they couldn't afford the voices? And then on top of that, the western market simply will not pay the ludicrous overcharging that is standard in Japan. I very much doubt the US market affects their decisions. It simply isn't worth it.

The bit about stripping people to find out the truth doesn't sound terribly compelling, though.

Nobody's mentioned Funbag Fantasy yet? Huh. Tick Tack has Ai, but it won't make any sense without playing part of Shuffle! first (and that game's got ... availability issues). As for nukige: Nympho Sensei Ryoko and I assume Sweet Home probably does too. There's also a bunch of really old, probably not worth bothering with G-Collections titles that have a MILF. Come See Me Tonight, Kango Shicyauzo, and Do You Like Horny Bunny come to mind. Amorous Prof. Cherry is essentially all this.

Coming up soon from MangaGamer are: BokuTen, DameKoi, and Sona-Nyl. Sekai Project has Harumade Kururu, Baldr Sky, and Nanairo Reincarnation. Sol Press has Irotoridori no Sekai and The Future Radio and the Artificial Pigeons. Nekonyan has Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm. There are so many VNs upcoming that I find it very hard to believe that a) you like VNs in general, and b) none of them interest you at all.

VNDB says original release in October 2010, so a little over eight years yes.

If you haven't read Steins;Gate, it probably also fits the bill.

I am intrigued by your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your mailing list. Draculius actually comes highly recommended by someone else (who isn't really in the scene anymore, I don't think - his old site literally died (disk crash or something) and his new one eventually went offline). Nargrakhan really liked it. But he also really liked Euphoria, which did impress me but I found a deeply flawed and ultimately unsatisfying experience. I've kind of meant to try it out eventually.

That sounds like something to contact MangaGamer's support over. If multiple people have been affected by it they might want to issue a patch.

Of games I actually played, I think I have to go with Magical Marriage Lunatics. The badness is really driven home by another 2018 release - Ponkotsu Akuma. A god damned pizza delivery simulator has better worldbuilding, more interesting characters (MML has one who might compete, Mona, if s/he weren't the comic relief), and better comedy. I admit to being a sucker for monster girls, but MML just made me feel like a sucker.

For the record, the flak they're getting from me (as I can't speak for anyone else) is a) for being hypocrites, and b) for not apologizing to the Kickstarter-using companies they hypocritically insulted earlier.

Yeah. I'm giving them flak for the flip-flop, because... they deserve it. Doesn't mean I think they suck. Just means they did something that I'm giving them flak over. And I'm with Fred: nobody is in this industry for the "sweet sweet cash". The cash is paltry and mostly sour. Most of the companies that ever tried to enter this industry either died, or gave up. The ones that are still around are lucky to sell a few thousand units of each game they release, with a very small handful of lucky exceptions. Sekai Project might not even still exist if it weren't for NekoPara.

Setting aside the fact that I disagree it's a mistake... Even supposing it was a mistake, there are still much worse mistakes that have been made in the past. Nocturnal Illusion was translated professionally, yet it chose to translate one of the girls calling you Shinichi-oniisama as ... Brother Shinichi.

The problem is this is what they actually said: But before we talk about individual titles, I would say it's important to first off all talk about ourselves -- NekoNyan. You see, all of us had been pretty dissatisfied with how things were going in regards to the Western VN/eroge market. It just felt like many -- not all -- of the only few localizers don't really have a passion for what they're doing, nor do they seem to actually understand much about it. We talked to many of the Japanese devs, and the truth is (unsurprisingly), they had been getting the same impression. That whole KS practice that just came to be the default for most companies is anything but liked over in Japan. One company we talked to said it'd feel like those localizers are trying to span a safety net, which would, in turn, give off the impression that they don't really believe in their title(s), nor care. .. All right, let me now quickly share with you guys how we're planning to go about things in general, and the direction we want to take this endeavor. ... - No crowdfunding. The first few releases have already been fully funded using our own, private money, so no worries there. We're likely going to offer pre-orders, though, and throw in some extras there for those who really want to support us ahead of release. Don't worry though, pre-order bonuses will also be included in all purchases up to a few weeks after release.