sanahtlig

Unfortunately, risk of disappointment--or even project implosion--is part of the crowdfunding experience.
Never back more than you're willing to see disappear with nothing to show for it. Don't back companies you don't trust. Don't back with any expectation of timelines being met or delays being properly communicated. Companies have no obligation to refund your money if you aren't satisfied.  If you have concerns about any of the above, you shouldn't be pledging in the first place.
That said, clearly Sol Press is in pretty dire straits if a few thousand dollars is more important to them than their company's reputation.  It sounds like their main concern right now is stopping the bleeding rather than long-term health.

Unfortunately, risk of disappointment--or even project implosion--is part of the crowdfunding experience.
Never back more than you're willing to see disappear with nothing to show for it. Don't back companies you don't trust. Don't back with any expectation of timelines being met or delays being properly communicated. Companies have no obligation to refund your money if you aren't satisfied.  If you have concerns about any of the above, you shouldn't be pledging in the first place.
That said, clearly Sol Press is in pretty dire straits if a few thousand dollars is more important to them than their company's reputation.  It sounds like their main concern right now is stopping the bleeding rather than long-term health.

Unfortunately, risk of disappointment--or even project implosion--is part of the crowdfunding experience.
Never back more than you're willing to see disappear with nothing to show for it. Don't back companies you don't trust. Don't back with any expectation of timelines being met or delays being properly communicated. Companies have no obligation to refund your money if you aren't satisfied.  If you have concerns about any of the above, you shouldn't be pledging in the first place.
That said, clearly Sol Press is in pretty dire straits if a few thousand dollars is more important to them than their company's reputation.  It sounds like their main concern right now is stopping the bleeding rather than long-term health.

Unfortunately, risk of disappointment--or even project implosion--is part of the crowdfunding experience.
Never back more than you're willing to see disappear with nothing to show for it. Don't back companies you don't trust. Don't back with any expectation of timelines being met or delays being properly communicated. Companies have no obligation to refund your money if you aren't satisfied.  If you have concerns about any of the above, you shouldn't be pledging in the first place.
That said, clearly Sol Press is in pretty dire straits if a few thousand dollars is more important to them than their company's reputation.  It sounds like their main concern right now is stopping the bleeding rather than long-term health.

I didn't back Iroseka KS, so I have no horse in this race, but I just wanted to share the following image as I found the subject relevant xD

I know Sekai is not a saint either, but in this case, I found it funny how they compare to Sol Press in this "asking for refund" case.

Just saw this announcement trailer for Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York and it looks pretty interesting.
Apparently it'll be a VN/RPG hybrid which will also have some additional game play mechanics like quests, hunger, feeding, disciplines and time progress. It's definitely it's own thing and not your typical OELVN that tries to emulate Japanese anime tropes, and I'm rather curious how this will work out. Will it get more attention from people who aren't into anime art or just miss the mark? I'm also a bit worried if they go too far with the game mechanics and hurt the narrative with it.
Regarding the trailer itself, the backgrounds and atmosphere are great but the characters look a bit wishy-washy to be honest and they don't seem to have different expressions.
But I'll definitely keep an eye on that title since I'm a big vampire fan and of White Wolf in particular (Bloodlines is one of my all-time favorite RPG's).

I wrote a review on MM here: https://j-addicts.de/master-magistrate-early-access-review/

What to license
It's a basic supply and demand problem.  What's available, how much it costs to sell, how much you can expect to sell at what price.  The best deal isn't necessarily the most-wanted title.
Licensing
Mosaics can be a major sticking point.  Some companies don't want to release an ero version overseas at all.
Timeline
The process goes at the rate of the slowest step.  In many cases, this is the interface between the JP dev and the English localization team.  God help you if you encounter problems that only the devs can fix, and they see your project as their lowest priority (typical).
 

Oh, I'll take a guess!  MangaGamer will start developing games using minori's IPs, and minori will sell them!  With the power of friendship, they'll do together what they failed to do alone!

Oh, I'll take a guess!  MangaGamer will start developing games using minori's IPs, and minori will sell them!  With the power of friendship, they'll do together what they failed to do alone!

Oh, I'll take a guess!  MangaGamer will start developing games using minori's IPs, and minori will sell them!  With the power of friendship, they'll do together what they failed to do alone!

Oh, I'll take a guess!  MangaGamer will start developing games using minori's IPs, and minori will sell them!  With the power of friendship, they'll do together what they failed to do alone!

Oh, I'll take a guess!  MangaGamer will start developing games using minori's IPs, and minori will sell them!  With the power of friendship, they'll do together what they failed to do alone!

Oh, I'll take a guess!  MangaGamer will start developing games using minori's IPs, and minori will sell them!  With the power of friendship, they'll do together what they failed to do alone!

Oh, I'll take a guess!  MangaGamer will start developing games using minori's IPs, and minori will sell them!  With the power of friendship, they'll do together what they failed to do alone!

Oh, I'll take a guess!  MangaGamer will start developing games using minori's IPs, and minori will sell them!  With the power of friendship, they'll do together what they failed to do alone!

This seems backwards.  As people progress in their careers, their income tends to grow (more money, not less).  A work of fiction's target demographic tends to correlate with its protagonist (high school settings with a straight male protagonist would be aimed at young males).
More likely: Eroge appeal to young males.  As the market has matured, its initial base has grown older and drifted away for various reasons--including moving on in their career (less time) and that THEY'RE the ones less interested in high school settings and writing aimed at young males.  Meanwhile, the younger generation has less disposable income these days, a phenomenon that isn't limited to Japan.  Many of them spend their time on mobile, consoles, or on social media, and may not even have a PC for personal use.  Those who have a PC and game on it have a growing library of Western alternatives to play (e.g., on Steam).

This seems backwards.  As people progress in their careers, their income tends to grow (more money, not less).  A work of fiction's target demographic tends to correlate with its protagonist (high school settings with a straight male protagonist would be aimed at young males).
More likely: Eroge appeal to young males.  As the market has matured, its initial base has grown older and drifted away for various reasons--including moving on in their career (less time) and that THEY'RE the ones less interested in high school settings and writing aimed at young males.  Meanwhile, the younger generation has less disposable income these days, a phenomenon that isn't limited to Japan.  Many of them spend their time on mobile, consoles, or on social media, and may not even have a PC for personal use.  Those who have a PC and game on it have a growing library of Western alternatives to play (e.g., on Steam).

This seems backwards.  As people progress in their careers, their income tends to grow (more money, not less).  A work of fiction's target demographic tends to correlate with its protagonist (high school settings with a straight male protagonist would be aimed at young males).
More likely: Eroge appeal to young males.  As the market has matured, its initial base has grown older and drifted away for various reasons--including moving on in their career (less time) and that THEY'RE the ones less interested in high school settings and writing aimed at young males.  Meanwhile, the younger generation has less disposable income these days, a phenomenon that isn't limited to Japan.  Many of them spend their time on mobile, consoles, or on social media, and may not even have a PC for personal use.  Those who have a PC and game on it have a growing library of Western alternatives to play (e.g., on Steam).

I'm just a Virgin but vndb removed the Virgin tag so could not use.
Guess I coulda put Masturbation but meh

Should be similar to Valve's cut: ~30-40%.  Keep in mind the expense of running a digital shop is not trivial.  By cutting retail out of your operation entirely, that's a significant savings in time, effort, and money--especially if you're just going to suck at it anyway.

"Improved translation"
I didn't realize there was anything to improve.  Seemed pretty much flawless.

You folks are talking about a mass move by Japanese VN developers toward mobage like it's a hypothetical, but from what I understand, it's pretty much a fait accompli. A large number of VN developers have already tried (and/or are currently trying) their hand at mobage. You just haven't heard much about it here since they've all have failed miserably thus far, aside from Type-Moon. So it's a bit late to be worried about that coming to suck away the attention paid to VNs—we're already in that boat.
To bring this somewhat back on topic... VN loc companies are similarly looking all around for ways to stay/become profitable. There are only two real strategies I've seen almost all of them employing, at this point: China, and console releases. For China: if you have a license for a worldwide release, why not sell to a market that actually has consistently shown they're willing to pay for VNs, enough to fund a localization effort? It's certainly profitable. For console: Switch ports seem to be profitable, maybe? Though I don't have as clear a picture on that, and there aren't a lot of data points yet. But you can look at lackluster games like Root Letter getting huge sales numbers on consoles and realize, oh yeah, there's probably something there if you play your cards right.
Now, neither of those is going to do the vast majority of people on this board much good, since we're mostly 1) not Chinese readers and 2) looking for 18+ content. As long as English 18+ release sales remain low (for whatever reasons, including but not limited to high rates of piracy), the only hope most of us have is that the VN loc companies both expand in some way that lets them make money (China, console, and/or some other means) and continue to subsidize English versions with 18+ content from those profits out of pure passion for it. That is effectively what they're doing today. Denpasoft, JAST USA, and Nekonyan are all on the China boat (Nekonyan through the Hikari Field partnership), leaving only MangaGamer in the lurch. Denpasoft and MangaGamer, at least, are both doing the non-PC thing, though MangaGamer is taking a galaxy-brain approach where they vomited up a buggy android app and then promptly forgot about it. I'd say if MangaGamer doesn't get in on the Chinese market in some way within the next year or so, I'll eat my hat, except they're so slow-moving that maybe they'll just keep trickling away dollars forever...
Anyway, subsidizing 18+ English releases like this is honestly both risky (all kinds of legal exposure they could easily avoid by just, not doing it) and bad business (because it's throwing away money with no hope of return), but all these companies are doing it anyway. And yet somehow a lot of the vocal members of the VN community treat all of them as some evil enemy, most of the time. Sigh.

Think of it this way: who is the audience for English eroge?  Young males (mainly in the US).  What is the situation of young males with time on their hands these days?  Usually buried in student loan debt trying to get through university.  Do you honestly expect these people to buy eroge on credit?  As for the population that doesn't go through university, their wages are generally lower and they have less time--also not a recipe for spending on high-priced time-consuming entertainment that you can only enjoy alone.  Simply put, this is a demographics issue that doesn't have an easy solution.  A pirated copy isn't a lost sale.  Limiting piracy isn't going to increase their entertainment budgets.  They'll just find their porn somewhere else.
As for why Sol Press specifically might be having profitability issues: just look at their game lineup.  They're selling a bunch of medium to long length games that are expensive and time-consuming to translate (and consume).  They're all moege, appealing to more or less the same restricted audience.  It's one thing to be a developer and stick to what you're good at (creatively).  But sticking to one genre or game type doesn't do you much good as a publisher.  Diversification spreads your risk and drives traffic from different audiences.  That's good for business.
It's also important to point out that Sol Press is relatively new and doesn't have much of a following or brand recognition.  In addition, VN sales have a long tail in the West, and they don't have enough titles or sales history to benefit from that just yet.
As for the article itself, it seems to stumble from one bit of nonsense to another.  In what reality is releasing games sooner after the Japanese release going to decrease piracy?

Think of it this way: who is the audience for English eroge?  Young males (mainly in the US).  What is the situation of young males with time on their hands these days?  Usually buried in student loan debt trying to get through university.  Do you honestly expect these people to buy eroge on credit?  As for the population that doesn't go through university, their wages are generally lower and they have less time--also not a recipe for spending on high-priced time-consuming entertainment that you can only enjoy alone.  Simply put, this is a demographics issue that doesn't have an easy solution.  A pirated copy isn't a lost sale.  Limiting piracy isn't going to increase their entertainment budgets.  They'll just find their porn somewhere else.
As for why Sol Press specifically might be having profitability issues: just look at their game lineup.  They're selling a bunch of medium to long length games that are expensive and time-consuming to translate (and consume).  They're all moege, appealing to more or less the same restricted audience.  It's one thing to be a developer and stick to what you're good at (creatively).  But sticking to one genre or game type doesn't do you much good as a publisher.  Diversification spreads your risk and drives traffic from different audiences.  That's good for business.
It's also important to point out that Sol Press is relatively new and doesn't have much of a following or brand recognition.  In addition, VN sales have a long tail in the West, and they don't have enough titles or sales history to benefit from that just yet.
As for the article itself, it seems to stumble from one bit of nonsense to another.  In what reality is releasing games sooner after the Japanese release going to decrease piracy?