Jump to content

Sakura Series announcement & wailing thread


Down

Recommended Posts

A few days ago @renpytom on twitter made this graph:

CO8_POyUEAEzLCJ.png

 

Commenting: "I plotted the time between Sakura _ games vs. time, and in a few weeks there will be a new Sakura game every second."

 

Little did he know that right after, the trend would confirm itself with the announcement of the greenlight for Sakura Beach 2 by Winged Cloud and Sekai Project! (not even gonna bother putting the source)

 

Since it seems like Winged Cloud and SP finally realized they didn't even need to bother to make new shit and the scenario is probably randomly generated by a monkey simulator software, we can probably expect the trend to keep going, so I thought we'd make only one thread for the future Sakura Series announcements and all the wailing about how it's all shit and SP is hitler etc etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coincidentally, the graph comparing the time and the amount of Sakura games coming out is similar to the amount of sales the Sakura titles have veen making.

Sakura Spirit: 200,000 owners

Sakura Angels: 55,000 owners

Sakura Fantasy: 17,009 owners

Sakura Swim Club: 15,000 owners

Sakura Beach: 6,000 owners

There is some hope.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coincidentally, the graph comparing the time and the amount of Sakura games coming out is similar to the amount of sales the Sakura titles have veen making.

 

Sakura Spirit: 200,000 owners

Sakura Angels: 55,000 owners

Sakura Fantasy: 17,009 owners

Sakura Swim Club: 15,000 owners

Sakura Beach: 6,000 owners

 

There is some hope.

The problem is its probably even highly profitable with 1000 sales unit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's what they use to make these games.

If Sakura Clicker assets are any example, it pretty much confirms that, tbh. (they're designed like those dress-up flash games the float around the net, where you can swap in clothes/parts/hair etc.)

It's pretty much a recipe for a endless source of short vns. The only expense that they might have to pay for in future creations are the unique CGs.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just finished playing Sakura Swim Club the other day, ffs Winged Cloud.

I just finished it an hour ago and it took like 2 hours. Gotta give dem weabs their quick fix lol. Seriously, this was like "Baby's first Visual Novel" on the developer's part. Art's not half bad, but I honestly read it after Ren and you chopped it to bits just to see if it was that much of a steaming pile of poo poo. I was not surprised. It's nice if you want a short fix, but Katawa Shoujo routes take about as much as this game and offer a lot more catharsis lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coincidentally, the graph comparing the time and the amount of Sakura games coming out is similar to the amount of sales the Sakura titles have veen making.

 

Sakura Spirit: 200,000 owners

Sakura Angels: 55,000 owners

Sakura Fantasy: 17,009 owners

Sakura Swim Club: 15,000 owners

Sakura Beach: 6,000 owners

 

There is some hope.

Nope. No hope left, as long as their patreon still active https://www.patreon....ingedcloud?ty=h

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coincidentally, the graph comparing the time and the amount of Sakura games coming out is similar to the amount of sales the Sakura titles have veen making.

 

Sakura Spirit: 200,000 owners

Sakura Angels: 55,000 owners

Sakura Fantasy: 17,009 owners

Sakura Swim Club: 15,000 owners

Sakura Beach: 6,000 owners

 

There is some hope.

Sakura Beach 2 was greenlit, right?

You're telling me that what was by FAR the worst selling game is the one getting a sequel?

Isn't that resoundingly idiotic from a purely logical perspective?

Though I guess they'll probably have the half decent artist on the job for this one.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=517179270

 

Nope, same artist as Sakura Beach 1.

 

Looking at the Greenlight page, I see Steamers swarming it to it like flies to a carcass.  Frenetically copulating.  Laying their eggs inside.  Spawning more maggots to spread the putrescence yet further.

 

... I wonder if Winged Cloud will notice if I lay a Shiny Days ad inside the comments as bait for the flies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I simply love how Winged Cloud's business became a simulator of japanese eroge industry.

 

There's a distinct correlation between the time required to create a game, it's quality and profits you make out of it. High quality titles require a lot of work (and often heart) to be put into them; we're talking about months, if not years of hard work. It's not only about length and ammount of content, quality work requires time. When they get released, if advertisted properly beforehand, they quite often reach at least a certain degree of success and make profit; in worst case it's enough to cover production costs and continue making new games. Succesful titles or franchise get sequels or continuations... but it's not always the case, as long-term production can often lead to a lot of issues and easily turn into a nightmare. There's a lot of risk involved; history shows that with high quality titles, that haven't really achieved any sort of success (although they should), or even generated losses, causing their studios to shutdown (Katahane makes a great example). Within a market, that's highly oversaturated and full of tense competition and vividly changing trends, it's often a matter of life and death, where a single failed game can shatter everything you've built so far.

 

This is why studios often tend to drop high quality production in favor of smaller projects, which lead us to budget games.

Why did budget games became a leading factor nowadays? Simply because there's little to no risk involved, in case the game flops. Budget games can be made really fast - we're talking about weeks of production at most. They tend to be a lot smaller and high production values are replaced with quicker release dates and a lot cheaper price tag. Depending on certain factors, those games can sometimes become as successful as the AAA titles, or even better. It's no wonder a lot more studios and developers are embracing this kind of business model and churn out a lot of smaller, mediocre games, instead trying to make something big an worthwhile. Unfortunately it has it's downsides. If not handled properly, budget games have a leaning towards constant quality loss and it makes further games look even more bland than the previous releases. As the overall quality drops, so does the number of potential customers. There is a certain threeshold that cannot be crossed though; as long as one can maintain good PR or catter to a certain niche or their fans, they will sell enough copies to make a living.

 

In a nutshell, it's Winged Clouds' destiny, if they won't change anything. Will they? I doubt. As long as their Patreon will keep supporting them, they will be able to churn out more games in a relatively small time frame and their fans and supporters will continue to buy them. As much as "Sakura-whatever" trend is slowly declining at the moment, even a thousand copies sold is more than enough to keep them going on; it doesn't matter they're only deepening their own hole and with every released game it's going to be harder to crawl out of it. I doubt they even really care anymore.

It's quite ironic, since I can safely assume the majority of WG's success lies in their artist. I'm really amazed she just keeps on making art for them, as she could as well just start her own business right now and it would propably kill Winged Cloud. knowing modern standards, I doubt she's making that much revenue. I wouldn't be surprised if she's simply tied up and unable to quit at the moment. I'd feel at least deeply ashamed myself being forced to make art for that kind of business.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I actually prefer Beach's art :(

You're not alone. When they first announced the game, I quickly checked the artist's deviantart page and was far more impressed with it than I was with Winged Cloud's original artist.
But I guess we have shit taste. :(

Regardless, the different artsyle is the primary reason Beach sold so poorly.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nope. No hope left, as long as their patreon still active https://www.patreon.com/wingedcloud?ty=h

You are kidding me right? 11k dollars each month. Well played Winged Cloud. They are probably floating forever now. Sales are just a bonus. I don't know how many employees Winged Cloud got but I doubt they are that many.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are kidding me right? 11k dollars each month. Well played Winged Cloud. They are probably floating forever now. Sales are just a bonus. I don't know how many employees Winged Cloud got but I doubt they are that many.

That's exactly my point. Based on their patreon page, there is no hope for winged cloud to change their business model. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...