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G-senjou no Maou LIVE on Steam


Hackrabbits

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Let's complain about the fact that they'll be selling voices for 20$, shall we?

Let us also disregard the fact the the price of the Visual Novel with voices is fairly reasonable for Visual Novel standards, while the no voice version is actually fairly cheap.
The price for full length voiced Visual Novels usually are in the 35-60$ range, so I see absolutely no reason to complain about this. They aren't removing content and selling the removed content at absurd levels. They're removing the content and making a cheaper version instead.
 

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The question is why they don't let you buy the voices later on?
"We couldn't make dlc from it due to contractual agreement."

So they can sell the game with voice acting and without but not add it a dlc thus forcing everyone that bought the game to buy it again? Sounds like bs to me, to be honest I'm not questioning sekai because probably this is not their choice or decision, still the way this companies do business is really questionable...to say the least. But hey they are selling the game to the western public right? we should agree and be ok with everything they do no matter what.<_<

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The question is why they don't let you buy the voices later on?
"We couldn't make dlc from it due to contractual agreement."

So they can sell the game with voice acting and without but not add it a dlc thus forcing everyone that bought the game to buy it again? Sounds like bs to me, to be honest I'm not question sekai because probably this is not their choice, still the way this companies do business is really questionable...to say the least. But hey they are selling the game to the western public right? we should agree and be ok with everything they do no matter what.<_<

If you want voices why would you buy the version without them? To test it out?
If there's no demo I could consider that as reasonable. Check if it works on my system at  lesser risk... Except there's a refund system on Steam.

What plausible reason is there to buy the voiceless version if you want voices? I could consider that for some strange reason you thought you didn't need voices, then after 3 hours of playing you changed your mind, but you should know what you're getting into when there's 2 versions. It ain't DLC, it's two different versions. Unless they advertise it as DLC, which would be moronic and doesn't seem like they are doing, this sounds like a reasonable move to offer a cheaper version to those not willing to splurge on the VN scene.

Maybe I'm the crazy one here, but it just sounds bonkers to me people interpreting this move as an evil plot to rip everyone off and suck our wallets dry.
 

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The question is why they don't let you buy the voices later on?
"We couldn't make dlc from it due to contractual agreement."

So they can sell the game with voice acting and without but not add it a dlc thus forcing everyone that bought the game to buy it again? Sounds like bs to me, to be honest I'm not questioning sekai because probably this is not their choice or decision, still the way this companies do business is really questionable...to say the least. But hey they are selling the game to the western public right? we should agree and be ok with everything they do no matter what.<_<

You're not interpreting their tweets correctly and they're expressing interest in having an upgrade option. They said they aren't allowed to handle this via the Steam DLC system. With the way Japanese voice agencies work, I would not be surprised in the slightest if they couldn't release voices as DLC because the agencies mandate that the voices be bundled with the game and not available separately in any way. However, Steam also supports setting it up so the voice version would be $20 if you already own the unvoiced version, and it sounds like SP wants to do this.

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The question is why they don't let you buy the voices later on?
"We couldn't make dlc from it due to contractual agreement."

So they can sell the game with voice acting and without but not add it a dlc thus forcing everyone that bought the game to buy it again? Sounds like bs to me, to be honest I'm not question sekai because probably this is not their choice, still the way this companies do business is really questionable...to say the least. But hey they are selling the game to the western public right? we should agree and be ok with everything they do no matter what.<_<

If you want voices why would you buy the version without them? To test it out?
If there's no demo I could consider that as reasonable. Check if it works on my system at  lesser risk... Except there's a refund system on Steam.

What plausible reason is there to buy the voiceless version if you want voices? I could consider that for some strange reason you thought you didn't need voices, then after 3 hours of playing you changed your mind, but you should know what you're getting into when there's 2 versions. It ain't DLC, it's two different versions. Unless they advertise it as DLC, which would be moronic and doesn't seem like they are doing, this sounds like a reasonable move to offer a cheaper version to those not willing to splurge on the VN scene.

Maybe I'm the crazy one here, but it just sounds bonkers to me people interpreting this move as an evil plot to rip everyone off and suck our wallets dry.
 

people that buy vns on steam doesn't really know about this "genre" yet or whatever you want to call it, maybe you buy it and later on you want to add voices, why do you have to buy the game again when you already have it? doesnt that "contractual agreement" sounds dubious to you? It is the same exact version without a file with the voices

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Sure. People on Steam can be taken for fools who don't read anything, I'm sure millions will be conned by buying the cheaper version without informing themselves first.
As long as they clearly label them as two different versions, I don't see how this is unethical. One should know what he's getting into. Sure it would be best if you could upgrade it, but you're reading so much into this intricate scheme of theirs I simply can't empathize at this point.

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The question is why they don't let you buy the voices later on?
"We couldn't make dlc from it due to contractual agreement."

So they can sell the game with voice acting and without but not add it a dlc thus forcing everyone that bought the game to buy it again? Sounds like bs to me, to be honest I'm not questioning sekai because probably this is not their choice or decision, still the way this companies do business is really questionable...to say the least. But hey they are selling the game to the western public right? we should agree and be ok with everything they do no matter what.<_<

You're not interpreting their tweets correctly and they're expressing interest in having an upgrade option. They said they aren't allowed to handle this via the Steam DLC system. With the way Japanese voice agencies work, I would not be surprised in the slightest if they couldn't release voices as DLC because the agencies mandate that the voices be bundled with the game and not available separately in any way. However, Steam also supports setting it up so the voice version would be $20 if you already own the unvoiced version, and it sounds like SP wants to do this.

maybe I am, the truth is I'm not happy so far on how they are handling things, maybe I'm wrong and by the time the game is released they add an option to upgrade it so you can add the voices and they also release an uncensored version on denpasoft that cost the same as the steam version...

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Voice acting in Japan is really expensive and the costs of licensing voices are usually separate from the actual game itself because of royalties and other stuff.

$20 for full voice acting really isn't an absurd price tag for a game as long, and imo as well voice acted, as G-senjou is.
Voice acting is an incredibly valuable asset in a medium like visual novels, there are people who buy games for the voice actors even.
The original Japanese version of G-senjou no Maou retails for $60, so you're actually getting a discount either way. (although h-scenes being removed could be the reason here)
In fact, most VNs that end up licensed are cheaper than their original Japanese counterparts, people just aren't aware of how pricey PC games are in Japan.

As for why the voice acting can't be sold as a separate dlc, it's really anyone's guess, but I'm sure this was a restriction imposed on them by the original publisher, not something Sekai Project decided on their own.

Edited by Nosebleed
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Grisai cost the same (I think) so why not? if front wing did it why not akabei, btw I never said anything about the price or the voices costing too much, to be honest I don't have any idea how much they cost but I'm sure they are not cheap also I did state that I was sure that it wasnt something that sekai decided to do.

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Grisai cost the same (I think) so why not? if front wing did it why not akabei

Different companies have different policies. What can you do.

Grisaia actually received a big price drop from the original $80 down to $39.99, so there really isn't anything weird going on here.
Sekai Project seems to be pricing their big titles fairly consistently, which if you ask me is a pretty good thing.

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I've apparently used up my quota of likes today, I'll need to revisit this thread tomorrow. 

Voices are incredibly expensive, $40 is out of the price range most people are willing to spend on VNs, some people (unknown how many) don't care about voices, the half-price offer might be a way to entice those looking for a good read (and who don't care about voices) to splurge. $20 is about the price of a book, which seems more reasonable when people are looking to buy a VN.

Take me, for example. I never listen to voices when I play a VN, I read quickly and waiting for the lines to be voiced is annoying, especially when the voices are in another language and you can't pick up a lot of the verbal cues. So, 40 US dollars is about 55 Aus dollars, and being a book nerd I have alternative sources of entertainment, thus the VN had better be DAMN good for me to buy. At 20 US dollars on the other hand, well... I may impulse buy that one day, or I'll buy it if I'm curious. The lack of voices doesn't impact me.

I'm pretty happy with the decision by Sekai, I don't know why people are mocking it. Quite a few of the most owned VNs on Steam aren't voiced btw, so not everybody considers it a 'must have' feature.

EDIT REASONS - Fiddling with font. 

Edited by Rooke
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Voices are incredibly expensive, $40 is out of the price range most people are willing to spend on VNs

I'd like to single this out specifically so I can say that $40 is NOT what most people are willing to spend on VNs, which is the whole point of this split in the first place. The last year of VNs being on Steam showed us something very important, that price is one of the biggest factors for a VN's popularity. Low-costing inferior products outsell high-costing superior products by a disproportionately large amount. Even a VN with the popularity of Grisaia isn't immune from this. It has sold only around 6-7,000 copies outside of its kickstarter. Therefore, SP is exploring alternative payment options. I still like my episodic idea a lot better because you could set lower price-points, but maybe that would take too much engine rejiggering to be viable, or perhaps there was a licensing issue, who knows. 

Edited by Decay
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Voices are incredibly expensive, $40 is out of the price range most people are willing to spend on VNs

I'd like to single this out specifically so I can say that $40 is NOT what most people are willing to spend on VNs, which is the whole point of this split in the first place. The last year of VNs being on Steam showed us something very important, that price is one of the biggest factors for a VN's popularity. Low-costing inferior products outsell high-costing superior products by a disproportionately large amount. Even a VN with the popularity of Grisaia isn't immune from this. It has sold only around 5,000 copies outside of its kickstarter. Therefore, SP is exploring alternative payment options. I still like my episodic idea a lot better because you could set lower price-points, but maybe that would take too much engine rejiggering to be viable, or perhaps there was a licensing issue, who knows. 

It depends. Even among the low priced games (around $10 or lower) there's still a big gap between those that have storylines and those that are more

light-hearted (nekpara, Sakura games). It'll likely give them more sales, but I doubt it'll be anything too significant. 

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I only hate that they started this "experiment" on such good and well-know title. On the other hand we already have a best version, translated years ago and I have my physical copy no one will take from me. Just I already see how new readers would get much worse experience than I had, having scenes removed/images cropped and now even without voices... Looks like they intentionally want to ruin the experience user will get in order to sell that big... Already see post with complains "and this is in top ten of VNDB?? really???"... If dovac want money - why ruin good games? Create your own Sakura Clicker for 10$ and get your billions... I already thought, that this release would be a bad thing, but I never thought it would become even worse than I thought it would be...

Edited by Scorp
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Removal of scenes cannot be helped on Steam (although I am under the impression that those can be added back by acquiring a different version?), but this is the first I hear about cropped images (actually thought they had made them better...)

Furthermore, Sakura sales versus every other VN clearly shows that what Steam users want are inferior products. :sachi:

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Removal of scenes cannot be helped on Steam (although I am under the impression that those can be added back by acquiring a different version?), but this is the first I hear about cropped images (actually thought they had made them better...)

Go to G-senjou's Steam page and look at the screenshots for the CGs, then compare them to the original versions of the same CGs.  They're cropped.  It's just a typical PR spin to make it sound better than it is.

They have basically guaranteed that I will not be buying either version of the localized G-senjou.  While I think the voiceless version is incredibly stupid (why the hell would you remove voiced lines from a VN?  Adding them I can understand, but removing them?  lol), I could just ignore it and get the voiced version.  The cropped CGs, however, completely ruin my motivation to purchase any version, voiced or not.  You done fucked it up, Sekai Project.  I'd rather the full CG didn't scale well than it scale well and miss part of the CG.

Their response to this tweet scares me.  If English dubs for anime are generally pretty bad, I shudder to think how crappy they'll be for VNs, considering the profit margin and audience is even smaller.  I really hope that was just a poorly worded response.

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That's... really odd. Voices are expensive, okay, but once you got them why would you not throw them in anyway? Does the seiyuu company take a cut on every voiced copy? Is this a sort of attempt at giving a full products to fans while trying to reach out to new clients with cheap games?

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I don't think that SP is planning to add english dubs to their vns that are originally on japanese maybe they are referring to OELVN that eventually will have english voice acting, like Sunrider in the future(?) but who knows, they have this weird and ambiguous way to comunicate things so everything is possible

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 I still like my episodic idea a lot better because you could set lower price-points, but maybe that would take too much engine rejiggering to be viable, or perhaps there was a licensing issue, who knows. 

I'm a big fan of episodes also, the future of Visual Novels is episodic content imo. The price point is one of the biggest obstacles to decent sales, along with accessibility (otherwise known as most 'reader's' don't do their reading on a computer.)

Edited by Rooke
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  • 4 weeks later...

No, and looks awesome in widescreen, this looks like the ultimate edidion, fuck the useless and crappy porn .

Hey now, let us respect the people who play G Senjou for the h-scenes. *giggles softly in the corner* :holo: 

I only hate that they started this "experiment" on such good and well-know title. On the other hand we already have a best version, translated years ago and I have my physical copy no one will take from me. Just I already see how new readers would get much worse experience than I had, having scenes removed/images cropped and now even without voices... Looks like they intentionally want to ruin the experience user will get in order to sell that big... Already see post with complains "and this is in top ten of VNDB?? really???"... If dovac want money - why ruin good games? Create your own Sakura Clicker for 10$ and get your billions... I already thought, that this release would be a bad thing, but I never thought it would become even worse than I thought it would be...

We all know Sekai Project is here for the money and here to stay. They dont give 100 shits about what you want or hate as long as they are making money off these vn plebeians aka the Steam adolescents who just had their first masturbation session to hentai last week.

Edited by CeruleanGamer
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