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Clannad release imminent - You hyped?


Dergonu

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If you don't think it's a fair price, then you're a douche that just wants free games.  [/dovac]

Seriously, though, I laughed out loud when I found out the price.  Good luck convincing anime fans (most of the ones I know just pirate anime) and random Steam users to drop $50 on an 11-year-old VN when they could get a new AAA game for just $10 more, HD art assets or no.  Really makes me question how much they understand the average Steam user.  Someone also mentioned this ad, which some people are saying could mean that they arbitrarily raised the price at the last minute, but obviously there's no proof, so I'd take that with several grains of salt.

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the memorial edition cost 47 dollars http://key.visualarts.gr.jp/product/clannad/

Yeah, but this is the price from 2010/05/28. And it's still for a physical copy (like that 40$ one that I linked), not for a digital one. But yeah, it's possible that this was Key's idea.

Whenever people were complaining that Western releases of VNs are too expensive, I was always pointing out that they are much cheaper than in Japan, so they have nothing to complain about. This is the first time when I can't say this.

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I honestly think $50 is a fair price for Clannad.
Take into account the amount of work that went into this localization, it wasn't just using a fan translation, it was done from scratch and HD assets ported over, and considering its length, I really do think a $50 price tag isn't that absurd when you compare it to everything else currently available in the West.
G-senjou costs $40 and is way shorter than Clannad, so if people thought $40 for G-senjou was fair, I don't see many reasons to think $50 for one of the most famous visual novels on the planet isn't a fair price.
The only real argument I can see for the price not being fair is the age. Clannad is over a decade old, and you can easily find it in Japan at absurdly cheap prices if it's secondhand (looking brand new), and even brand new ones won't go over $40, but that extra price to me seem like it has a lot to do with the cost of localization. I also think that, for a price to be this high, Visual Art's is very likely trying to take a big chunk of the profit to themselves.

I am however concerned that this will turn off a lot of Steam's userbase. Almost nobody on Steam wants to drop $50 on a chinese powerpoint game unless they know it's an absolute masterpiece, and I'll go ahead and guess that many wouldn't drop $50 for any kind of visual novel because they don't believe the story itself, no matter how good, is worth that much without any form of meaningful gameplay.

TL;DR
I don't think the price is unfair, but I do think it could really harm sales.

And this raises another question: How much will LB! cost..?

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I think the price is okay, I didn't have a problem paying 45€ for Steins Gate (twice, 1 time digital on PS3 and one time physical for my PSV later) so I would also pay this if it weren't Steam, not because of the usual reason which is the case for many other VNs but because I hate Steam.

If it were a GOG or Disc-release without Steam DRM I wouldn't even hesitate, I would even pay more than 50€.

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While I don't think $50 is unfair for such a long visual novel, I do think it would have been better if they had priced it from $30-$40. Of course, I guess people could always wait for it to go on sale at some point.

Either way, I already paid for a physical version through the kick-starter so I can't say I care too much (although I certainly want the title to be successful). 

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I honestly think $50 is a fair price for Clannad.
Take into account the amount of work that went into this localization, it wasn't just using a fan translation, it was done from scratch and HD assets ported over, and considering its length, I really do think a $50 price tag isn't that absurd when you compare it to everything else currently available in the West

 

well but wasn't all that work paid with the campaign money in the first place?

the memorial edition cost 47 dollars http://key.visualarts.gr.jp/product/clannad/

Yeah, but this is the price from 2010/05/28. And it's still for a physical copy (like that 40$ one that I linked), not for a digital one. But yeah, it's possible that this was Key's idea.

Whenever people were complaining that Western releases of VNs are too expensive, I was always pointing out that they are much cheaper than in Japan, so they have nothing to complain about. This is the first time when I can't say this.

I know I was just posting the real reference to the price.

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Assuming everything related to localization got paid through Kickstarter, the only reason I can see for this price is Visual Art's taking a huge chunk of the profit or straight up having the rights to set the price as they wish.

VNs in Japan have always been super expensive due to their high production values and niche market, it's not surprising that a release this big would make the developer want a good profit out of it.
I still think $50 is a fair price, assuming everything has thoroughly undergone quality checking and is as good as it can be. Just because a game is a decade old does not mean the price should inherently drop a lot, especially not when it's a series as famous and as sought after as Clannad.

I do think the Japanese market and the Western market operate very differently and have very different expectations though and I can not imagine this tactic pulling in a lot of new costumers but rather just pulling in existing anime fans and VN fans and then just sorta dying out like Grisaia did (Grisaia still only has about 10k owners).

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Cost Breakdown

  • 10% goes to Kickstarter fees and credit card fees
  • 40% goes to translation and editing costs
  • 50% goes to voice costs as well as physical goods production and shipping.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Leaving that aside

is weird because in the campaign 50 dollars was the physical tier, but maybe they will drop the price the release day to 40 or 45

 

Damn forum I can't write properly anymore :(  

Edited by Deep Blue
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I would pay $50 for a physical copy of Clannad but the $50 price tag for a digital copy doesn't sit with me as a good price unless it came with extras if you pre-ordered or something. I may have to sit this one out until the Steam winter sale even though Clannad comes out a day before my birthday.

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LL_BrT8xWeIcAAj0K8.jpg

MFW people just want free shit. Considering it's huge size and the amount of work with localization, 50$ is nothing special. You don't have to buy it, if you don't like it; you have literally no obligation to do that and no one's forcing you, either. It's that kind of attitude from the western fanbase that makes things difficult for everyone.

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Totally agree. The price is fair. Especially considering if we westerners want untranslated VNs we have to pay out like 80-100$+, due to the third party shipping costs. Honestly, 50$ is more than fair. 

Especially because of how big this project has been. 

Cant wait for it to release!

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It's not only about being one of the longest and biggest translation projects, ever. The game itself is insanely long and thus, you can't really complain about 50$ being "too much", considering how many hours of reading you'll be getting out of it. I'd even say 50$ for a translated game like this seems a bit underpriced. It's just hilarious how single-minded western fans are; it's like they feign complete ignorance in regards to localization attempts every single time, when things don't go their way.

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Honestly, here's your problem with it, and why visual novels just aren't ported as much. Taking the technical aspects into account with localization and everything else, $50 seems to be a pretty fair price. It's comparable to typical costs for PS4 and X-Box games out there, so it's not like gamers don't drop that kind of cash on something.

The problem lies in that it's not really a game. As a visual novel, you're asking people to drop $50 for a digital Choose Your Own Adventure novel that likely consists of repeating backgrounds and character images and mostly reading text with a few choices here and there to set a path to an ending. It has some replay value in choosing a few different paths, but in the end, it's a digital book, which makes it hard to justify asking someone to drop $50 on it. Considering most typical books run $10 to $30, depending on what it is and who the author is, etc. $50 is steep even for cool sprites and voices. Your typical gamer is not going drop that sort of cash on that sort of thing unless they're already into the format.

Concurrent development of Japanese and English versions of a visual novel would be a better method, but without any guarantee it'll sell in the West (or should we say East, I mean, technically the USA is more East of Japan than West) it would be hard to convince a company it's worth their time.

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Honestly, here's your problem with it, and why visual novels just aren't ported as much. Taking the technical aspects into account with localization and everything else, $50 seems to be a pretty fair price. It's comparable to typical costs for PS4 and X-Box games out there, so it's not like gamers don't drop that kind of cash on something.

The problem lies in that it's not really a game. As a visual novel, you're asking people to drop $50 for a digital Choose Your Own Adventure novel that likely consists of repeating backgrounds and character images and mostly reading text with a few choices here and there to set a path to an ending. It has some replay value in choosing a few different paths, but in the end, it's a digital book, which makes it hard to justify asking someone to drop $50 on it. Considering most typical books run $10 to $30, depending on what it is and who the author is, etc. $50 is steep even for cool sprites and voices. Your typical gamer is not going drop that sort of cash on that sort of thing unless they're already into the format.

Concurrent development of Japanese and English versions of a visual novel would be a better method, but without any guarantee it'll sell in the West (or should we say East, I mean, technically the USA is more East of Japan than West) it would be hard to convince a company it's worth their time.

this is not really meant to appeal to average gamers though... 

If you dont like the genre then its not suprising that you dont want to buy the game. 

This is meant to appeal to western VN fans, new or old. 

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 this is not really meant to appeal to average gamers though... 

If you dont like the genre then its not suprising that you dont want to buy the game. 

This is meant to appeal to western VN fans, new or old. 

But that's precisely the problem with Japanese visual novels in the West: the market is super niche.

If you can't appeal to a wider audience, you're bound to not sell very well, and this could potentially make developers like Key back off from localizations if they can't turn in a good profit margin.

The problem with the price point being this high is that it'll heavily restrict the amount of people who will actually want to buy it to simply anime/visual novel fans, and probably only the hardcore ones that are willing to pay $50 for it knowing it's going to be that good.

The Western market expects a game's price point to be related to the amount, or at least quality, of gameplay, not just the story itself, so you'll find it very hard to convince people to pay $50 for literally no gameplay over here.
Japan understands the value of things like good art and good voice acting and the target audience over there is way bigger, that's why price points like this are something much more acceptable there, but over here that type of stuff won't fly very well, that's just the reality of it.

I'd love it if people bought Clannad en masse, but I'm very skeptical it will happen like this.

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Totally agree. The price is fair. Especially considering if we westerners want untranslated VNs we have to pay out like 80-100$+, due to the third party shipping costs. Honestly, 50$ is more than fair. 

Especially because of how big this project has been. 

Cant wait for it to release!

Normally games cost 50$ at launch and I always found strangely weird they sell visual novels for lower prices. I mean they sell the novels as if they were vita games which is strange. I guess the amount of money it cost depends of how much content and how long the vn is?

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 this is not really meant to appeal to average gamers though... 

If you dont like the genre then its not suprising that you dont want to buy the game. 

This is meant to appeal to western VN fans, new or old. 

But that's precisely the problem with Japanese visual novels in the West: the market is super niche.

If you can't appeal to a wider audience, you're bound to not sell very well, and this could potentially make developers like Key back off from localizations.

well, if they try too hard to appeal to people who doesnt really enjoy reading In general, and who prefer fast gameplay etc. It will have a negative effect on the people VNs are  originally supposed to appeal to. 

 

You simply cant please everyone. 

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 this is not really meant to appeal to average gamers though... 

If you dont like the genre then its not suprising that you dont want to buy the game. 

This is meant to appeal to western VN fans, new or old. 

But that's precisely the problem with Japanese visual novels in the West: the market is super niche.

If you can't appeal to a wider audience, you're bound to not sell very well, and this could potentially make developers like Key back off from localizations.

well, if they try too hard to appeal to people who doesnt really enjoy reading In general, and who prefer fast gameplay etc. It will have a negative effect on the people VNs are  originally supposed to appeal to. 

 

You simply cant please everyone. 

That's not the issue here or what I'm trying to argue for. I'm saying that if you want people who don't know visual novels at all to experience them, and possibly become visual novel fans themselves and help the market grow, price points this will mostly have adverse effects.

I think there should be more options to sell visual novels that allow for lower price points, that's likely the best way for visual novels to spread more easily over here in the West.

Something like a non-voiced version the way G-senjou did it was a great idea, for example.

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 this is not really meant to appeal to average gamers though... 

If you dont like the genre then its not suprising that you dont want to buy the game. 

This is meant to appeal to western VN fans, new or old. 

But that's precisely the problem with Japanese visual novels in the West: the market is super niche.

If you can't appeal to a wider audience, you're bound to not sell very well, and this could potentially make developers like Key back off from localizations.

well, if they try too hard to appeal to people who doesnt really enjoy reading In general, and who prefer fast gameplay etc. It will have a negative effect on the people VNs are  originally supposed to appeal to. 

 

You simply cant please everyone. 

That's not the issue here or what I'm trying to argue. I'm saying that if you want people who don't know visual novels at all to experience them, and possibly become visual novel fans themselves and help the market grow, price points this will mostly have adverse effects.

now that is probably true, but that really isnt their intention as of right now I would think. 

For people just getting into VNs, a long and time consuming project like Clannad probably isnt the best place to start. 

My friend just got into VNs, and he is having trouble getting through if my heart had wings, which is in the same genre, but significantly shorter.

but you raise a good point there. There should be more cheap options available, though Clannad probably isnt the VN to achieve that with, considering its length and hefty translation time. 

Sorry if my comments seem kinda scrambled, I'm on 3G net on my Iphone atm. 

Edited by Dergonu
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