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The future of different western eroge publishers


bakauchuujin

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Just now, Kiriririri said:

Not that hard if you have 2 memory cards thoo

I believe the saves still won't work when you switch to a PS account with a different reagion, as they are linked with the previous one.

That's at least the warning I got when I switched to the JP store from the EU one. Haven't actually tested it though, since I only have one memory card.

So, it might work for people with several cards, but that is not the case for everyone, so it is still an unecessary inconvenience for many. (When everyone were promised the game.) So, yeah, there is possibly a way around it, but the issue is that there shouldn't be a need for a way around it. Everyone who pledged for the vita game should get the vita game for their region. They already paid for something that they now possibly won't get, which sucks.

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Just now, Kiriririri said:

 

 

This was posted a few days ago, and people are aware, but the issue remains. They literally planned on just releasing the game in one region, despite knowing that they had pledges coming in from all over the world, which is absurd. Not to mention, who knows when this "solution" will take place, and what it involves. Maybe their solution is just "wipe your saves and log on the US store."

The game will be coming out on the US store shortly. The promise of a vita version was made ages ago, durnig the original campaign, and people from all regions already paid for it.

So, while they might do something about it after all the backlash, this situation should never have taken place, basically.

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9 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

This was posted a few days ago, and people are aware, but the issue remains. They literally planned on just releasing the game in one region, despite knowing that they had pledges coming in from all over the world, which is absurd. Not to mention, who knows when this "solution" will take place, and what it involves. Maybe their solution is just "wipe your saves and log on the US store."

The game will be coming out on the US store shortly. The promise of a vita version was made ages ago, durnig the original campaign, and people from all regions already paid for it.

So, while they might do something about it after all the backlash, this situation should never have taken place, basically.

You're saying that they should have postponed any US release until they figured out a solution for the other regions?

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1 hour ago, Mr Poltroon said:

You're saying that they should have postponed any US release until they figured out a solution for the other regions?

No, that's not what I mean. The promise of a vita release was done when the campaign was still underway. The KS was funded literally 2 years ago.

So, what I'm saying is that they should have tried to figure something out during those two years. And, if there was absolutely no physical way for them to release an EU version next to the US version, then this should have been made clear to all backers the moment it was discovered, so that the poor backers who don't get their rewards could file for a refund/ ask for steam keys etc.

EDIT:

Look at the phrasing of this update made in November of last year. It doesn't mention a single thing about it not being available to all regions, and just hypes the vita backers up for the release. So, it's a huge bomb to drop on people a few weeks before the Vita version launches that only US backers will get it.

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Got to love how they phrase things

We certainly haven't forgotten about you, the Root Double family. Well except for all the backers that are not from North America, that is seemingly a part of the family you didn't care about that much.

We appreciate everyone's patience during the development of this port, and can't wait for all of you backers to get your hands on it. This is just a blaitant lie, not all backers will get their hand on it. Either they are lying, didn't know about the only North America problem even at such a late date or the ones writing this just wasn't informed. Lies and incompetence, yeah this is the SP we all know.

Kind of want to change my wish for the future of SP to burn.

Also it seems like they didn't care about anyone not from North America before the backlash. Here is a line from their kickstarter update. 

Quote

 

With this, the journey has come to an end. Root Double’s campaign is now officially wrapped up.

 

 

Edited by bakauchuujin
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15 minutes ago, Toranth said:

I'm amazed at all the people who bought something from an American company and are now surprised that said American company was going to deliver an American-targeted product.

All of their other VNs are available for other regions. Also there was nothing in the kickstarter about it only being brought to America. From my understanding the localizers of VNs generally target all who speaks english outside of Japan. Also I gues no one will care if Nekonyansoft just decides that they will not let anyone outside of europe access their VNs.

Just look at this line I found from their about us page on SP homepage. 

Quote

 

Started in 2013, we were a small group of fans who wanted to bring over our favorite Visual Novels from Japan to the rest of the world.

 

They really haven't done anything to my knowledge so far that says that they are a North American company who only delivers to North America. So I would think your argument about them being an American company is pretty bad. The image they have given of so far is that they localize things for the english speaking world outside of Japan, when they suddenly betray this image and because of it planned to not deliver on something people payed for I would say the people who payed for it should arguably be pretty mad. I am not a backer of this kickstarter so this doesn't effect me personally, though I find this behaviour of them to be very bad.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I know I'm late to this thread, but I want to give my thoughts on the matter.  Particularly my predictions on the publishers that I know.

MangaGamer:  Honestly, they're the best VN publisher ever.  They always deliver on their promises, and they have good relations with customers.  I see a bright future for this publisher.

Jast USA:  They're like MangaGamer, but they're slower with VN releases.  The current rate of which they release VNs has got me a bit concerned about them falling behind expectations, so I hope they improve on that in the future.  Other than that, they're fine.

Sekai Project:  Ugh...  I consider them the Activision of the VN industry.  Shady business practices, attempting to price gouge customers with overpriced patches, and VERY questionable translations.  Not to mention, just overall bad relations with customers in-general, especially in regards to the CEO of the company. (Anyone remember the Sekai Project VS Imouto Works 18+ patch debacle?)  I hope they'll go out of business one day, and I'm glad Frontwing pulled out of their VN deals when they could.

Frontwing:  After their fallout with Sekai Project, I say they're just fine on their own.  Sure, they have had their fair share of mistakes, but unlike SP, they listen to feedback and actually improve on their problems.  I see a bright future ahead of them.  Though I wish they would take back the Grasaia series from Sekai Project.

Mikandi:  After their abysmal train wreck of a translation with Libra of the Vampire Princess, they left a terrible first impression on me.  It seems they're new to the VN industry, so it could be just an honest newbie mistake, but if they don't improve with their next project, I see them going under completely.  Right now, it's make or break for them.

Moenovel:  Just what the hell is up with this publisher?  Are they following in 4Kids' footsteps or something?  Their releases are just straight-up insults to VN readers.  You do not take an eroge and transform it into something more family friendly.  That's just a recipe for disaster right there.  Not to mention, the terrible translation quality.  Pulltop, just please end your deals with Moenovel.  It's not worth it anymore.

Edited by EastCoastDrifter
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7 hours ago, EastCoastDrifter said:

Moenovel:  Just what the hell is up with this publisher?  Are they following in 4Kids' footsteps or something?  Their releases are just straight-up insults to VN readers.  You do not take an eroge and transform it into something more family friendly.  That's just a recipe for disaster right there.  Not to mention, the terrible translation quality.  Pulltop, just please end your deals with Moenovel.  It's not worth it anymore.

A few things:

They still remove H-Scenes, but they've stopped altering scripts considerably. That's, uh, something, I guess...?

Their translation quality does not seem to be particularly bad at the moment. If My Heart Had Wings may have given them a poor reputation, but every title since has been in actual, readable, understandable, English. I'm sure there's plenty to nitpick about, but you can do that to any translation (This is probably the laziest way to dismiss criticism. To put it another way, I don't think the translation is bad, and that's all that matters to me).

Bad news for you: So far as we know, Moenovel is Pulltop. As in, Pulltop created Moenovel specifically to localise their titles. It is quite possible that all these ill-advised decisions fall on Pulltop, as Love Kami -Divinity Stage- clearly showcased the cooperation between the two. Not sure we can be quite certain, but it bloody well looks that way.

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On 10.02.2018 at 7:09 PM, Toranth said:

I'm amazed at all the people who bought something from an American company and are now surprised that said American company was going to deliver an American-targeted product.

 

Are any of you surprised that you get a Japanese copy when you order from Yeti?

Now that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard this evening. I would sure want to see people's faces when PQube runs a kickstarter and then releases the game only for the Great Britain because they are a british company. And then Toranth is like "darn, people are so stupid, it's so obvious that localisation companies only make products for the country they've been registered in when launching worldwide crowdfunding, why would they tell about it beforehand".

Edited by novurdim
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1 hour ago, novurdim said:

Now that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard this evening. I would sure want to see people's faces when PQube runs a kickstarter and then releases the game only for the Great Britain because they are a british company. And then Toranth is like "darn, people are so stupid, it's so obvious that localisation companies only make products for the country they've been registered in when launching worldwide crowdfunding, why would they tell about it beforehand".

Er, yes?  I would expect a British company to sell to Brits.  For non-Brits that want to import it, especially those with incompatible systems (such as electrical voltage), you deal with it yourself.  You certainly don't expect that foreign company to cater to you, unless they said they would.  And as far as I know, they never said that.

If common sense is the most ridiculous thing you've read this evening, you must be participating in something truly amazing.

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6 hours ago, Toranth said:

Er, yes?  I would expect a British company to sell to Brits.  For non-Brits that want to import it, especially those with incompatible systems (such as electrical voltage), you deal with it yourself.  You certainly don't expect that foreign company to cater to you, unless they said they would.  And as far as I know, they never said that.

Guess you don't have much experience with localisation companies and Kickstarter if this is somehow common sense to you. At least it looks like you have fun applying inapplicable.

Edited by novurdim
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44 minutes ago, Veshurik said:

No, first time I hear about it, can you tell me, please? Thank you.

Two years ago, a user who went by the name "Imouto Works" released 18+ patches for VNs on Steam for free, some of which were VNs published by Sekai Project like Grisaia no Kajitsu.  Sometime around summer 2016, Sekai Project took notice of this and cracked down on his patches, with the CEO threatening Imouto Works immaturely to take them down or face legal repercussions.  While at the same time, in response to this, Sekai Project published their own 18+ patches for Steam VNs on Denpasoft, but they were overpriced, and customers were accusing Sekai Project of price gouging.  Due to the bad publicity from this, relations with customers were soured.  And it got to the point that Frontwing, who originally relied on Sekai Project to publish their VNs in the west, cut all ties with Sekai Project entirely and went to publish VNs oversees on their own.

Mind you, this was a while ago, so I don't remember the exact details.

Edited by EastCoastDrifter
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1 minute ago, EastCoastDrifter said:

Two years ago, a user who went by the name "Imouto Works" released 18+ patches for VNs on Steam for free, some of which were VNs published by Sekai Project like Grisaia no Kajitsu.  Sometime around summer 2016, Sekai Project took notice of this and cracked down on his patches, with the CEO threatening him to take them down or face legal repercussions.  While at the same time, in response to this, Sekai Project published their own 18+ patches for Steam VNs on Denpasoft, but they were overpriced, with customers accusing Sekai Project of price gouging.  Due to the bad publicity from this, relations with customers were soured.  And it got to the point that Frontwing, who originally relied on Sekai Project to publish their VNs in the west, cut all ties with Sekai Project and went to publish VNs oversees on their own.

Mind you, this was a while ago, so I don't remember the exact details.

With the caveat that I do not remember the exact details either, I do believe you've got the order wrong. This 'Imouto Works' group was releasing 18+ free patches for products to which Sekai Project had paid 18+ DLC. Sekai Project did not start providing 18+ DLC after this; they were already doing so by this point. I think.

And... I'll refrain from commenting on the pricing.

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22 minutes ago, Mr Poltroon said:

With the caveat that I do not remember the exact details either, I do believe you've got the order wrong. This 'Imouto Works' group was releasing 18+ free patches for products to which Sekai Project had paid 18+ DLC. Sekai Project did not start providing 18+ DLC after this; they were already doing so by this point. I think.

And... I'll refrain from commenting on the pricing.

I remembered the CEO going on an immature rampage to crack down on Imouto Work's patches, and thought that Sekai Project was publishing those patches as a counter-response.  I've read it from one of @sanahtlig's blogs, so I was under the assumption that it was the case and not the other way around.

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18 minutes ago, EastCoastDrifter said:

I remembered the CEO going on an immature rampage to crack down on Imouto Work's patches, and thought that Sekai Project was publishing those patches as a counter-response.  I've read it from one of @sanahtlig's blogs, so I was under the assumption that it was the case and not the other way around.

This jogs my memories. It used to be that instead of Steam patches, SP simply released a steam version, at a reduced price, and an adult version, at a normal price.* Imouto Works was taking the adult versions Denpasoft released and creating free patches to apply to the steam version. This would theoretically steal sales from Sekai's adult version, beyond being pretty illegal.

From there on Denpasoft started releasing actual paid patches, which is what I believe the blog is referring to.

 

*The topic of pricing is debatable. As you can see, Sanahtlig himself did not seem to perceive the pricing as fair, as well as many other people.

Edited by Mr Poltroon
Altered pronouns and such to make it clearer.
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2 minutes ago, Mr Poltroon said:

This jogs my memories. It used to be that instead of Steam patches, they simply released a steam version, at a reduced price, and an adult version, at a normal price.* Imouto Works was taking the adult versions Denpasoft released and creating free patches to apply to the steam version. This would theoretically steal sales from Sekai's adult version, beyond being pretty illegal.

I think this is true. From what I remember, the "patch" simply took all the files from the Denpa version and simply replaced the files in the Steam version with them (I didn't use it, just remember reading somewhere that it weighted as much as the full game).

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12 minutes ago, Mr Poltroon said:

This jogs my memories. It used to be that instead of Steam patches, SP simply released a steam version, at a reduced price, and an adult version, at a normal price.* Imouto Works was taking the adult versions Denpasoft released and creating free patches to apply to the steam version. This would theoretically steal sales from Sekai's adult version, beyond being pretty illegal.

From there on Denpasoft started releasing actual paid patches, which is what I believe the blog is referring to.

 

*The topic of pricing is debatable. As you can see, Sanahtlig himself did not seem to perceive the pricing as fair, as well as many other people.

Either way, from what I've gathered so far, the way the situation was handled was bad enough to get Frontwing to cut ties with SP entirely.  I'm not sure if there were more things happening behind the scenes leading up to this, like a bad deal or something.  All I know is that before the incident, Frontwing relied on SP to publish their VNs in the west.  Now after the incident, Frontwing has become an independent VN publisher in the west on their own.  It makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

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Yeah, according to VNDB the official 18+ patch released at the same time as the main game on June 27th, so there's no way Imouto Works could've distributed the patch before Sekai Project did.

1 minute ago, EastCoastDrifter said:

Either way, from what I've gathered so far, the way the situation was handled was bad enough to get Frontwing to cut ties with SP entirely.  I'm not sure if there were more things happening behind the scenes leading up to this, like a bad deal or something.  All I know is that before the incident, Frontwing relied on SP to publish their VNs in the west.  Now after the incident, Frontwing has become an independent VN publisher in the west on their own.  It makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

This isn't true, either. In fact, it's impossible. Corona Blossom Vol. 1 was released by Frontwing in July 2016 and its Indiegogo campaign was launched before Karakara even came out. Considering that Corona Blossom was localized by an in-house team and months of preparation would've been needed, that means that their going independent had already been decided long before this happened. Also, going independent isn't reason to believe that they "cut ties" with Sekai Project. SP licensed Grisaia, which means they never had an exclusive partnership with Frontwing (unless explicity stated), and they never made any indication that they were planning on licensing more Frontwing titles. Their relationship with Frontwing started and ended with the Grisaia trilogy. If you want a real example of a Japanese developer cutting ties with a localization company, look at what happened with Muv Luv and Degica.

Ironically, Frontwing adopted the same pricing scheme for Corona Blossom ($10 for the base game; $10 for the patch) and have only recently changed their tune.

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11 minutes ago, EastCoastDrifter said:

Either way, from what I've gathered so far, the way the situation was handled was bad enough to get Frontwing to cut ties with SP entirely.  I'm not sure if there were more things happening behind the scenes leading up to this, like a bad deal or something.  All I know is that before the incident, Frontwing relied on SP to publish their VNs in the west.  Now after the incident, Frontwing has become an independent VN publisher in the west on their own.  It makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

Orrrrr it may be entirely coincidental. Translating and releasing things on your own is a much better deal than relying on publishers. Every cent goes to Frontwing now!

If anything were to truly be the cause of this 'cutting of ties', as you put it, I'd attribute it to translation speed more than anything. Frontwing bought up another English translation for Idol Michiru Whatever while Sekai Project was still translating the trilogy, and given that the translator for the trilogy, Koestl, is generally considered an excellent translator, some people were mad at Frontwing because they used an allegedly inferior translation from someone else for the Idol spin-off.
It was after this that Frontwing got a TL team of their own and started releasing the Grisaia spin-offs by themselves, and then transitioned to translating their own backlog of titles as well as producing new ones dual-language. Perhaps their dealings led them to having the opportunity to contract some translators and they decided it was a better long-term investment.

 

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