Jump to content

It's Official, Almost 1 Year After it's Release Subarashiki Hibi One of the Best VN Ever Made Didn't Sell


Nier

Recommended Posts

VbNMFUA.jpg

Subrashiki Hibi only sold about ~2k copies.

Also there was the confirmation from SCA-DI himself way back then:

Basically Subarashiki Hibi that came out on the 30th August 2017 sold ~4.5k copies less than the All-Ages version of Littler Busters which came out on the 1st November 2017, in any case if it's not obvious it should be mentioned that both are terrible sale numbers.

After this, I don't think that Makura are gonna be too eager to release in the West the definitive version of Subarashiki Hibi anytime soon, nor one of the other best VN ever made, Sakura no Uta.

Edited by Nier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Dergonu said:

To be fair, the western release was censored, so many people probably chose not to buy it in protest. Yes, it was simply one CG and nothing more, but censorship is censorship. It's an important issue to many in this community. 

There was a patch for it on day 1. Anyone who wanted to decensor it could have done it in matter of 5 minutes. I am guessing most people who wanted to buy SubaHibi backed it on KS, so the Steam sales were expectedly low because of that. However, that doesn't explain poor sales of other titles like LB (yeah, it had a fanpatch for a while, but still...). Generally, VNs sell like trash in the West (aside from few cash cows).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Infernoplex said:

There was a patch for it on day 1. Anyone who wanted to decensor it could have done it in matter of 5 minutes. I am guessing most people who wanted to buy SubaHibi backed it on KS, so the Steam sales were expectedly low because of that. However, that doesn't explain poor sales of other titles like LB (yeah, it had a fanpatch for a while, but still...). Generally, VNs sell like trash in the West (aside from few cash cows).

Yes there was an unofficial patch. People still chose not to buy the game because of the censorship. It's not about being able to restore the content or not, it's about the fact that the censorship took place at all. I know for a fact that some people I know refused to buy it because of the censorship. You could also see several people state the same during the KS and Prefundia. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Dergonu said:

Yes there was an unofficial patch. People still chose not to buy the game because of the censorship. It's not about being able to restore the content or not, it's about the fact that the censorship took place at all. I know for a fact that some people I know refused to buy it because of the censorship. You could also see several people state the same during the KS and Prefundia. 

I can understand those people too, but with that kind of mindset I am even more convinced VNs (or at least eroge with problematic content) shouldn't be officially localized. With fans pushing in one way and companies pushing in another, there will never be an agreement between the two. I can understand JP companies (and for that matter, official VN localizers) who worry about legal issues more than the fans' backlash. So yeah, RIP VNs in the West.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Infernoplex said:

I can understand those people too, but with that kind of mindset I am even more convinced VNs (or at least eroge with problematic content) shouldn't be officially localized. With fans pushing in one way and companies pushing in another, there will never be an agreement between the two. I can understand JP companies (and for that matter, official VN localizers) who worry about legal issues more than the fans' backlash. So yeah, RIP VNs in the West.

Mangagamer has localized several games with content other companies would censor without any issues. (Kuroinu, BBH, Maggot Baits, featuring everything from beastiality rape, loli rape, extreme gore and more.) Not to mention Fakku releasing an uncut version of Maitetsu. 

It's clear from these examples that other companies can release the uncut games just fine. Both JAST and Frontwing should learn from these examples, tbh... Hopefully people's complaints are heard, and they try to find a solution that other companies clearly already found. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Mangagamer has localized several games with content other companies would censor without any issues. (Kuroinu, BBH, Maggot Baits, featuring everything from beastiality rape, loli rape, extreme gore and more.) Not to mention Fakku releasing an uncut version of Maitetsu. 

It's clear from these examples that other companies can release the uncut games just fine. Both JAST and Frontwing should learn from these examples, tbh... Hopefully people's complaints are heard, and they try to find a solution that other companies clearly already found. 

I'm not sure how MangaGamer went around the issue (well, they are based in Japan from what I know, so I am not sure which laws and how are they following them), but Fakku can do it because they are based in Oregon and are using some special law there which protects them from any potential issues that may arise. For JAST/FrontWing/AnyoneElse they would have to move their companies, and I don't know how viable that would be for them. I doubt they would move just because fans want them to do it. There's probably a whole stew of issues with that, and I seriously doubt any of these companies will move to Oregon just for this reason.

Anyway, censored or not censored, I think most eroge sell like trash in the West. Aside from some which sold well, most "barely made it", or didn't sell at all. And I consider that a shame... most plotges don't sell well. Based on what I am seeing on MG's store for weeks now... their best sellers are those 3rd party H-RPG games. This "Treasure Hunter Claire" and that earlier H-RPG by Kagura Games... they sold pretty well. I remember seeing it so many times in top 5 on MG's store.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Infernoplex said:

Anyway, censored or not censored, I think most eroge sell like trash in the West. Aside from some which sold well, most "barely made it", or didn't sell at all. And I consider that a shame... most plotges don't sell well. Based on what I am seeing on MG's store for weeks now... their best sellers are those 3rd party H-RPG games.

From MangaGamer apparently Tokyo Babel and The Shadows of Pygmalion from propeller didn't sell, Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning -What a Radiant Brave- from Liar soft didn't sell and The House in Fata Morgana from Novectacle didn't sell either, very low sales numbers all around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Nier said:

From MangaGamer apparently Tokyo Babel and The Shadows of Pygmalion from propeller didn't sell, Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning -What a Radiant Brave- from Liar soft didn't sell and The House in Fata Morgana from Novectacle didn't sell either, very low sales numbers all around.

I didn't want to name these titles, but yeah, it's pretty known that chuuniges sell like shit. MangaGamer confirmed for all these that they sold poorly. So plot-centric titles rarely sell well. It's a great shame in my opinion. Titles that deserve more attention usually don't get any or barely any. Fata Morgana was praised by word of mouth so much and it still didn't sell that well apparently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

This just proves the West doesn't deserve kamige. Sales tells companies all they need to know and they don't give a shit if people want it enough if they know from past experience that it won't sell to their expectations.

The worst thing is that when you release a game in english, you are basically releasing to a worldwide audience since english is (unlike japanese) an international language, imagine your work as a writter, director etc. being adulated when it releases in your own domestic market and then in contrast being basically ignored when it releases to everybody else a few years later, it's like sending the message saying "your work ain't worth paying for" or "your work ain't worth shit!".

In contrast Subarashiki Hibi just got released again in Japan a few days ago:

cQc9ewG.jpg

Edited by Nier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Tweek91330 said:

It's a shame to see the work of a skilled writer like scaji sell less than little buster, which mostly everyone played with the fan translation back in the days.

Little Buster is a Visual Art's/Key title, which also received a 2 season anime and probably manga adaptations and such, in contrast Subarashiki Hibi is not from a company that has the same renown as Visual Art's/Key nor does it have any anime adaptation.

So the fact that SubaHibi wouldn't sell as much is not all too surprising it, however both sales number are terrible especially for Little Busters considering all I just said above.

 

19 minutes ago, bakauchuujin said:

Sakura no Uta and Fate not coming to the west I suppose, well at least we still get lots of good titles considering the sales numbers.

Fate? Which "Fate"? Fate/stay night?

Edited by Nier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I'm not exactly surprised that it didn't do well. If you look at the Steam page it 'looks' like run of the mill school life moege 3728, just with outdated art.

And if you the look at the story synopsis you get:

Quote

Wonderful Everyday is a visual novel with multiple routes which develops a story based on a few concepts: "the sky and the world", "the beginning and the end", "literature and science", "savior and hero", "brother and sister".

What the heck is that supposed to tell me? :blink: 

And the more detailed description is so bizarre that it doesn't really make it better. Someone who isn't a VN insider would never get the idea that this is something worth reading.

2 minutes ago, Nier said:

From MangaGamer apparently Tokyo Babel and The Shadows of Pygmalion from propeller didn't sell, Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning -What a Radiant Brave- from Liar soft didn't sell and The House in Fata Morgana from Novectacle didn't sell either, very low sales numbers all around.

Apparently only the initial sales of Tokyo Babel weren't that good, but it picked up momentum afterwards. Conjueror made a twitter statement regarding that some time ago, that didn't sound like disappointing sales at all. Shadows of Pygmalion probably didn't sell that well though. But Fata Morgana did EXTREMELY well according to MangaGamer - I've no idea where you heard the opposite. It just wasn't a hit in Japan. Not sure about Ghakthun though, but if Steam Spy is still any guideline then both Tokyo Babel and Gahkthun sold about 10.000 copies just on Steam, not counting the copies sold at the MG store.

And there are VN's that did pretty well, like Dies Irae for example which did fantastic with more than 50.000 sales. And there are more like Grisaia, Nekopara, etc. So could we please not judge overall VN sales just by one flop?! :yumiko:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, bakauchuujin said:

Ye Fate/stay night, considering that they would want really high sales I doubt that they would localize it when they can see this kind of sales for highly rated titles.

Fate/stay night Realta Nua is fantastic, I just got done replaying it a few days ago (originally played it for the first time in summer 2014), but I can see why they aren't too eager to license their pure VN titles (Tsukihime, Fate/stay night Realta Nua, Fate/hollow ataraxia and Mahoutsukai no Yoru) seeing as how million of people will probably swear up and down that they'll DEFINITLY buy it if it's ever officially released in english, only to pull out at the least second when it finally gets released and it's actually time to pay.

There's quite a few Fate/ title released in english, there was Fate/Extra released for the PSP by Aksys and Fate/Extella released on PS4, PS Vita and Steam, doesn't seem like they sold tons.

 

6 minutes ago, Kiriririri said:

Lmao do you really think majority cares about that

Yeah this seems a little far fetched, plus there is a patch that's 1.6MB to restores that missing 1 CG. Otherwise it's literally unplayable!

Edited by Nier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How, oh how am I not surprised at all?

People aren't interested in great, thought-provoking stories. All they care about are animay boobs.

I actually doubt whether they are actually read at all. VNs on Steam are an entirely different beast, with both western and english-language versions of new games tailored specially towards your average Steam user, choke full of memes & silliness to warrant decent streaming potential... and gods forbid them for containing any sort of politically incorrect content. People are so surprised publishers nowadays rarely release large titles without crowdfunding help.

VNs were niche, are a niche and will forever remain a niche. You actually need a bit more than just a decently written story to garner any sort of success.

At this point, from a western developer's perspective, it's better to remain small and balance between funding, quality and creativity.

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...