MangaGamer Considering Crowd Funding

[solidbatman]

In the latest staff blog post on MangaGamer, Bamboo, President of Overdrive had something interesting to say.

 

 

 

I think it would be wonderful if we can form a bridge between Japanese developers and fans abroad. I think it would be really interesting if we could create something to let the enthusiastic voices of fans abroad reach developers in Japan. Also, I’d like to try using crowd-funding to actually gather localization funds and use it to convince other Japanese developers.

 

I know there is a thread for this sort of thing, but I think this is the first I've seen of a higher up in a localization company say something like this. Would crowd funding work for MangaGamer?

 

Full post here: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2013/12/19/a-short-look-back-part-3/#more-6297

[MellowMadman11]

Seems like an alright idea to me.

[Nosebleed]

It's an interesting approach. Certainily more money has more impact but it also depends on who they're going to try and contact to localize VNs. And there's always that factor that Japanese companies simply will never give 2 craps about the western market regardless of anything.

I don't think it's a bad decision overall.  It all depends on how they will apply that crowd funding 

It actually makes me a bit excited thinking that more VNs will get localized. But at the same time MangaGamer focuses a lot more on the H-content so it's not like we'll suddenly get Little Busters localized or some big scale VN. Still it's nice to know that MangaGamer wants to expand the eroge market. I'm okay with it. I'll start buying from them if they localize Onii-chan sharing~

[Zakamutt]

And there's always that factor that Japanese companies simply will never give 2 craps about the western market regardless of anything.

 

MangaGamer was started by an alliance of japanese companies, apparently

[Nosebleed]

MangaGamer was started by an alliance of japanese companies, apparently

My bad, i didn't know this.

Still their goal is mostly licensing VNs from other companies and sell them in the west, and that's the thing a lot of bigger VN companies aren't very interested in. At least from what I've seen. 

I wish them the best of luck though. Someone has to take the first step.

[Albedo]

 

It's an interesting approach. Certainily more money has more impact but it also depends on who they're going to try and contact to localize VNs. And there's always that factor that Japanese companies simply will never give 2 craps about the western market regardless of anything.

I don't think it's a bad decision overall.  It all depends on how they will apply that crowd funding 

It actually makes me a bit excited thinking that more VNs will get localized. But at the same time MangaGamer focuses a lot more on the H-content so it's not like we'll suddenly get Little Busters localized or some big scale VN. Still it's nice to know that MangaGamer wants to expand the eroge market. I'm okay with it. I'll start buying from them if they localize Onii-chan sharing~

 

 

Using crowd-funding to get more nukiges would be pretty stupid, since they can just license them anyway...

[nohman]

I'm curious of just how successful it would prove to be, particularly if it's used to consistently fund/partially fund projects. I can imagine some reluctance people might have over the idea, as it could look like an already established business is simply using crowd funding to avoid cost of capital. I can see how it might be good in showing western interest and enthusiasm for the licensing of titles, but that would probably be better demonstrated by sales numbers.

 

I think that it's a interesting idea and one that I would love to see work though. I'm all for the localization of more story-focused titles.

[Nosebleed]

Using crowd-funding to get more nukiges would be pretty stupid, since they can just license them anyway...

But judging by MangaGamer's catalog i think it's safe to say they focus a big portion of it on eroge and the whole uncensored CG thing rather than story focused VNs. 

Even in the comments of this update users are saying they're happy they'll get more eroge and not more visual novels. 

Not saying they'll focus on nukiges, i doubt they'll do that and it'd be pretty stupid if they did in my opinion but i also doubt they'll leave out the eroge and focus on non-h content because their audience is highly based on eroge.

Keep in mind by eroge i mean a VN with h-scenes NOT a nukige.

I'm fine with eroge, as long as the story is decent enough i don't mind a couple h-scenes. 

 

Basically MangaGamer should just keep doing what they're doing, with more funding they can reach out to more VNs/Eroge, just don't waste it on nukiges.

[Albedo]

Yeah, but eroge is a catch-all term; MLA, F/SN, Kara no Shoujo and Maiden Rape Assault: Violent Semen Inferno (real title, http://vndb.org/v1292) are eroges.

[Nosebleed]

Yeah, but eroge is a catch-all term; MLA, F/SN, Kara no Shoujo and Maiden Rape Assault: Violent Semen Inferno (real title, http://vndb.org/v1292) are eroges.

*after laughing at that title for a couple minutes*

 

That's true it is a broad term but i just wanted to make it clear that what i meant by spending the funds wisely is not spending them on h-content focused VNs (like Rape Assault: Violent Semen Inferno) but on VNs that have some story, even if they have h-scenes like Kono Oozora or Shuffle. If they do this then i'm 100% okay with it.

[Naraku93]

I agree with Nosebleed, if they're willing to spend the money in some story focused visual novel and not on random nukige, then I'd be more than happy to support them.

[Goldie-Chan]

I would be willing to support this method if it was a story title that would be rather expensive for them to produce. However, I wouldn't get anywhere near it if it was another random nukige from them, as I'm not even interested in their nukiges even now.

[BookwormOtaku]

Could be how we finally end up with Shin Koihime Musou localized

[shcboomer]

Seems like a good idea, let's see where they go from here.

[Flutterz]

If the end result of all this is more non-nukige translated to English, I'm all for it.

[RusAnon]

But at the same time MangaGamer focuses a lot more on the H-content so it's not like we'll suddenly get Little Busters localized or some big scale VN.

Its not like MG don't want big titles themself. They tried talking with Visual Arts (Little Buster's copyright holders), and were turned down, for example. Having enough money, and more importantly, being able to demonstrate demand for such games, would significantly help persuading jap devs to consider localizations.

[Nosebleed]

Its not like MG don't want big titles themself. They tried talking with Visual Arts (Little Buster's copyright holders), and were turned down, for example. Having enough money, and more importantly, being able to demonstrate demand for such games, would significantly help persuading jap devs to consider localizations.

Well i can understand why they want the titles and i wish they had gotten them but of course that will take a lot of work and negotiation. I sure hope it's possible to get deals with big companies like Visual Arts/Key of course. They do mention they want to create a bridge more than anything. I think the fact that this is crowd funding will speak for itself in regards to the "demand" department. If people from the west are raising money to get VNs localized specifically then I'm sure japanese companies will understand this is an opportunity to expand the market. The numbers never lie.

At least that's what I hope for. We can only wait and see how it turns out though.

[Darklord Rooke]

It's an excellent idea, but it also smells a little of desperation. It'll be interesting to see the amount of money they can raise.

[Okami]

Using crowd-funding to get more nukiges would be pretty stupid, since they can just license them anyway...

 

No it would be pretty smart, they start crowding-funding then they license nukiges that they could license even without crowd-funding so they keep most of the crowd-fundings money in their pockets. If they wanted to license story driven titles they would say so but they didn't because if they did they would have to do it but without saying it they can just continue the same way as now just giving us more nukiges then usual. And if someone complains they can just say where did you get that idea from we newer sad that we would license non-nuikage titles it is a misunderstanding from your side we are not at fault. And even if you hold it against them they wouldn't care since if you complain then you don't want nukiges and as they sell only nukiges you aren't their customer either-way so they don't lose anything.

[RusAnon]

Btw, it just occurred to me, that its possible to get quite good numbers on MG sales by tracking order IDs.

For example, on my account,

2013-06-15 #002048

2013-11-01 #005650

2013-12-21 #007212

Would be great if other people who bought stuff from them (esp. those, who have hard-copies section orders) would share order# and date. I bet with enough of such pairs it would be possible to even estimate individual title sales.

This probably deserves own thread, but at same time kinda rude to pry into their business like that.

[SieghartXx]

If they did polls to let the buyers suggest the games they would like to play, it would be awesome. 

[Nosebleed]

If they did polls to let the buyers suggest the games they would like to play, it would be awesome. 

They already have a forum with a section for this where you can request VNs to be licensed though most of them don't even get recognized. I do think they could use a more effective method in order to get costumer suggestions.

[SieghartXx]

They already have a forum with a section for this where you can request VNs to be licensed though most of them don't even get recognized. I do think they could use a more effective method in order to get costumer suggestions.

O: I didn't know that. But seeing that they translate mostly games focused around h-scenes, I can imagine how they don't pay much attention to that topic. Letting the users choose and pay for what they want is, in my opinion, something really beneficial for them, as they would improve themselves by making bigger projects (I mean, translating something like... Dunno, Harem Party isn't as difficult as translating longer and deeper games, like F/SN for exaaaample). They would become more influential, as they would be translating nice and popular games and not just "fap material" as people tend to call it D: I don't know, that's what I think, maybe I'm just delusional as always.

[Nosebleed]

O: I didn't know that. But seeing that they translate mostly games focused around h-scenes, I can imagine how they don't pay much attention to that topic. Letting the users choose and pay for what they want is, in my opinion, something really beneficial for them, as they would improve themselves by making bigger projects (I mean, translating something like... Dunno, Harem Party isn't as difficult as translating longer and deeper games, like F/SN for exaaaample). They would become more influential, as they would be translating nice and popular games and not just "fap material" as people tend to call it D: I don't know, that's what I think, maybe I'm just delusional as always.

I'm not telling them to drop the fap material. They clearly make money off of that too.

I just don't think they should invest the raised money on that but on bigger projects like you said. They can still license the fap material as they currently stand so investing funds on it would be pretty stupid. I do think something like a poll or other method where every user can make a suggestion and that suggested is taken into account would be a really helpful addition in order to raise trust from costumers when they give funds.

[SieghartXx]

I'm not telling them to drop the fap material. They clearly make money off of that too.

I just don't think they should invest the raised money on that but on bigger projects like you said. They can still license the fap material as they currently stand so investing funds on it would be pretty stupid. I do think something like a poll or other method where every user can make a suggestion and that suggested is taken into account would be a really helpful addition in order to raise trust from costumers when they give funds.

Oh, don't take me wrong, what I meant to say is that they could venture into larger projects too, not just in the "fap material" ones. As you said, they should do something to raise funds; like the projects for kickstarter, but having the users choose. If they manage to raise the funds, they could do it, if not, they could try another suggestion.

For example:

 

User A wants Majikoi to be officially translated, some other users want it too so Mangagamer does the "kickstarter" to see if they can raise the funds, after all the preparations and stuff needed. If it succeeds, they can take the project.

In case it doesn't, they look at the suggestion of User B, who wants to play Nanatsuiro Drops, and some other fellows join in too, so they repeat the process. If they raise the funds, they do it. They can still do the other games too, "fap materials", as they always have two or three projects going on, and they can do even more if none of the "popular" projects get the necessary funds.

 

I know it's overly simplified, but a system like that would be really good in my opinion.