Bishoujo game on psp

[fujifruit]

How many places do you intend to post this? You've already posted on VNDB and /jp/...

[Jinnai]

I'm talking about releasing all-ages games on consoles. I know it does take money to submit a game to get a rating, but what else is the deal with them? What exactly did he mean by "it's like pulling teeth" at times?

...That's it? Having the occasionally subjective "T" rating as opposed to the expected "E" rating or the occassionally subjective "M" rating as opposed to the expected "T" rating is a reason to write off the ESRB as some kind of obstacle for VNs? I know they can be weird at times, but really, is that all there is to it?

It can actually be quite different. Take for example Persona games. In Japan they are rated CERO B, something likely to get an E10+ in the US under a majority of circumstances. In the US, its rated M for the same content.

The ESRB gets pissy when they slap a vastly incorrect label on something because they didn't bother testing the product before rating it and then their rating is shown to be completely wrong.

This is also true. They hoot and hollar when developers don't send them material that they would deem rating something higher (or they don't review it properly), but defend rating something at a higher level than it should have been as though their word is somehow perfect.

If you view the industry as a shareholder who knows NOTHING about gaming, and considers it no different than your typical banking investment, it makes a lot more sense I guess...

IDK. If you look at it from a comparison of Windows investor where they get out of the way of anyone who wants to develop for them (save for buying their products), then it actually wouldn't make sense. When you look at it that way, they are arbitrarily limiting their potential profit. True, they have their own faults including trying to heavily compete in the application aspect, but that doesn't affect most gamemakers, especially visual novels. They also didn't say you couldn't develop game X for Y region.

[Peter Payne]

Unfortunately I can't think of anything less likely to happen than visual novels on PSP. We sell them in Japanese on J-List (the non-ero types plus the "UMD video" adult games), and I can't imagine the ridiculously closed-minded Sony allowing these in English. They deserve everything that's happened to them, being so closed minded.

[Lancer-X]

I don't think Sony would have any issues content-wise with the all-ages titles (stuff like Second Novel) although I can't deny that Sony probably sucks too much to allow it to be translated in the first place, lest something actually GOOD come out for PSP in the West; something Sony's been desperately trying to avoid.

[Peter Payne]

Not so much content as the sure knowledge that "these won't sell" and "no one wants to play a game without sprites and missiles and gameplay." It's the same thing they've been doing forever, being closed minded to new genres. Curse them and crush them.

[Jinnai]

I don't think Sony would have any issues content-wise with the all-ages titles (stuff like Second Novel) although I can't deny that Sony probably sucks too much to allow it to be translated in the first place, lest something actually GOOD come out for PSP in the West; something Sony's been desperately trying to avoid.

Sony seems to want the product to make money even if all of the burden is being borne by the 3rd-party publisher.