Comic Con 2010 Q&A

[Vardest]

While I would imagine that most people had enough questions answered by the AX Q&A, I'll open this up so if something new has popped into your heads you can have me talk to Peter and Shingo about it in person. I'll probably go all 4 days for at least a bit, unless this damn heat wave kills me (give me a snowstorm over a heat wave any day of the week).

[Nandemonai]

I've always liked cold climate myself. My personal attitude is that you can always put more clothes on; you can only take so much off before they arrest you.

And yeah, I actually do have a question that I forgot to post up before. In a thread from 2008, Shingo said they were looking at finding a way to release the Milky House Collection (read: Nocturnal Illusion) in downloadable form since the disc is out of print. Any update on that at all?

[Lipp]

Questions

1. What's up with Crowd? They blocked outside access and a game from them haven't been released in a while. Have ties been severed or do we have any word on what's happening/happened there? +add in an 'X-change Alternative 2' pwease

2. There's translation projects for all 3 of Nitro+Chirals Yaoi titles, the closest being 'Togainu No Chi' which is also getting an anime. Is there an interest in licensing these? I am a member of the projects for all 3 titles too, so if they are interested, do give them my name I can talk to the other members about it if there's an interest.

3. Has JastUSA contacted Mangagamer? What are relations between the 2 like?

[michelous]

are you going to otakon as well

1 are you interesting in more h-games with other elements(rpg, mini-games, ect)

that is all i can think of

Questions

1. What's up with Crowd? They blocked outside access and a game from them haven't been released in a while. Have ties been severed or do we have any word on what's happening/happened there? +add in an 'X-change Alternative 2' pwease

and 3 methods to conquer the world

[Vardest]

are you going to otakon as well

No they won't be going to Otakon, something that was announced back in early June. viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6706

[michelous]

no i mean you personally
mangagamer will be there but not at comic con

[Vardest]

Ah, well in that case the answer is not a chance in hell. If Otakon was on the West Coast then I might have thought about it, but considering where it's being held...not happening.

[eropanic]

Can you ask them about the situation between Minori and NO NAME LOSERS? If you haven't heard yet, here it is: http://www.siliconera.com/2010/07/18/mi ... ion-group/

If NO NAME LOSERS, a fan translation group, can't raise the funds to get an official license would JASTUSA be interested? While it seems hopeless for now to see a Minori game officially released if their current concern is funds rather than the reason for IP blocking, then wouldn't Ef be much safer than a mostly unheard of game?

[Vardest]

Just an update, Comic Con's first day is tomorrow night. Also, it is HIGHLY unlikely that I'll be going on Sunday, so make sure any of your questions are posted no later than Friday night.

[Ignosco]

With regards to J-List's sales of Japanese eroges, where would be the best place to post suggestions for titles that they could get in stock? Their current lineup is extremely odd, and if they had some of the more popular/better titles in stock, for both preorders and already released eroges, they'd be able to sell a lot more copies.

Thanks in advance.

[Vardest]

Back from preview night and thanks to the relatively small crowd (by Comic Con standards), I was able to ask Peter all the questions posted.

Regarding the Milky House Collection: They do intend on getting it set up in download form, but it's not exactly their top priority right now (Demonbane).

Their relationship with MangaGamer: He said they have spoken and he likes what they have been doing. He also doesn't really view them as a rival due to the sheer number of titles that have yet to be translated.

Their interest in Eroge with gameplay: While they are definitely interested in getting more games of this type, there are only so many games put out that aren't standard ADV's. Considering Alicesoft turned them down and they haven't spoken to Eushully yet, their options are pretty limited right now.

Regarding the NNL/Minori situation: He doesn't think that Minori's initial response was really necessary, but he did say that if Minori and NNL decided that they wanted to work together he would be open to negotiating a deal.

Relations with Crowd and reaction to their recent IP blocking: He hasn't spoken with Crowd for quite a while and didn't even know that they had started blocking foreign IP's. He actually wasn't even aware if X Change Alternative2 had been released yet. (He didn't even seem to know about 3 Methods.)

Thoughts on Nitro+ Chiral: While they had tried to get Nitro+ to let them work on two games at once, they have been adamant that they want to see how well Demonbane does before they commit to any other titles. As such while Peter seemed interested to hear about the TL projects for the Chiral titles, right now their hands are tied until they see how well Demonbane does.


I may not be going there tomorrow, but I will certainly be going on Friday and Saturday so if you guys have any further questions make sure to post them before hand.

[eropanic]

The wording on the "Thoughts on Nitro+ Chiral:" has me a bit confused.
They tried to get Nitro+ to let them work on two games at once -> succeeded and doing Demonbane and Jingai Makyou, but cautiously seeing how Demonbane does before others besides Jingai Makyou are approved.

They tried to get Nitro+ to let them work on two games at once -> failed and only doing Demonbane (working on one title) -> seeing how Demonbane turns out before allowing the second game, Jingai Makyou, and other titles to be worked on .


No follow up questions are necessary, but I hope it isn't the later. It would be terrible news if the second game may be at risk...

Thanks for asking about Minori. I hope you have a great time.

[Nandemonai]

He wasn't even aware Xchange Alternative 2 was even out? I thought XChange was one of their most popular franchises. I guess not anymore.

(If it were, they wouldn't have let it go this long without even looking into whether the game was out ... they'd've been anxious to get it out.)

[Skua]

The wording on the "Thoughts on Nitro+ Chiral:" has me a bit confused.
They tried to get Nitro+ to let them work on two games at once -> succeeded and doing Demonbane and Jingai Makyou, but cautiously seeing how Demonbane does before others besides Jingai Makyou are approved.

They tried to get Nitro+ to let them work on two games at once -> failed and only doing Demonbane (working on one title) -> seeing how Demonbane turns out before allowing the second game, Jingai Makyou, and other titles to be worked on .


No follow up questions are necessary, but I hope it isn't the later. It would be terrible news if the second game may be at risk...

The wording is clear. At Anime Expo, JAST USA already said that Nitro+ wanted to gauge the success of Demonbane before going ahead with other games. Notice that Jingai Makyou wasn't mentioned during the presentation, even though a new game from Will (Tenkuu no Yumina) was announced.

He wasn't even aware Xchange Alternative 2 was even out? I thought XChange was one of their most popular franchises. I guess not anymore.

Yeah, it sounds as if they haven't discussed business in years.

FWIW, the XCA2 script was said to be three times as long as its predecessor (which I suppose was more elaborate than the original trilogy?), which might make it less attractive for localization. It seems that everyone prefers the two extremes - short sex-oriented fluff and elaborate story-heavy games. If they're going to invest a lot of time into translation, they'd rather target the highly acclaimed stuff.

[stranger]

sorry, didn't notices this thread earlier, hopefully it is not to late to ask this:

does JAST get negative treatment from eroge makers after the loli and rape ban threats? (they are used to been told "we are not interested in licensing our titles" before the threat, how about now? did any of their existing partners change their behavior? did someone ask to withdraw their licensed title? or did they lose any "almost signed" titles?)

FWIW, the XCA2 script was said to be three times as long as its predecessor (which I suppose was more elaborate than the original trilogy?), which might make it less attractive for localization. It seems that everyone prefers the two extremes - short sex-oriented fluff and elaborate story-heavy games. If they're going to invest a lot of time into translation, they'd rather target the highly acclaimed stuff.

time to get some "cost vs profit" matrix, otherwise it is always going to be a "guess game"

[Dark_Shiki]

Their interest in Eroge with gameplay: While they are definitely interested in getting more games of this type, there are only so many games put out that aren't standard ADV's. Considering Alicesoft turned them down and they haven't spoken to Eushully yet, their options are pretty limited right now.

Softhouse Chara would be another good gameplay-oriented company to talk to. Their games are mostly SIM-oriented--something very rarely seen in H-games. Wizard's Climber in particular is a great game that has Princess Maker-esque gameplay to it, which would surely be popular in the West. They've spoken out against censorship in their titles before (in response to the Rapelay debacle), and may be friendly to negotiations.

Could you ask about / suggest Softhouse Chara?

[stranger]

let us not forget Studio e-go! after everyone left them, their only option to make money is to license their titles (or hire new staff)

[michelous]

i hope that with the knowledge of the new crowd stuff will get jast to license their newer gender based titles

[kyrt]

I'm wondering around how many people they actually have working for them. The amount of labor force that they have will greatly determine the amount of game releases and licenses. Perhaps all it comes down to his more people on the workforce. But then I'm not sure how many people are needed to translate only one game.

I would love to see some new licenses but at the same time depending on labor it will be difficult to get anything out.

I'd also like to say now that the market has picked up or is more well known (is it?) then maybe jast should attempt quality over quantity. From the announcements alone that seems to be what they wish to do. I prefer story to sex and I believe most other fans do as well. Could be wrong though.

I do have a suggestion though. There are a number of fan translated games circulating right now have you ever thought about maybe allying yourself with them? Get permission from the main company to release and then purchase the translated game from fan translators. It could do a number of things. If the game is licensed it will help stop piracy of the japanese games by americans. Many Americans would probably buy games that they pirate if they were actually released in english. I could be wrong but I think the visual novel market is rather loyal if the games are affordable.

Like I think fate/stay night is probably one of the most pirated visual novels simply because it would cost 130 dollars or more to buy and ship the item to where they live. I'm just saying there is a potential market with the fan translations.

To sum it all in question form:
Do you have any plans to look into possible benefits of the already translated fan translations?

On a side note I second the softhouse chara and studio e.go comments.

[Dark_Shiki]

I do have a suggestion though. There are a number of fan translated games circulating right now have you ever thought about maybe allying yourself with them? Get permission from the main company to release and then purchase the translated game from fan translators. It could do a number of things. If the game is licensed it will help stop piracy of the japanese games by americans. Many Americans would probably buy games that they pirate if they were actually released in english. I could be wrong but I think the visual novel market is rather loyal if the games are affordable.

I don't really think this would work. Most people who play fan translations view the games as freebies. They're unlikely to buy a game they've already pirated and played, though they may very well buy localized games that catch their fancy. The market is a little different from anime, where the product is put on display and shared with friends. Some people even get annoyed when companies localize games with fan translations in progress, arguing that it's a waste of resources or even that it damages the end translation.

[kyrt]

I suppose it was just wishful thinking then. I actually agree wit you in some sense. Mainly in the nitro+ category. I find it unlikely that we will ever see a Chaos Head or Dra Koi release anymore. You know what forget what I said. I forgot that some companies have a bad habit of editing content and even games that do get supposedly picked up may never see the light of day...yeah forget what I said.

[eropanic]

I completely agree with how the "otaku culture in the west" is described by Dark_Shiki and it is a shame. People who've already played those games wouldn't in turn buy an official release later if later is ever a possibility. A vicious circle.
-
Can you ask how Peter will address this in the future after a collaboration with Nitro+? Would he feel confident enough to ship a product that everyone in this culture has heard of? With Steins;Gate being nearly released for PC in Japan wouldn't it be wise to try to make a deal before a game of that stature is released?

[Nandemonai]

let us not forget Studio e-go! after everyone left them, their only option to make money is to license their titles (or hire new staff)

The flip side is if the employees have left the firm (after a falling out) then they aren't going to be available for things like making changes to the game's engine, or uncensoring the CG. So the very thing that might be creating an opportunity also creates complications ...

[Nandemonai]

There are a number of fan translated games circulating right now have you ever thought about maybe allying yourself with them? Get permission from the main company to release and then purchase the translated game from fan translators. It could do a number of things. If the game is licensed it will help stop piracy of the japanese games by americans. Many Americans would probably buy games that they pirate if they were actually released in english. I could be wrong but I think the visual novel market is rather loyal if the games are affordable.

Those of us who started out as paying customers - or (uh) converted to paying customers - are loyal customers, more or less. But we're the minority. By far most people who want these games pirate them. There's really no way around it: the number of actual copies sold is significantly lower than the number of fans. I think you've got it backwards, unfortunately. A translated game is more attractive to a larger segment of the English-speaking hgame fanbase, so I'd expect piracy of a fan-translated game to increase significantly.

After all, most English speakers don't speak Japanese, so a game they mostly can't understand is not very attractive to them. But the patches work just as well with pirated releases as they do with legit releases. The people who fan translated Planetarian actually gave up fan translation because they were disgusted with the very high number of downloads of their patch, versus how few people followed their detailed step-by-step instructions on how to acquire the Japanese copy legitimately from a download store.

[stranger]

The flip side is if the employees have left the firm (after a falling out) then they aren't going to be available for things like making changes to the game's engine, or uncensoring the CG. So the very thing that might be creating an opportunity also creates complications ...

they could always use the MG approach and simply use a new (across the board) engine. As for the CG, shouldn't they use the original CGs? The uncensoring should only come into the picture when the original is lost. (I am assuming that they still have access to the source script/code)

although, this remind me of a question that I'd love to have the answer for, Vardest hopefully you still have a chance to ask it:
Why do JAST need the original artiest when they are uncensoring images? or why would the losing of the original images prevent them from licensing? (basically, they only need to redraw the mosaiced part, so why not just *redraw* that part? no-one will be able to know if it was the original or redrawn! the company they are dealing with *own* those images, doesn't it?)