sanahtlig

Looking up VNDB numbers for each title is too much of a pain. I gave up.

I'm not sure what this announcement means for eroge. It seems like the intent is a relaxation of content guidelines, but beyond that there's a number of unanswered questions. Most notably: is hardcore porn now allowed? That would mean Valve is stepping into the porn retail business. The language doesn't exclude this possibility, but doesn't support it either.

I've been interested in this title for a while. Seems like exactly what I look for: a sexually-charged eroge with excellent art and a solid story. Too many games focus on the story or the sex, treating the other as an afterthought, when what I want is a sexually-charged story along the lines of School Days and Song of Saya.

That's actually not true. There was a thread about this a while back and the general consensus was that this is not something we want to popularize. You don't want extra steps in your translation pipeline because translation by its very nature distorts meaning.

I'd recommend marketing this as "interactive fiction", or depending on how much choice there is, a "choose-your-own-adventure" graphic novel. Which is actually different than a visual novel! Also, the furry fandom is probably the most natural audience. You wouldn't market it just to them, but they would probably be your core fanbase, and most likely to champion your game. Visual novel fans probably won't be very enthusiastic about your project, for all the reasons you listed.

Teaming up with Chinese fan translation groups is an idea I've discussed with companies. The Japanese especially seem to be reluctant to work with such groups, who often sell their translations directly to "customers". It's true however that the Chinese market is a logical next step for expansion, particularly on Steam, though Chinese law makes selling eroge there a bit dodgy. Another barrier is that selling to the Chinese requires a willingness to cut prices drastically. While doujin developers may be willing to do this, professional companies are far more resistant.

There's a pretty strong consensus that the English market is thriving, with an ever-increasing pace of quality titles of diverse genres (alongside a wave of shovelware). The Japanese market faces strong headwinds, which explains why they're turning their attention to the English market. I find it hard to pinpoint any particular timespan where the industry was at its so-called peak, at least in terms of producing the sorts of titles I like. I feel that Elf will be keenly missed after their recent demise, as they made potent dramas that didn't rely on anime/eroge tropes--which sadly doesn't appear to be a recipe for success these days. I also miss Overflow's experiments in choose-your-own-adventure interactive movies with the School Days series. The problem with these sorts of reflections is that our tastes evolve over time. We tend to become more picky and more jaded. We fondly recall games that appealed to us at the time, yet these same games released now could very well fail to impress our current selves. However, it's a fact that Japanese games these days are bringing in less revenue per title than in the past. The market is tightening. It's unlikely that this will produce a positive outcome (for the Japanese market at least).

Unfortunately, no amount of proofreading (especially of the automated sort) will turn a bad translation into a good one. At best, you can disguise the underlying issues. That's actually not helpful. When it's broken English, you can at least tell at first glance that it's shoddy work and make an informed buying decision. More insidious is when the translation is bad and a casual player wouldn't be able to tell (because they don't know Japanese).

The bigger question is: would any sane company be willing to license and re-translate an already-released title? My gut response is: no. That doesn't sound more profitable than translating a new title.

The license rights may or may not be transferable. If SakuraGame were to dissolve, their license rights could very well just vanish. It depends on the contract. You'd have to ask someone who's worked at multiple localization companies and been involved in licensing.

It depends on the contract. For example, Degica clearly no longer has the right to sell MuvLuv on Steam. Their contract likely had a time limitation and might've needed regular renewal.

My favorite is this "helpful" comment in the chain linked in the OP: Making too much of a fuss over this could actually backfire: SakuraGame will get more attention and it'll increase their sales. For those wanting to fight this, the Japanese are sensitive to attacks on their pride and reputation: a shame campaign on the licensors could be effective. For such shame tactics to succeed, the Japanese media and blogosphere needs to be engaged. Japanese companies don't follow English communities, so English coverage won't reach or affect them. And obviously, such tactics won't work on SakuraGame. They clearly don't care about their reputation.

But isn't this Japanophile demographic also likely to look down on VNs, particularly the eroge variety, as trash? That's certainly how it's typically been with mainstream anime fans and heavily sexualized shows or H-anime. Proximity to a marginalized culture often results in strong antipathy due to the social need to distinguish oneself.

The "why now" with GoG still isn't clear to me, and especially how open they're being about their policy towards ero patches. For some reason, they've decided that they want to be in on the action. VN sales are just a drop in the bucket. I don't think that's a primary motivating factor. Free publicity and attention for their platform? Could be. Or maybe they want to sell other games to VN fans. But perhaps the most compelling reason is that they want to distinguish themselves from Steam, and this isn't about VNs at all per say. They want to say, "We want to work with developers, not against them. We're a friendly place for up and coming indie devs. Come and sell your wares with us." It could also just be that, having made highly sexual games like the Witcher, they're sympathetic to sexualized games and think they can provide a better platform for them. Maybe they want this to be part of their brand.

My hypothesis is that either this was an algorithmic goof (possibly exploited by the troll activists already discussed), or a rogue employee decided to "enforce the rules" (which are too vague to enforce consistently). I don't think Valve actually changed its mind here. Doing nothing is always easier than doing something.

Who cares if Valve actually listens? It's free publicity from someone with a huge audience. And publicity means more sales for any developer/publisher mentioned.

The game that must not be named--nor the events that led to the fabled Lolipocalypse--must never be spoken of in the Halls of Fuwa. So hath the Fuwa zealots decreed.

DLsite, hands down. They even have This post has been edited by Fuwanovel moderation. Have a nice day!

Different platforms attract different audiences. The best strategy is usually to appeal to the widest audience possible. That means marketing on as many platforms as is feasible. The non-adult audience is teeming with potential VN fans and those who would like eroge but haven't tried them, or who have tried them but aren't regulars on a given platform. Or perhaps they pirated their first title or two but could be persuaded to buy them if they had a familiar place to shop.

The PC game market in Japan is dominated by adult games. There's simply a market expectation that PC games will have porn, and this is a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy (the Western equivalent would be that graphic porn cannot have literary or artistic value--because developers and audiences believe this, it becomes true). Fans are willing to pay the "eroge tax"--paying more for niche content--because the games contain a sort of content you can't get elsewhere.

Of course they would claim "victory". That's what activists do because it draws attention to themselves and energizes their base. That doesn't in any way substantiate the claim that such a campaign had any influence at all on this matter.

Thanks for that bit of radical feminist propaganda. I'm sure it will provoke a thoughtful and constructive discussion here.

Panicking users to impulse buy could all be part of Valve's master plan! (That's actually a fairly typical shady marketing tactic.)

The details should emerge sooner or later in a proper write-up. Probably not by me though.