Noone cares? I see... (Navel & MG - Divorce, or starting over again?)

[XReaper]

ayo, just happened to stumble over this & dunno exactly what to think of it.
since ero-reaper is a lazy shit, i´ll leave the gossiping & whatsoever up to yourself.
http://www.japanator.com/mangagamer-puts-the-axe-to-soul-link-and-shuffle--34883.phtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

Today, Mangagamer sent out a press release about the discontinuation of their Navel titles Soul Link and Shuffle!

Due to a change in management with our partners at Navel, Soul Link and Shuffle will be discontinued as of March 31st. Those who have purchased either title prior to the cutoff will retain their copies of the games in their account. Owners will continue to be able to download, install, and uninstall their copies of both titles as usual, but sales will be discontinued until further notice.

 

We hope everyone will take this opportunity to check out both titles while the chance still lasts.

[Dergonu]

Well damn... 

Being like the only huge Shuffle! fan around here, I have to say, this sucks.  

At least they wont take away the game download option for people who already bought it. 

[Arcadeotic]

Shuffle was okay, but honestly I don't have that much interest in Navel nor their works

Of course, in a objective and business standpoint, this sucks, but I personally don't really care

[Nosebleed]

Damn, that sucks pretty hard. And here I was hoping Shuffle Essence+ would one day be translated.

Some people really shit on Shuffle but honestly I think it's an average eroge anyone can enjoy if they know what they're getting into.

[Ariurotl]

It's unfortunate, but it's not much of a loss. Shuffle is cancer in VN form, and Soul Link is... not nearly as good as some people would have you believe. I recall someone from the MG staff (was it Kouryuu? I can't remember) gushing about it like it was a freaking masterpiece, and it just wasn't.

[XReaper]

guess there those dreams of a possible tsuriotsu translation go. of course i might be totally wrong on this & they´re simply renegotiating contracts + x, but yeah... rip in advance, not that i´ve ever been fond of you XD
& since noone seems to make the 1st step in gossiping, here my 50ct in bitcoins of the day:
navel quits its mg partnership due to them obviously lacking any interest in doing some of their more popular titles & we´ll get a sekai - navel tag team thrown at us, with tsuriotsu announced these days (3 new titles etc.).

[Valmore]

37 minutes ago, Nosebleed said:

Damn, that sucks pretty hard. And here I was hoping Shuffle Essence+ would one day be translated.

Some people really shit on Shuffle but honestly I think it's an average eroge anyone can enjoy if they know what they're getting into.

Sell me on getting into it, senpai.

[VirginSmasher]

I don't care about the two games being taken down being that they weren't that great, but it sucks that this partnership may be over. I mean, we could've had the better stuff from Navel brought over, but it looks like that won't be happening at this point.

[XReaper]

2 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

...but it looks like that won't be happening at this point.

you´re totally ignoring my wild guesses, arent you? damn it!

[VirginSmasher]

Just now, XReaper said:

you´re totally ignoring my wild guesses, arent you? damn it!

What I was mostly wanting was OreTsuba and I can't ever see that being released here. Tsuriotsu has more of a chance than it, but again, with the way things are going with Navel currently, it won't be happening for a while.

[Ariurotl]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Oretsuba, but it's not like it was ever going to happen anyway. While nothing "official" was said about it, the hint MG... um... hinted at was that it was not going to be a thing. Besides, I just know that Nishimata Aoi's infamous sameface art would bug me throughout the damn thing.

 

TBH, I don't give a rat's ass about Navel either way. I'm more worried about the lack of any communication regarding Caramel Box that leads me to believe this partnership is also no longer a thing. I may be the only person on Fuwa who wants Toppara translated, but still. I do.

[ChaosRaven]

So they have to take down Shuffle but they are still allowed to sell Tick Tack and Really Really?! That's really odd.

Both titles are fairly old and everyone who wanted to read them probably has done that already and MangaGamer themselves already made their money with it. So it isn't that much of a loss.

The real problem with it is like already mentioned, that the chance to get their newer much higher rated titles pretty much dropped to zero. 

So I guess MoonStone is MG's new Navel now, just with guaranteed ensurance for ongoing mediocrity.

[Erogamer]

I have not seen any official announcement concerning this on their site and I check it like every day.

[Valmore]

15 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

So they have to take down Shuffle but they are still allowed to sell Tick Tack and Really Really?! That's really odd.

Could be the contract license for selling those titles hasn't expired yet. Tick Tack has only been available for MG Euro since 2013 and US since 2014. Same with Really Really.

[ChaosRaven]

9 minutes ago, Valmore said:

Could be the contract license for selling those titles hasn't expired yet. Tick Tack has only been available for MG Euro since 2013 and US since 2014. Same with Really Really.

Yes, that sounds like a very likely reason. So they'll probably stop selling those titles in a few years too.

Well, I already have my precious Tick Tack hardcopy so I'll probably survive it... 

[Valmore]

Just now, ChaosRaven said:

Yes, that sounds like a very likely reason. So they'll probably stop selling those titles in a few years too.

Well, I already have my precious Tick Tack hardcopy so I'll probably survive it... 

Is it worth purchasing before it goes off MG forever? I do try to purchase VNs instead of the alternate-method that shall not be named whenever possible.

[Funnerific]

1 hour ago, Ariurotl said:

It's unfortunate, but it's not much of a loss. Shuffle is cancer in VN form, and Soul Link is... not nearly as good as some people would have you believe. I recall someone from the MG staff (was it Kouryuu? I can't remember) gushing about it like it was a freaking masterpiece, and it just wasn't.

And there I was thinking I was the only one who actually liked Soul Link. It gets way too much hate for how fun it is (supposed to be).

[Clephas]

Navel never had its best VNs translated anyway.

[Darklord Rooke]

Valmore's never read Shuffle? Okay, well let me describe the experience.

Reading it was like reading an 1800 page book titled Watching grass grow, now in novel form. That's how engrossing it was. Enjoy, Valmore :3

[Ariurotl]

1 minute ago, Rooke said:

Reading it was like reading an 1800 page book titled Watching grass grow, now in novel form. That's how engrossing it was. Enjoy, Valmore :3

I'd say it was more like a very tedious "spot the difference" competition. Can you find any carefully hidden traits that differentiate those bland girls whose only desire is to swing off the protagonist's dick? Let's find out!

[VirginSmasher]

8 minutes ago, Rooke said:

Reading it was like reading an 1800 page book titled Watching grass grow, now in novel form. That's how engrossing it was. Enjoy, Valmore :3

It's more like a "See how much of the story you can predict from seeing the heroine." The routes go down the obvious paths and they wasn't really developed. The serious parts were handled really poorly as well.

13 minutes ago, Clephas said:

Navel never had its best VNs translated anyway.

They probably never will be unless some miracle deal happens that brings OreTsuba and Tsuriotsu over to the west.

[Clephas]

It really is too bad they didn't manage to release Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou

[VirginSmasher]

13 minutes ago, Clephas said:

It really is too bad they didn't manage to release Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou

It's a shame that it won't be released over here anytime soon. I guess I'll have to wait until I know enough Japanese to read it.

[ChaosRaven]

26 minutes ago, Valmore said:

Is it worth purchasing before it goes off MG forever? I do try to purchase VNs instead of the alternate-method that shall not be named whenever possible.

I think it only makes sense in combination with the Shuffle hard copy since it's a continuation of Nerine's story. If you like it depends mainly on if you can enjoy a simple moege.

Tick Tack itself has a somehow interesting time travel back-consequence story which I actually like more than the overused generic time loop. But it isn't developed enough to buy it for that reason.

[Nosebleed]

I still defend Shuffle due to it being one of the first eroge I've ever played and the title that made me discover and appreciate MangaGamer.

It's bland, generic and cliché, but it delivers what it wants to deliver decently.
Call it a cookie cutter eroge if you will, you know exactly what you're getting, but if you're into it then it's not bad.
I think a lot of the bashing it gets is too unwarranted. There's way worse VNs out there, like Ikikoi.

Also Shuffle Essence+ made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable with the amount of content it added, but now that's never getting translated.