Sekai Project doing an AMA right now

[Ariurotl]

As the title says, Sekai are currently doing an AMA (with a passive-aggressive title that makes them very hard to take seriously)

https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/5g5e3u/we_are_sekai_project_evil_organization_vn/

[Narcosis]

>MFW people still mention Dovac

[Erogamer]

TheDoddler works for SP now? Ugh........money is money I guess.

[Ariurotl]

Just now, Erogamer said:

TheDoddler works for SP now? Ugh........money is money I guess.

He's been working with SP for a long time now, it's nothing new. He's doing work for pretty much everyone.

[Decay]

3 minutes ago, Erogamer said:

TheDoddler works for SP now? Ugh........money is money I guess.

Ever since they picked up Grisaia.

[Kuma]

Don't believe Ondore... Sekais lies!

[solidbatman]

1 hour ago, Erogamer said:

TheDoddler works for SP now? Ugh........money is money I guess.

Nearly everyone in the VN scene is freelance. So everyone works for everyone basically. 

[EastCoastDrifter]

Is this a practical joke? Because the post seems too over-the-top to take seriously.

Edited December 3, 2016 by KonpekiUmi

[Vorathiel]

I read through almost whole of it. It was a decent 'first big step' into improving their PR. Nothing really informative in those answers, just idle chat with 'fandom'. Attempt (fairly succesive) to mingle and smalltalk.

[Dergonu]

Seems like your standard, "18+ releases?" "Deal in progress, can't talk!" Exhange. Good to see them get a new PR team though. 

[Lambda]

The thing I'm most excited about is the implication that one of their secret projects is an otome game! I hope it's at least something I've heard of before, but even if not, if it's up my alley I'll buy it. That's how I deal with vns. It's just, both of SP's forays into the BL genre were confusing and very much not up my alley. I'm a little apprehensive. Still, things are looking a little better to be a PC otome gamer, considering this fact and Nightshade! On the other hand, parts of that AMA were difficult to read... I get that it's your job, but maybe tone it down a bit....

[Nier]

1 hour ago, Dergonu said:

Seems like your standard, "18+ releases?"

You need to talk to them in "Sekai Speak", of course they won't understand if you ask them about "18+ releases". It's "Denpa releases" or "Director's Cut releases", get it right.

Edited December 3, 2016 by Nier

[VLOCKUP]

17 hours ago, Nier said:

You need to talk to them in "Sekai Speak", of course they won't understand if you ask them about "18+ releases". It's "Denpa releases" or "Director's Cut releases", get it right.

Sekai Speak? What's the difference with Sekai AMA?? One is "speak to me" while the other is "ask me"?

No matter how you word it, it doesn't change the fact that Denpasoft and Sekai is one entity(the difference is Label name). Since Denpasoft don't have any AMA(never heard of one by them), talking to Sekai is the next step. Not to mention, weren't they the one who said 18+ info in Otakon IIRC and come up none? It's December and we still have no info on 18+ Maitetsu and more(Yes, I know the PR give the reason of underestimating the negotiation time but this is the new PR team and I don't accept it blindly).

They are getting better PR team. And dovac being grounded for life away from PR-ing.

So there's nothing really informative in this AMA after skim through it(aside from the obvious matters that Dergonu mentioned).

Edited December 4, 2016 by VLOCKUP

[Nandemonai]

On 12/2/2016 at 6:15 PM, solidbatman said:

Nearly everyone in the VN scene is freelance. So everyone works for everyone basically. 

Actually, the most interesting bit I saw in the AMA was this fascinating tidbit here:  "Working together we've built up a family of 15 full time and a buncha great contractors who all make up our family."  Well, isn't that interesting?  15 people is a lot.  Among other things, that means they are spending at least a million dollars a year on payroll, after you include benefits and their contractors.

18 minutes ago, VLOCKUP said:

Not to mention, weren't they the one who said 18+ info in Otakon IIRC and come up none? It's December and we still have no info on 18+ Maitetsu and more

This is not true, actually.  It took them several months (which is several months longer than it should have taken to at least just say "Sorry, we thought we'd have info to share, but complications came up, please be patient"), but they did eventually release more information.  Negotiations for Baldr Sky are (were) still ongoing so they couldn't confirm anything yet, but they're working on it.  As for Maitetsu, they "believe they have a solution that will make everybody happy".  I, for one, take this to mean '18+ release forthcoming, content to be released via 'unofficial patch' method'.  They know the only way to make everybody happy is to put it out, yet they deliberately chose to be obscure; that can only mean something like Jast USA's unofficial patch for Shiny Days.

Sure, it's not as much, or as concrete, as we wanted.  But it's not true to say we still have no info.

[Nier]

3 hours ago, VLOCKUP said:

Sekai Speak? What's the difference with Sekai AMA?? One is "speak to me" while the other is "ask me"?

Huh, english is not your first language?

[Erogamer]

I find it interesting how they have so much trouble with negotiations and giving fans info. MG and Jast are more up front with their fans when it comes to release window and h content or not. To me, SP still looks like a bunch of amateurs who have no idea how to run a business.

[Nandemonai]

That's easy, Sekai Project is taking the deals that Jast and MG would have walked away from.  Jast cancelled the release of Cleavage because the original uncensored CG data has been lost; in their estimation, that meant there was no point in bothering with a release.  Neither Jast nor MangaGamer would ever license a title where the developer made them remove the h-scenes.  For MangaGamer, the closest would be when they removed the voices from Kara no Shoujo and Koihime back in 2011 when they were a lot smaller, and they simply couldn't afford to pay the license fees.  For Jast, the closest would be Shiny Days, and the whole mess around the unofficial patch; and that was for legal reasons (as in, Mr. Payne does not want to go to jail).

If a Japanese VN company is open to releasing in the west (more and more nowadays), but nervous about backlash over the h content (which is a lot of them, they remember RapeLay), Jast or MG are much less likely to cut a deal with them.  If they can't get a deal finalized that includes the H-scenes, they just won't sign it.  Sekai Project has been willing to sign those deals; so they have all-ages versions of some titles, but haven't been able to get a deal signed for complete versions.

Jast and MG are eroge companies first, and all-ages companies second (if Jast even has any all-ages releases; I'm not sure they even do Edit:  Forgot about Aselia).  Sekai Project - well, by their own admission in this AMA, they chose to focus on all-ages, and were surprised at the amount of pushback that they got.

So it has nothing to do with "having no idea how to run a business".  The bad PR that comes from not knowing how to properly say "still in the works, we can't comment" is totally their fault, but in general, when negotiations are ongoing, companies keep their mouths shut.  All of them do.  Funimation doesn't say why they can't get show XYZ; they just say "there are some issues we need to work out with the licensor".  And I guarantee Jast and MangaGamer have equally strict confidentiality policies regarding their negotiations.  (Don't believe me?  Go ask Doddler why he had to review Oyatsu no Jikan all those years ago.)  It's just that, Jast and MangaGamer don't sign all-ages-only deals.  Sekai Project does, and then keeps negotiating to make the adults-only release happen afterward.

Jast and MangaGamer avoid these complicated PR problems, not because they know what they're doing (Jast is so slow because it's terribly run, although that's been changing recently) and Sekai Project does not - but because Sekai Project says "something is better than nothing" whereas Jast and MG will just not release the title at all if they can't get the h-scenes.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Nandemonai
Forgot about Jasts's one all-ages release

[Nier]

57 minutes ago, Nandemonai said:

That's easy, Sekai Project is taking the deals that Jast and MG would have walked away from.

Yes because there are only a limited number of VN titles one can license from...

[Decay]

2 hours ago, Nier said:

Yes because there are only a limited number of VN titles one can license from...

Can't tell if serious. But yes, there are. At least, there are a limited number of quality VN titles from companies who are willing to license out to western companies. 

[Nier]

7 hours ago, Decay said:

Can't tell if serious. But yes, there are. At least, there are a limited number of quality VN titles from companies who are willing to license out to western companies. 

There are quite a bit of number of titles one can license from, acting like there are only 15 available titles to license per year nd only 10 of them are good is basically saying that JAST USA got 5 good ones, MangaGamer got 5 good ones and Sekai Project got the unwanted scrubs is pure conspiracy theory nonsense. There are always new companies one can try to license from among the tens of thousands of VNs available out out there. Among quality titles Sekai Project got:

The Fruit of Grisaia

The Labyrinth of Grisaia

The Eden of Grisaia

Chiru Chiru Michiru

Clannad

Clannad Side Stories

Hoshizora no Memoria

A Clockwork Ley-Line

Baldr Sky Dive 1 Lost Memory

Baldr Sky 2 Recodare

Maitestu

Root Double Before Crime After Days Xtend Edition

Narcissu Anthology

ChronoClock

Tenshin Ranman

SakuSaku

KoiKuma

Wagame High

All of them are licenses acquired from new partnerships that never before licensed for the West at the time (Giga, Key/Visual Art's, Frontwing, FAVORITE, Yuzu Soft, Palette, Smile, Lose, Union Shift: Blossom, Regista, stage-nana, Madosoft, Purple Sofware)

And remember a japanese company may refuse to license to one localization company but might accept with another localization company, we have seen this already, "willing to license to western companies" is subject, rather it's been shown to be a case of "unwilling to license to specific western companies", meaning another western company might be able to strike a deal where another western company failed.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Nier

[Decay]

Yes, SP has managed to acquire a large number of new licenses. There are an even larger number of companies who turned them down. Several of the  companies SP has worked with are the kind that MG and JAST may never work with because they are heavily resistant to the idea of releasing 18+ versions of their games in the west. I feel like you're sort of missing the point here.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Decay

[Nier]

1 minute ago, Decay said:

Yes, SP has managed to acquire a large number of new licenses. There are an even larger number of companies who turned them down. Several of the  companies SP has worked with are the kind that MG and JAST may never work with because they are heavily resistant to the idea of releasing 18+ versions of their games in the west. I feel like you're sort of missing the point here.

What I am saying is that there are plenty of VNs out there, it's not restricted, Western localizers are only releasing a tiny amount of games per year from the pool of games available, also we have seen a few times that there are no restrictions on VN companies licensing different games to different western localizers either, Purple Software licensed to both Sekai Project and MangaGamer, Innocent Grey licensed to both MangaGamer and JAST USA, Cosmillica licensed to both Sekai Project and Kinkan Production.

[Decay]

Okay? You're saying there are plenty of companies out there but only mention ones who are already in the game here. What other companies out there with potentially successful titles are willing to license out adult versions to the west, and why do you think SP is ignoring them or passing on them? 

edit: The point I'm making here is that you can't just assume that there are tons of developers out there who are willing to release their games in english with 18+ content attached. Or that they offer the kinds of games SP would want. How many more moege does SP want to license? What direction do they want to take things from here? If they want to do a serious action/gameplay title like Baldr Sky, should they have not licensed that and gotten something else because the 18+ situation is tricky? How many great gameplay eroge are licensable with easy 18+ options? 

The original point being addressed was that someone thought SP had bad business practices because they struggled to secure 18+ versions. The reality is that licensing is hard as hell and almost every license is a struggle. We don't know the reasons why nobody has licensed Baldr Sky until now, but we do know that if Giga is resistant to 18+ releases, that would have been a much bigger hangup for MG and JAST. The point Nandemonai was making was that SP sees opportunity in these places other companies see trouble. How long did it take for G-Senjou no Maou to be licensed? Do you really think MG didn't approach AkabeiSoft2? The situation surrounding that is likely to be extremely complex, but if one of the reasons AS2 went with SP was because they were open to the idea of an all-ages-only release, that would make a lot of sense. 

Or I guess, the better way to put this is that if you make your stance on 18+ so rigid, you close a lot of doors. There may always be other titles for them to get, but not ones they deem equally good for their catalog. 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Decay

[BobJones2]

I know this thread is old but couldn't fans just make an H-restoration patch and avoid this headache? Clearly, if this was an easy issue SP would had solved it already.