And what about Key?

[Silvz]

I think I'm getting kind of repetitive on my threads, but this is a serious concern that I don't see many talking about, at least here in the forums. What happened to Key? I'm pretty sure they had both Rewrite and Angel Beats! planned to be released in English, besides, supposedly, working on AB! 2. But as far as I can see, they simply disappeared? Even their main artist (who I think already left before, though) is now on her own new projects.

 

Edited July 8, 2018 by Silvz

[Yuuko]

You mean Summer Pockets that release just like 1 week ago?

[Okarin]

Maybe they're building up their own fanbase in the West, they have a good number of games on Steam.

Maybe they make enough money... though I disliked Angel Beats, Rewrite and Charlotte, and beyond that I don't think they have been as big successes as their past works... but.

Meanwhile you can get the rarer VNs from them that you possibly haven't read (like Harmonia) and thus support them for bringing over the likes of Angel Beats or even Summer Pockets...

For all the rest, just wait (TM)

Edited July 8, 2018 by Okarin

[KT89]

Wouldn't be surprised if they decided the fan translation of Rewrite was lacking and had to start from scratch 

[Silvz]

3 hours ago, Kiriririri said:

You mean Summer Pockets that release just like 1 week ago?

Oh, it did? I really missed that, which in a way is good, since now I don't have to wait

it's jap-only that sucks

Edited July 9, 2018 by Silvz

[Dreamysyu]

 

[Nier]

Littler Busters sold only 6.5k since it's release in November 2017, I don't think that Key/Visual Art's are too thrilled with the non-japanese consumer base.

[Okarin]

7 hours ago, Silvz said:

it's jap-only that sucks

Well, of course. It has just released in Japan, and with no joint release in English unlike Harmonia, due to the size of the script most likely.

About Little Busters... meh, it's a VN that most people have played by 2017, also it hasn't even been that long on Steam (where people tend to wait for the best price possible). Potentially there are lots of people like me who want to buy it to support Key's English releases, in my case I haven't dropped the 30 bucks just because I'm busy playing other things. I think I'll drop them eventually, but it's not really a priority. Also, I think that the TL of Little Busters Steam is a bit meh. You have to factor in that, too.

I guess it's the same with Clannad. Both novels also have the blemish of being damn long to beat. Not everyone likes that.

In truth there have been TLs for Key's major works since forever, so it's a bit difficult for them to take off. They have to rely on the fresher Steam audience. And then I don't know if they're really keen on drama, they seem to prefer low-intensity ecchi like Sakura games.

[Yuuko]

Little Busters 6.5k sales

Harmonia 7.3k sales

Clannad 54k sales

[KT89]

9 hours ago, Kiriririri said:

Little Busters 6.5k sales

Harmonia 7.3k sales

Clannad 54k sales

Say what you want about Sekai Project they do a much better job at promoting their titles.

Key should probably leave the publishing to NA companies.

[Nier]

17 minutes ago, KT89 said:

Say what you want about Sekai Project they do a much better job at promoting their titles.

Key should probably leave the publishing to NA companies.

WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC 1.3k

Fatal Twelve 1.7k

[Yuuko]

6 minutes ago, Nier said:

WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC 1.3k

However I would like to remind that Wagahai never got Steam patch and probably has more sales from Denpasoft

I don't think it goes over 10k either though

[Nier]

2 minutes ago, Kiriririri said:

has more sales from Denpasoft

Sekai complained that their Denpasoft stores was basically ignored in favor of other outlets.

[KT89]

59 minutes ago, Nier said:

WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC 1.3k

Fatal Twelve 1.7k

Root Double 20k

Fault Milestone 100k

Planetarian 20k

Sunrider Academy 70k

Grisia had $400k raised through kickstarter 

The 2 you listed are not exactly close to LB in terms of quality and popularity.

Also Fatal Twelve was funded through Kickstarter right?

[Yuuko]

19 minutes ago, KT89 said:

 

Also Fatal Twelve was funded through Kickstarter right?

Kickstarter or not it doesn't matter for these numbers.

These are number of owners on Steam.

1 hour ago, Nier said:

Sekai complained that their Denpasoft stores was basically ignored in favor of other outlets.

While this is probably true in general there will always be exceptions

[Silvz]

It's sad to see such a low number for Fatal Twelve. It one of the best VNs I've read the last few months. Maybe because it is all ages, people were not too interested on it, which is a shame.

But to LB also get those numbers........ eh, I really hope Rewrite+ sells more thant - that -

[Stormwolf]

Rewrite+ likely wont do much better. Those who are intersted have likely already read it,and + barely contains any changes/improvements if im not mistaken.

[Okarin]

I'd say that a part of Clannad's success on Steam has been that it's HD and revamped, not the "classic" (read: dated) version from the mid-2000s. I'm reading original Air now and it shows. However, with Little Busters the improvement is little, the main thing it has going for it are the extra routes.

Also... watching rubbish like Fault sell 100K really makes me cringe.

[ChaosRaven]

Key's success was always strongly connected to their animes. And the quality of their animes has considerably gone down for whatever reason. The last good one was Angel Beats, and even that one is almost 10 years ago now. I didn't watch the Rewrite anime, but apparently it was pretty bad. I watched Charlotte which was better received, but it only showed glimmers of Key's past glory and was filled to the brink with completely out of place gore.

Their other problem is that they had the biggest success in the VN genre by inventing the classic school life nakige. But nowadays the VN market is oversaturated with those kind of VN's. There are very strong competitors with good art, decent writers (for that kind of VN), and last but not least... no problem with ero scenes.

It's therefore very difficult for Key to stand out amongst those anymore. I think they could land a hit if they tried something like Rewrite again. Although I wasn't the biggest fan of it, it was at least a unique work that was more than just a simple school life nakige and went a bit more into direction of Type-Moon's Fate with some more mystery and action orientated themes.

The Angel Beats VN was probably the first VN for Key that kind of flopped (for their standards). Can't judge their new Summer Pockets yet, but so far it looks very generic. And without a successful anime, I don't think they'll do much better with their western VN releases than the other competitors.

Edited July 10, 2018 by ChaosRaven

[Nier]

17 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

Key's success was always strongly connected to their animes. And the quality of their animes has considerably gone down for whatever reason. The last good one was Angel Beats, and even that one is almost 10 years ago now. I didn't watch the Rewrite anime, but apparently it was pretty bad. I watched Charlotte which was better received, but it only showed glimmers of Key's past glory and was filled to the brink with completely out of place gore.

Their other problem is that they had the biggest success in the VN genre by inventing the classic school life nakige. But nowadays the VN market is oversaturated with those kind of VN's. There are very strong competitors with good art, decent writers (for that kind of VN), and last but not least... no problem with ero scenes.

It's therefore very difficult for Key to stand out amongst those anymore. I think they could land a hit if they tried something like Rewrite again. Although I wasn't the biggest fan of it, it was at least a unique work that was more than just a simple school life nakige and went a bit more into direction of Type-Moon's Fate with some more mystery and action orientated themes.

The Angel Beats VN was probably the first VN for Key that kind of flopped (for their standards). Can't judge their new Summer Pockets yet, but so far it looks very generic. And without a successful anime, I don't think they'll do much better with their western VN releases than the other competitors.

The original successful animes were made by Kyoto Animation, but for some reason they stopped making Key animes and decided to do other stuff, I too also haven't watched a Key anime in 6 years, I watched Air, Kanon and Clannad, but that was also because at the time there were basically no VN in english and I also wasn't too familiar with these "VN" things.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Nier

[Okarin]

In my opinion, Angel Beats already hinted at decline. Charlotte is full decline.

It's plain obvious that Key can't keep doing the same formula forever, precisely because it has been dethroned from it by other companies. Thus, they try different things; but they have alienated me (I've read the Rewrite VN and I find it a chore and a meh experience), and like me, possibly quite a lot of people. In my opinion, they're not doing it right. Harmonia was, at least, decent, but small effort. Like Kiri says, let's hope Summer Pockets saves VNs.

[Stormwolf]

They majorly fucked up charlotte by doing 2 things wrong. 1st was spending too much time with nonsense in the early part of the season and ending up rushing the more important latter part. 2nd is that they used the overused "lost all memories" cliche.. i mean comeon.. are they even trying or is this the capacity of keys current writers?

Edited July 11, 2018 by Stormwolf

[adamstan]

Forgive for slight digression, but do you think Air or Kanon will ever get an official EN release? Or are they too old and it's too late for this? I haven't read them, turned off by character sprites on vndb screenshots, but after reading LB!, and now Clannad I think I'm slowly getting used to that style Also, sometimes things look better in-game than on screens - that was my experience with Crescendo.

Edited July 11, 2018 by adamstan

[Dreamysyu]

1 hour ago, adamstan said:

do you think Air or Kanon will ever get an official EN release?

I'd be really surprised if that happens. I mean, these games are way too old, to the point that even a lot of core VN fans don't play them because of that. And at the same time they don't have the same cult status as Clannad, so even if they updated the graphics and made them seem more modern, the sales wold never be high enough to cover all the necessary expenses. So, my answer is "no".

[Nier]

4 hours ago, adamstan said:

Forgive for slight digression, but do you think Air or Kanon will ever get an official EN release?

Nope, they are too old, the art (especially in Kanon) is not on par with Hinoue new art and if Little Busters only did 6.5k sales you can be sure that these will make much less than that.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Nier