Irotoridori Kickstarter by Sol Press Funded at over 85k

[Incynerate]

Quote

"In the case that the sequels are not funded, we will seek to fund them through alternative means."

I wonder if they'd do Kickstarters for the other two since it seems like they won't reach stretch goals. The problem with that is they're not likely to get more backers for a sequel than for the base game, and unless they're able to offer different physical products than before, they probably won't get too many people pledging high-dollar amounts. That's probably why they tried to push all three games into a single Kickstarter and hope the hype carried them all the way.

Maybe a minori/Supipara type funding situation? But man, that could take forever.

On 2/8/2019 at 5:43 PM, novurdim said:

All speculation is meaningless at this point...

Well that certainly didn't stop you from speculating yourself.

 

[novurdim]

1 hour ago, Incynerate said:

Well that certainly didn't stop you from speculating yourself.

It was only for the sake of counter-argument, I was offering theoretical possibilities 

15 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

I've yet to hear anything from anyone that isn't biased (literally just chuee and akerou) about them being able to handle something like IroSeka.  They couldn't even handle HoshiMemo, FFS, and SakuSaku reportedly wasn't all that great, either.

Okay, then the only person who might have wanted to fan-translate IroSeka (at least indecently) ended up founding NekoNyan. I imagine if it wasn't done by some maniac in complete silence, Favorite would just try to shut down any attempts at this point.

Edited February 10, 2019 by novurdim

[littleshogun]

11 hours ago, novurdim said:

Yes, this is why I brought it up in the first place. I know you are speaking extremely hypothetically but we should live in the present. It means that we either get VNs like this officially or don't get them at all. The only person who could, in theory, decently fan-translate IroSeka has founded NekoNyan. Nowadays you won't get fan-translations of the publishers who already dabble in the western market no matter how long you wait, unless it's some miracle release like Baldr Force, for the few exceptions readable fan-translations are basically dying out and that's actually a good thing. Saying that it "should have been fan translated for free because I think Favorite asks too much money" is just so senseless that I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I do regret the impulse already, I know this won't get me anywhere. 

As for Baldr Force, the thing is that they did it secretly so they could still do Baldr Force release even though GIGA already partnered with Sekai (Regardless of there's no prospect of Baldr Sky release in the near future). So what I want to say is that yes you can still have FAVORITE VNs translated as long as they do it secretly, and no I'm not sure if they'll do C&D even with the fact that they already make the deal with the publisher. I knew that FAVORITE did C&D Hoshimemo in the past, but even so Insem did managed to release it in the end so what I want to say that it should be possible.

For more example here, we have Astral Air in which it's FAVORITE work that was about to be officially released after months of hard work being fan translated by Nekonyan (Technically). I knew that they already do their own struggle a lot to have this officially localized and published by them, and yet FAVORITE chose Sol Press who is like to doing KS compared to Nekonyan. So my statement 'should have been fan translated for free because I think Favorite asks too much money' is came from Astral Air, although it could be applied to Irotoridori as well because I'm sure that Nekonyan already did their best to persuade FAVORITE to license it through them and you can see the result here. So yeah in the end I would say that it would be better if Irotoridori and Astral Air was released as fan translated, and therefore they didn't need to think much about the license cost.

I think I already say my point here, and it's pretty clear that we wouldn't be able to get the middle ground here. So what I can say is that it's already too late if we want to have fan translated FAVORITE VNs, and let's just hoping that we'll be able to see more localized FAVORITE VNs in the future.

PS - As for the translation, it's always subjective matter so I wouldn't say that Nekonyan couldn't handle FAVORITE VN. At least I can say that Hoshimemo Sekai version is a redundant release, because we already have Insem translated it (Dolphin and so-called bad translation aside).

[iamnoob]

@Swim Swim


Director’s Cut and Censorship:


You will have the ability to choose between a Director's Cut without censorship or the Standard Version containing censorship. Please check laws, regulations, and rules regarding importation and legality in your region.

From a recent update.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/solpress/irotoridori-no-sekai-a-visual-novel-by-favorite/posts/2413566?ref=activity

[yelsha57]

We are so close to reaching the 40k mark. I hope we at least get the main vn, although it would of been nice to at least reach Hikari No Sekai. We have 15 more days, so maybe it will progress more. If not, hopefully they will find a another way to fund the other fandiscs, like they said they might. 

[HataVNI]

Where are we close? This game unfortunately bombs right now... 

I'm sure that they manage to fill the bar for one, but all the stretch goals are absolutely mad delusion. 

[Incynerate]

Maybe I'm being pessimistic but I'm not even confident they'll reach their initial goal. It's hard to imagine a KS pulling in more money in the latter half of its campaign than in the first half. Something drastic would have to change.

I hope I'm wrong.

[yelsha57]

2 hours ago, Incynerate said:

Maybe I'm being pessimistic but I'm not even confident they'll reach their initial goal. It's hard to imagine a KS pulling in more money in the latter half of its campaign than in the first half. Something drastic would have to change.

I hope I'm wrong.

I'm kinda the same way. It's not quite to 40k yet. It's still got a long way, before it reaches the main goal. I'm a little worried. 

[bakauchuujin]

Is it just me or have they not really been that good at promoting it? Doesn't seem to have really managed to get people hyped which I assumed would happen since it is a VN by Favorite and it seems many people like their VNs.

[novurdim]

3 hours ago, Incynerate said:

It's hard to imagine a KS pulling in more money in the latter half of its campaign than in the first half.

That's what they often do though. Pull more money in the latter half. Especially when the base goal is in sight. 

So I'm still hopeful for the main goal to be reached during the final spurt but looks like it will fail horribly as a crowdfund for the trilogy either way. Not that anyone expected otherwise with those stretch goals.

[Stormwolf]

Well, it's too bad they overshot this whole campaign. Wish they'd just translate this and sell it as usual. It would naturally bring in a lot if they were to advertise properly as many have been waiting for this game for a long time already. Now we risk they'll analyze the campaign and conclude that the interest is very low and just drop it entirely.

[kokoro]

The KS is probably bombing because people are afraid Iroseka turns out to be another Hoshimemo.

Whew. People were very vocal about that game's translation.

[Antera]

Was there even big demand for this VN? it looks like those who wanted this VN to get localized, were only early backers. There is not much of a hype unfortunately 

[Naterocks2000]

11 hours ago, bakauchuujin said:

Is it just me or have they not really been that good at promoting it? Doesn't seem to have really managed to get people hyped which I assumed would happen since it is a VN by Favorite and it seems many people like their VNs.

The lack of marketing and advertising is really making this campaign suffer, the only bit of advertising I've seen in the last two weeks is "The kickstarter is now active!". Probably won't even reach initial goal. Honestly, I think just translating it and hoping for the best in sales would have been the better option here. I say that because people who may want it can see that it won't even reach the stretch goals and only translating 1/3 of a trilogy makes no sense and then don't back it. (Yeah they did say they would "seek other means to fund the sequels" if stretch goals are not met but they really overshot here imo) 

Edited February 20, 2019 by Naterocks2000

[novurdim]

9 hours ago, kokoro said:

The KS is probably bombing because people are afraid Iroseka turns out to be another Hoshimemo.

Whew. People were very vocal about that game's translation.

I highly doubt people (especially those who care about translation's quality as much) are that stupi uninformed. Different company, different translators, different everything. IroSeka is just a lot less known in West than HoshiMemo by itself + Sol Press has a lot less followers than Sekai, even their "very successful" (as it's often called) KS of Newrin has gathered only around 88k + it wasn't really marketed much but that's almost always the case with VN KS. I've also heard people complaining about the tiers/rewards and such. There are a lot of reasons why it is kind of naive to believe that IroSeka can easily gather more than 200k but if they can at least organize the shout-outs from Sekai, MG, Degica etc. during the last 5 or so days, base goal is still more than reachable. 45% in half the time isn't a fiasco for a KS yet.

[Incynerate]

13 hours ago, novurdim said:

even their "very successful" (as it's often called) KS of Newrin has gathered only around 88k + it wasn't really marketed much but that's almost always the case with VN KS. I've also heard people complaining about the tiers/rewards and such.

Might be worth mentioning that for Newrin, Sol Press partnered with MiKandi Japan as a promotional partner. Granted, their Twitter follower counts look pretty close, but since MiKandi is based out of Japan, maybe they were able to bring in backers who were interested in physical goods. Not saying that's what got them all the way there, but it might have helped.

In other news, they just posted another KS update listing the fund distribution. Kinda feel like that's something that should have been available on launch, but whatever. It's always interesting to see.

[littleshogun]

Here's another update, and this time we have Sol Press did announced of how they'll distribute the funds. From there we knew that FAVORITE did ask US$ 21,250 for the license of each game, and as for whether it's expensive or not I'll leave it to each of their own. In any case it looks worrying seeing that we still didn't reach halfway and yet it's only 13 days left, but perhaps it's still too early to judge here seeing that we can have sudden burst when the time is almost close.

[Naterocks2000]

1 hour ago, littleshogun said:

From there we knew that FAVORITE did ask US$ 21,250 for the license of each game, and as for whether it's expensive or not I'll leave it to each of their own. 

$21,250 x 3 = $63,750. That's quite a lot for the opportunity to translate something and sell it legally. No wonder the goal is so high....

 

Makes more sense that Neko didn't get this title's license, paying that out is seriously a gamble. Hope that Sol Press gets at least one goal reached or they are taking a huge loss here. 

Edit: Thinking about it, they probably haven't purchased the license(s) just yet to be safe or that'd be financial suicide. Excuse my stupidity.

Edited February 21, 2019 by Naterocks2000

[Nandemonai]

They have to have negotiated SOMETHING with Favorite.  Sol Press needs to guarantee they can deliver every one of their Kickstarter promistes.  You're right, they probably haven't paid for the licenses yet, but they have to have a deal inked out ready to be signed as soon as the KS is successful.  You can't do a Kickstarter and then negotiate rights.  That leads to fiascos like this.

Also, don't expect the twenty one grand to be all that Favorite expects to get paid.  That is probably the minimum guarantee.  In other words - the contract probably specifies royalties per unit sold, with a guaranteed up-front minimum payment of $21,250.  (Sol Press doesn't actually pay any royalties until they sell enough copies to generate more than $20K in royalty payments.)

[Naterocks2000]

16 minutes ago, Nandemonai said:

They have to have negotiated SOMETHING with Favorite.  Sol Press needs to guarantee they can deliver every one of their Kickstarter promistes.  You're right, they probably haven't paid for the licenses yet, but they have to have a deal inked out ready to be signed as soon as the KS is successful.  You can't do a Kickstarter and then negotiate rights.  That leads to fiascos like this.

Also, don't expect the twenty one grand to be all that Favorite expects to get paid.  That is probably the minimum guarantee.  In other words - the contract probably specifies royalties per unit sold, with a guaranteed up-front minimum payment of $21,250.  (Sol Press doesn't actually pay any royalties until they sell enough copies to generate more than $20K in royalty payments.)

I assumed it was like a "We'll pay the licensing fee AFTER the kickstarter if it is successful" kind of deal. Doing an unlicensed kickstarter would be disastrous nor would I expect a company to be that stupid.

Edited February 21, 2019 by Naterocks2000

[novurdim]

11 hours ago, Naterocks2000 said:

$21,250 x 3 = $63,750. That's quite a lot for the opportunity to translate something and sell it legally. No wonder the goal is so high....

I... really doubt that 20k for a game is considered that much for the market. And I'm 100% sure it's not a correct number at all, as I mentioned before companies usually crowdfund only part of the costs.

But it's honestly better not to discuss the licensing fees much, we know literally nothing and most always assume them to be a lot lower than they actually are for some reason. These speculations are so baseless and harmful that even Sol Press themselves commented on this in the last update that "the past funds raised in our previous campaigns have not always been enough to cover what is needed". Some have even already accused Favorite of being cashgrabs just because the goal is higher this time. I feel like some people would be shocked if companies revealed real licensing costs they usually pay.

[yelsha57]

Well, that is alot of money for a licensing fee. I guess some companies are like that. I can see why expensive companies are hard to partner with. Anyway let's hope we at least reach the main goal, and get the fandiscs another way. Personally I wished they separated all of it, since it is a lot of money for a stretch goal imo. If only this was like the Muv Luv Kickstarter. Anyway there are still 12 days to go, and I hope for some sort of miracle. It would be great if this was advertised more, like on more social media websites, as well as rewards. I don't know what additional rewards, they could add. If the vn had a manga, it would nice to offer that. Anyway good luck funding this vn. 

[Nandemonai]

1 hour ago, yelsha57 said:

Well, that is alot of money for a licensing fee.

No, it isn't.  It's roughly in line with what it's worth, considering that this game probably sold tens of thousands of units in Japan, and probably cost at least two or three hundred thousand dollars to make.

[yelsha57]

29 minutes ago, Nandemonai said:

No, it isn't.  It's roughly in line with what it's worth, considering that this game probably sold tens of thousands of units in Japan, and probably cost at least two or three hundred thousand dollars to make.

Oh 

[Naterocks2000]

6 hours ago, novurdim said:

I... really doubt that 20k for a game is considered that much for the market. And I'm 100% sure it's not a correct number at all, as I mentioned before companies usually crowdfund only part of the costs.

But it's honestly better not to discuss the licensing fees much, we know literally nothing and most always assume them to be a lot lower than they actually are for some reason. These speculations are so baseless and harmful that even Sol Press themselves commented on this in the last update that "the past funds raised in our previous campaigns have not always been enough to cover what is needed". Some have even already accused Favorite of being cashgrabs just because the goal is higher this time. I feel like some people would be shocked if companies revealed real licensing costs they usually pay.

I wasn't blaming anyone for high prices here. Honestly, with the Hoshimemo disaster, I don't blame Favorite for the prices they charge for licenses.

 

Plus, a speculation where I comment that paying over 60 grand for the ability to translate and sell a VN trilogy isn't harming either Favorite or Sol Press. Props to them for trying to bring new series to the west. Considering I am not the richest person, my view is that 60 grand is a hell of a lot to someone like myself. Maybe not to a company though. (Basically, my comment was MY analysis of the estimated price, if multiplied, is pretty high to someone like myself, no harm meant.)

Edited February 22, 2019 by Naterocks2000