MangaGamer Still Afflicted With Payment Processor Issues, Impossible to Buy Anything From Their Store Anymore and Hasn't Announced Next Game's Release Date As a Result

[Nier]

This was the last update on the matter:

http://blog.mangagamer.org/2019/07/02/payment-processor-issues/

I haven't seen them address the issue since then.

Higurashi Chapter 7 came out on the 18th and it's customary for MangaGamer to announce the next upcoming game that's coming out the following month just after a game's release and it's been like that for years, however it seems that due to the on-going situation with the payment processors that this hasn't happened yet.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Nier

[Nandemonai]

This is par for the course.  The last time they had to get a new payment processor it took something like 2 months.

First they have to talk to a bunch of different payment processor companies to try and find one they want to work with.  Then they have to have their web developers (who are all contractors, that's why they don't do things to their site all that often, it's a royal pain for them to do it) integrate with this new system.

Each of these can easily take a few weeks.  Minimum.

[Dergonu]

It’s still possible to buy from them. Send their support an email and they will help you with buying points through paypal, which you can use on games. They also recommend stocking up on some if you think you will buy more games soon, so that you don’t flood them with emails. 

[Speeny]

I think I only bought one game through MangaGamer. Their website seemed pretty dodgy to me. But I know they have a decent reputation? 

[Dergonu]

25 minutes ago, Speeny said:

I think I only bought one game through MangaGamer. Their website seemed pretty dodgy to me. But I know they have a decent reputation? 

It's completely safe, nothing dodgy about them at all. They are one of the biggest localizers in the business. They sell a wide range of different games, with all sorts of adult content. This is likely one of the factors that keeps getting them in trouble with their payment processors. They also had an incident with a bunch of people cancelling their orders on the site in the past for the steam codes that used to come with the games. But, this wasn't MGs fault, they just wanted to give something extra with the purchase of their games. Scammers sadly saw this as a golden opportunity.
Mangagamer is a totally legit and safe site, so you don't have to worry about it "looking dodgy." I suppose that's just an issue with the design of the website.

[Infernoplex]

1 hour ago, Dergonu said:

Mangagamer is a totally legit and safe site, so you don't have to worry about it "looking dodgy." I suppose that's just an issue with the design of the website.

To be totally honest... that web site design screams "dodgy" to me too. If I didn't know who and what MangaGamer is, I'd never trust their site xD They should've fixed up that website design a long time ago, but they still didn't, for one reason or another.

[ChaosRaven]

1 hour ago, Infernoplex said:

To be totally honest... that web site design screams "dodgy" to me too. If I didn't know who and what MangaGamer is, I'd never trust their site xD They should've fixed up that website design a long time ago, but they still didn't, for one reason or another.

I think the "dodgy" look comes with selling porn. A website redesign won't really change that. 

Anyway, I'm also slowly getting a bit worried. Seems to have been a bigger incident again, if it takes so long to fix their payment processor issues.

Edited July 22, 2019 by ChaosRaven

[tahu157]

26 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

I think the "dodgy" look comes with selling porn. A website redesign won't really change that. 

Idk I think sites like DLsite and DMM look super legit despite the nature of their products.

[NowItsAngeTime]

7 hours ago, Dergonu said:

It’s still possible to buy from them. Send their support an email and they will help you with buying points through paypal, which you can use on games. They also recommend stocking up on some if you think you will buy more games soon, so that you don’t flood them with emails. 

Seconding this I had to do this myself and it ends being much faster.

[Fred the Barber]

Yeah, MangaGamer's site screams back alley sex shop, as a venerable member of this board once put it, but it certainly doesn't have to. Denpasoft's shop looks fine. I think MG is still working on redoing the site and has been for years now, though I haven't heard any of their people talk about it in a while. Also, I don't think it's true that the people who work on their website are contractors, by the way; they're just also busy with other things.

[Narcosis]

As much as their front-end is somewhat to blame, the real issue comes from the fact their payment processor had to deal with huge amounts of fraudulent chargebacks and stolen credit cards, which forced them to cease their contract with MG. It's a fairly common occurrence within the umbrella of 18+ industry. It may sound stupid, but a lot of people don't want their families to know they buy porn.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Narcosis

[sanahtlig]

If this is such a problem why don't they sell their games in other digital shops?  JAST and FAKKU would probably be more than happy to host everything they sell.

[kokoro]

MG should sell al their stuff at JAST store.

[ittaku]

1 hour ago, sanahtlig said:

If this is such a problem why don't they sell their games in other digital shops?  JAST and FAKKU would probably be more than happy to host everything they sell.

It is an option, but selling their stuff through other outlets does cut into profits greatly.

[Speeny]

12 hours ago, Dergonu said:

It's completely safe, nothing dodgy about them at all. They are one of the biggest localizers in the business. They sell a wide range of different games, with all sorts of adult content. This is likely one of the factors that keeps getting them in trouble with their payment processors. They also had an incident with a bunch of people cancelling their orders on the site in the past for the steam codes that used to come with the games. But, this wasn't MGs fault, they just wanted to give something extra with the purchase of their games. Scammers sadly saw this as a golden opportunity.
Mangagamer is a totally legit and safe site, so you don't have to worry about it "looking dodgy." I suppose that's just an issue with the design of the website.

I see. Thanks for clearing that up. 

[sanahtlig]

14 hours ago, ittaku said:

It is an option, but selling their stuff through other outlets does cut into profits greatly.

Not selling stuff at all also cuts into profits greatly.

Selling in multiple shops also offers greater exposure.  Trying to maximize profits per sale at any cost overlooks the very real possibility that you're missing large swathes of the market by forcing customers to come to you rather than reaching out to them.

[SaintOfVoid]

19 hours ago, ittaku said:

It is an option, but selling their stuff through other outlets does cut into profits greatly.

that´s only in an ideal environment, but since payment processor-esque shenanigans do happen to them more often than it should, selling some games wherever - even when a cut is taken - is better than none.

[ittaku]

I wasn't arguing against it, just pointing out that it's not the same as selling at your own store.

[Acrylic7]

Hope they can solve their problem quickly. 

[jikorde]

When a con is immediately after a game release, they have a tendency to wait until that con before announcing their next game. This usually happens at least once a year. Though it is probably the payment processor at fault, it's not unusual for them to not have something announced the week before Otakon.

[Nandemonai]

On 7/23/2019 at 5:41 AM, sanahtlig said:

Not selling stuff at all also cuts into profits greatly.

Selling in multiple shops also offers greater exposure.  Trying to maximize profits per sale at any cost overlooks the very real possibility that you're missing large swathes of the market by forcing customers to come to you rather than reaching out to them.

It's a complex series of tradeoffs.

MangaGamer definitely cannot release stuff on other companies' stores while theirs isn't working, then yank them once things are back up and running.  Not unless they want to burn all the bridges.  So if they put their games on another storefront, that's a long term relationship.  Which, yes, brings extra business but also its own set of drawbacks.

MangaGamer also does not want to help another company become the de facto Sexy Steam (the place everyone goes to buy games and you're screwed if your game isn't there).  Why are Steam's spastic fits and inability to act as a gatekeeper to their own store such a big deal?  Because Steam has a hold on a vast audience that will only deal with you Steam's way, or the highway.  Steam has power, when they throw their weight around, the earth moves.

So in addition to having to pay someone else the platform tax, and giving that platform a gift of raising that platform's visibility by their games' presence on it - MangaGamer runs the risk of helping to create a situation where yet another company has effective control over the distribution destiny of their games.

That position (being The Hentai Store)?  That's exactly what Nutaku and Fakku want.  It's no surprise the established VN companies are reluctant to go whole hog on lending their libraries to them.  They don't want to be beholden to someone else the way they're beholden to Steam.  If anything, they themselves want to be in that position.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Nandemonai

[novurdim]

It's not like JAST are selling their games on other storefronts (exc. steam) so I don't see why MG who basically have the same stance would. Unless the whole payment processors issue becomes unbearably huge.

[sanahtlig]

On 7/26/2019 at 12:47 AM, Nandemonai said:

It's no surprise the established VN companies are reluctant to go whole hog on lending their libraries to them.  They don't want to be beholden to someone else the way they're beholden to Steam.  If anything, they themselves want to be in that position.

The more this drags on, the more I don't want MangaGamer to be in the position where they're the distribution bottleneck for eroge.  It might be better for everyone if publishers focus on publishing and leave distribution to specialists.

[Nier]

Oh Btw, MangaGamer finally announced the release dates of their next titles:

And even though they announced them, they still can't take pre-orders for them due to the payment processor issue.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Nier

[adamstan]

Byakko on 15th August? Yay! I've been waiting for it