feng is filing for bankruptcy

[Satsuki]

Credit to some guys on VNDB.

Some known titles from feng: Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka, Kanojo no Seiiki...

[kokoro]

rip in pepperoni then again they were irrelevant lmao

[Clephas]

No big deal... they haven't produced anything significant in ten years... and even before that, Somaru Saka was only 'good' because it had an accompanying anime. 

[Freestyle80]

Not to mention nothing was ever translated nor localized

[Infernoplex]

Wow... is it just me or does it feel like some of you are even happy about another JP eroge dev going bankrupt? :confused:

[Satsuki]

13 minutes ago, Freestyle80 said:

Not to mention nothing was ever translated nor localized

Kanojo no Seiiki was licensed by SP actually.

Edited October 17, 2019 by Satsuki

[Freestyle80]

Just now, Satsuki said:

Kanojo no Seiiki was licensed by SP actually.

Yeah I remember that but its Sekai so god knows when we'll get it 

[Yuuko]

Not a surprise

 

[Narcosis]

7 hours ago, Infernoplex said:

Wow... is it just me or does it feel like some of you are even happy about another JP eroge dev going bankrupt? :confused:

Plenty of studios went down under as of late; Feng isn't the only one. Point is, Feng has never achieved any sort of a success and their games were completely unremarkable so it's not much of a loss, as harsh as it sounds.

[bakauchuujin]

Seems to have happened a few times now, a VN company making a deal for a localization then going bankrupt shortly after. I guess they get desperate and try new ways of getting enough money to stay afloat. Wonder how many of the companies that recently made localization deals are in serious financial trouble.

[Infernoplex]

32 minutes ago, Narcosis said:

Plenty of studios went down under as of late; Feng isn't the only one. Point is, Feng has never achieved any sort of a success and their games were completely unremarkable so it's not much of a loss, as harsh as it sounds.

Umm... that's not what I meant xD

What I meant was, I lately have an impression some folks here are happy when a studio goes under. I am not talking about whether the said studio's works were remarkable or not. By that line of thinking, most studios should just go under because they are shit anyway. I, for one, don't think every studio's failure is a good thing, regardless of their... "worth", so to speak.

[Narcosis]

Just now, Infernoplex said:

Umm... that's not what I meant xD

What I meant was, I lately have an impression some folks here are happy when a studio goes under. I am not talking about whether the said studio's works were remarkable or not. By that line of thinking, most studios should just go under because they are shit anyway. I, for one, don't think every studio's failure is a good thing, regardless of their... "worth", so to speak.

If a company creates shitty products no one's really interested with, then by all means, they should go bust. That's how open market operates.

[Infernoplex]

Just now, Narcosis said:

If a company creates shitty products no one's really interested with, then by all means, they should go bust. That's how open market operates.

You're missing my point again, but it doesn't matter. Never mind.

[Narcosis]

Just now, Infernoplex said:

You're missing my point again, but it doesn't matter. Never mind.

You sound upset most people here are pragmatic and have little to no personal feelings towards Feng? From our perspective as consumers and fans of the genre, Feng has little to no value, therefore no one cares it's going down under. I feel sorry for the devs, but it won't change the fact they made weak games that brought this entire situation upon them.  Nothing will change that.

[Infernoplex]

29 minutes ago, Narcosis said:

You sound upset most people here are pragmatic and have little to no personal feelings towards Feng? From our perspective as consumers and fans of the genre, Feng has little to no value, therefore no one cares it's going down under. I feel sorry for the devs, but it won't change the fact they made weak games that brought this entire situation upon them.  Nothing will change that.

This is why I said "never mind" xD

I may be wording myself poorly, but... no, I don't have any personal feelings for Feng. I never read any works by them and I am not really a fan of theirs (yet). I only know them by a couple of their old titles that got anime adaptations, and that's about it. I definitely agree that any VN dev that fans don't want to support should go under. That was never the point of contention for me. I'm now hearing that they were selling their newest game for a price many Japanese eroge fans didn't feel comfortable with, so even if the game may or may not have been shit, the price would've always been an issue. They made some poor business choices and went under. At least, that's what I gather. I'm not really knowledgable about their titles, how good they were or not, or how good their decision-making was, and I am certainly not gonna judge a company based on things I know little about.

With all of that said... I am not happy about a random VN dev going under. I am sad for some of them, and for some of them I am indifferent. But one thing I am not... I am not happy about it. I don't jump out in joy at every VN dev's death. I've been observing the fandom lately, and I've seen some folks who are very happy every time a VN dev dies. I'm not saying anybody here is in that crowd of folks I am talking about. I don't think a VN dev failure is necessarily a cause for celebration. That's what I meant by my earlier posts. It's natural for companies to die all the time, and I certainly am not arguing that a poor business should stay afloat. Sorry if I made it seem that way earlier.

Edited October 17, 2019 by Infernoplex

[ChaosRaven]

I actually played Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi in Japanese from Feng and I kinda liked that. It's a pretty old title though and their shorter titles after that weren't particular impressing. I think I even tried Gakkou no Seiiki but dropped it pretty soon.

31 minutes ago, Infernoplex said:

What I meant was, I lately have an impression some folks here are happy when a studio goes under. I am not talking about whether the said studio's works were remarkable or not. By that line of thinking, most studios should just go under because they are shit anyway. I, for one, don't think every studio's failure is a good thing, regardless of their... "worth", so to speak.

That's probably because the Japanese eroge market is highly oversaturated, which is holding back bigger productions like MuvLuv Alternative was to be realized. So while I wouldn't say that I'm happy that a rather average studio closes, I at least hope that this gives the more established (or even new) companies the chance to make better games. Though, for what its worth I consider the closing of Light a huge loss, since they were one of the only ones that still tried to make story rich titles (even if I wasn't the biggest fan of Dies Irae). Feng... not so much.

Though, it's not unlikely that the employers find a new job at other studios. At least their writer Nakahiro now seems to work for Purple Software with Realive - that's not the worst company you could end up with.

[kokoro]

I actually feel happy when a bad company goes under tbh.

[Infernoplex]

1 minute ago, ChaosRaven said:

That's probably because the Japanese eroge market is highly oversaturated, which is holding back bigger productions like MuvLuv Alternative was to be realized.

Actually, from what I heard, it's the opposite. The Japanese VN market is apparently shrinking. This is why companies like minori and sprite ceased VN development. That's why I'm not sure about the oversaturation you mentioned. I have an impression less and less VNs are made each year now. I think the problem is something else. Oversaturation may be playing a part in it, but not entirely. If you ask me, I think the real oversaturated market is here, not in Japan. We're having so many localizations now that some titles are bombing hard due to so many releases being pumped out quickly. That's at least the impression I have, and I may be wrong.

9 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

Though, it's not unlikely that the employers find a new job at other studios. At least their writer Nakahiro now seems to work for Purple Software with Realive - that's not the worst company you could end up with.

That's the only saving grace here. The staff can move on to different companies and still develop VNs. So the death of one company doesn't necessarily mean the end of career for these people.

11 minutes ago, kokoro said:

I actually feel happy when a bad company goes under tbh.

I was waiting for your post, Mr. Kokoro

[ChaosRaven]

9 minutes ago, Infernoplex said:

Actually, from what I heard, it's the opposite. The Japanese VN market is apparently shrinking. This is why companies like minori and sprite ceased VN development. That's why I'm not sure about the oversaturation you mentioned.

By oversaturation I mean there are too many companies for the existing market. If you look back to the early years of eroge when Fate and Clannad were released, there were much less companies at work that released products of adequate quality, so the few that did exist could sell a lot more titles.

I'm also not sure if the total number of companies is really getting smaller since there are also new companies joining the competition, and there's usually not a extra forum post when that happens. So the overall negative impression might be misleading.

Edited October 17, 2019 by ChaosRaven

[Infernoplex]

40 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

By oversaturation I mean there are too many companies for the existing market. If you look back to the early years of eroge when Fate and Clannad were released, there were much less companies at work that released products of adequate quality, so the few that did exist could sell a lot more titles.

Oh, sorry. Didn't realize you were talking about the number of VN devs, not titles. Yeah, now that you mention it, that seems true.

42 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

I'm also not sure if the total number of companies is really getting smaller since there are also new companies joining the competition, and there's usually not a extra forum post when that happens. So the overall negative impression might be misleading.

Actually, on that note, we did have some companies that came out of the blue lately... but I have an impression they are not gonna stay in the industry for long.

[Yuuko]

1 hour ago, ChaosRaven said:

At least their writer Nakahiro now seems to work for Purple Software with Realive - that's not the worst company you could end up with.

No he does not work for Purple Software

[Clephas]

11 hours ago, Infernoplex said:

Wow... is it just me or does it feel like some of you are even happy about another JP eroge dev going bankrupt? :confused:

I'm not celebrating... well, maybe a little.  I played at least part of all their games after Somaru Saka, and each one was a complete waste of time, even before I got sick of charage.  If it was one of the better companies like Alcot or Pulltop, I'd be grieving, but this one literally has no redeeming games/qualities.

[Narcosis]

People should be prepared for even more studio closures in the near future. Many of them will most probably be quite famous. At this point and time, under current circumstances the shrinking otaku market is simply unable to support this colossal industry by itself. It's either restructuring or a complete burst that will swallow many companies in the process.

Edited October 17, 2019 by Narcosis

[Infernoplex]

7 minutes ago, Clephas said:

I'm not celebrating... well, maybe a little.  I played at least part of all their games after Somaru Saka, and each one was a complete waste of time, even before I got sick of charage.  If it was one of the better companies like Alcot or Pulltop, I'd be grieving, but this one literally has no redeeming games/qualities.

That's fair. Don't know about ALcot's titles, but I'd be grieving over PULLTOP, even though some of their newer titles seem to be on a downward trend in quality.

[Ruberick]

I'd make an argument that a VN dev closing for making subpar games could at least give a kind of "They had it coming" satisfaction. I don't feel that strongly about any VN dev, but if I extended that argument to regular video games I could see myself having that kind of satisfaction if, for example, a Call of Duty tanked hard enough to make one of their devs go belly up.