I really need to finish putting together Shiki’s patch :x
Licensing BL will be a big loss for them, since it already doesn’t sell well in japan, due to the extreme content most BL games contain.
If you noticed, There’s a very very small handful of Japanese BL games out there, and that is for apparent reasons.
-The majority of BL fans prefer something light, something with a story and no graphic content.
-The fandom of BL is very small compared to other genres.
-BL games don’t make money, that is a fact.
I made an account just to give you a piece of advice jast, Don’t do anything you might regret later, i’m pretty sure Enzai and AO were a failure, so please, consider what most fans want.
Also to people up there, Togainu no chi’s translation is mostly cancelled, it’s been stuck at 70% for like a year or something, and Hadaka shitsuji (some disgusting crap right there) is going slow, 1% each two weeks or something.
Anyway Jast, my advice to you not to license any BL games, if they’re not doing well in japan (obviously), how do you expect them to do well here? let’s not forget the piracy issues, so it’s like you’re making a suicide move.
Okay…
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‘Well’ is relative. No eroges do ‘well’ compared to, say, general video game releases - honestly, if the company manages to stay in business it is probably doing fairly well. Obviously, BL is a niche within a niche, so automatically you can expect a relative reduction in sales, but I wouldn’t necessarily draw from that that they aren’t doing ‘well’- if it wasn’t feasible to make the things and at least break even, they wouldn’t be made. Besides, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no potential market there. The fact that these things are made on such tight margins in the first place might even mean they’d be cheaper for JAST or other companies to acquire.
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Offering a niche nobody else offers opens up a potential market, doesn’t it? Isn’t that why it’s called a ‘niche’?
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Piracy, piracy piracy piracy. There’s really no reason to believe BLges would be pirated more than any other eroges, and even if there was, it wouldn’t mean anything. Sales are sales and the thing about pirates is that they will either buy your game or not. They aren’t a lucrative potential market and they aren’t a lost market, they’re just people who aren’t buying. Forget about them.
Granted, it’s a field JAST would need to be exceptionally careful in, but I think the market would be ripe for a couple of choice acquisitions. I wouldn’t be able to name them because the only good BLge I know about is Kannagi no Tori and it’s nearly 10 years old now.
On the other hand, JAST does have an awful lot on its plate right now so probably best not to be investing in new projects before the money starts rolling in from the others. Still, I do think it could be worth keeping an eye on- if they can get just one BL title that does really well it might well start something. There’s hardly any shortage of {Western-equivalent-of-fujoshi} around if the Internet is any example.
Or they could option a nice yuri game instead! No, Raidy doesn’t count. Neither does Escalation.
… do you have any evidence for this so-called fact?
Hasn’t Jast always claimed that nice yuri games are like impossible to find?
From hanging out on /u/ I know liar-soft put something out recently (Okujou no Yurirei-san) but at a glance it doesn’t look like something the traditional jlist audience would be that excited for.
Hakuisei Renai Shoukougun is supposedly getting a PC release? I would buy that, it looks cute, but it also looks too sweet and pure for some people’s tastes 
They’ve said before there aren’t really any very good ones, and that if you know of any god ones, let them know and they’ll look into it.
I agree with everything you say, but i was being a little bit considerate lol
Seriously though, they could just do it like Aksys (who’s drowning in money) and localize an otome game, which i guaranteed to sell ten times more than any BL game.
Have you by any chance every visited Getchu or any VN database at all? If they were making money, you’d see more of them.
It’s halfway through 2012 and this year there was only one BL game released, compared to 30-40 Eroge games each MONTH, that says alot, huh?
And who said Nice yuri games are impossible to find? as far as i know, in terms of numbers,quality, preferences, and culture, Yuri games beat yaoi games by a mile, the only issue here is that Yuri content is usually a subtheme within the regular eroge. but that’s beside the point, there is certainly a fair amount of Yuri games to license.
The VNTL thread rarely updates BL games, despite progress being made on titles since most occur over on Aarinfantasy which you need an account to read.
Togainu No Chi is at 97% and roughly advancing by 1% a fortnight. http://i45.tinypic.com/33k66w1.jpg
Hadaka Shitsuji is at 45%, the translator is currently moving to a new place and thus isn’t translating at their usual speed. Previously its been going at about 5% - 8% a week.
Lamento is at 15% at roughly advancing by 5% every 2 months.
Sweet Pool is at 70%
Prince Maker Braveness is at 100% translation and they’re currently testing it and working out the issues.
I also find it funny how you call Hadaka Shitsuji disgusting when JAST licensed STARLESS which is worse then Hadaka Shitsuji.
If i remember right, its not ‘nice’ Yuri games that are hard to find.
Its quality Yuri games where the company is actually interested in a western release. Mangagamer has mentioned it too, but both companies have yet to find a quality Yuri game developer they can license games from.
Both have ties to BL companies they can get at-least 1 quality license from
Jast - Nitro+Chiral
Mangagamer - Baseson~SPICE~
Plus thus far that I’ve seen, most of the quality BL companies that fans want games from have been open in some form to Western releases:
Nitro+Chiral is part of Nitro+, plus JAST has mentioned a possible interest on twitter.
Baseson~SPICE~ is part of Baseson and Kouryuu has actually gone onto Aarinfantasy and discussed possibly releasing it.
SPRAY is part of Visual Arts, Mangagamer made mention of Gakuen Heaven and that the president of Visual Arts said he’d be open to a western release when Mangagamer made a profit overall.
tennenouji has most of Langmoars staff who released Enzai and Absolute Obedience, however they’ve since taken a different approach (less dark, more fluff) and been popular. Due to the Langmoar connection its fairly safe to say they’re open.
So your answer is ‘No, I have no actual data, but the circumstantial evidence suggests it.’
Doesn’t mean it’s not true, but it’s not the question I asked.
… A BxG eroge with a little bit of girl-on-girl content [size=150]IS NOT[/size] a yuri game.
Hear hear. Although that would make things easy; the best yuri game is obviously Subarashiki Hibi =P
In all seriousness though, this recent release has a great score despite very low production values (it’s very partially voiced) - I need to actually play the thing before I can recommend it but it might be that long-awaited ‘yuri game that is actually good’
Exactly. You can’t cheat like that - If you define ‘yuri game’ as ‘any game with yuri scenes’, but ‘yaoi games’ as ‘exclusively BxB’ then - solely by virtue of there being so many more games fitting that first definition - of course “yuri games” beat yaoi games. You’re comparing apples to oranges. (Lilies to a sausage factory?)
Snop Drop might have a couple of yuri scenes, but it is not a yuri game. It is a standard h-games, where the guy has a choice of two girls (and dozens of nigh-inexplicable bad ends). Even Tokimeki Checkin!'s “yuri route” isn’t yuri at all. The two girls involved are clearly bisexual.
Escalation, on the other hand, is a yuri game. It’s not very good, but it’s pure yuri through and through.
As for “they don’t make money” because there aren’t many releases - there aren’t many releases in the domestic market either. Hell, Japan in half a year produces several times as many games as have been released in the entire English market since the very first h-game was translated in the 90’s. But that doesn’t mean they’re not profitable; it just means they’re not very profitable. If you give up on BL games because the number of releases is so low … why are you posting in the “English Bishojo Game Discussions” part of the forum?
I think the BL equivalent might be ??? in games with a male protagonist - no, it’s not strictly the same thing, but there are titles like Josou Sanmyaku, which are entirely BxB, and apparently have endings with male pregnancy, as well as ??? characters appearing in mainstream eroge from major companies like this, and it’s difficult to imagine that people who like ??? would find BL objectionable.
Yes, that is exactly what i’m trying to say, now think carefully about it.
If something is profitable, it’s only natural to make more of it and sell it, right? Well that’s not the case with BL games, or BL manga or even anime. I’ll explain to you why i think that is.
-We’re almost halfway through 2012, and this year so far there has been one BL game released, and no announcements.(While, of course, eroge’s and other genres are getting a ton of releases each month or even week)
-Now, have you by any chance tried reading BL manga? If you go to bakaupdates, You’ll find that the majority of BL mangas and no more than 1 volumes. you know what i’m trying to say?
-Here’s the sales record of the current sucessful and most selling:
anime http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showpost.php … stcount=14
There is no BL anime up on that list, meaning no BL anime has even broke the 10k unit line. on the other hand, there are two Otome adaptions, Hakuoki and UtaPri.
And yes, i know that an eroge with a little girl-on-girl content is not a Yuri hence “beside the point”, But like i said, there’s a fairly good amount of Yuri games to license.
No, it’s not “they don’t make money because there aren’t many releases”, it’s “They aren’t many releases because they don’t make money”, get the difference.
Not very profitable means it still does make a considerable amount of money, and that’s what alot of eroges do yet the releases are growing faster than ever.
Dude, Those are Trap games, not BL games, there’s a big difference. Trap games are male oriented while BL games are female-oriented.
i like neither of those, but i’d take a feminine crossdressing shota than a bishounen who’s sucking another dude’s doodoo any darn day. So stop comparing two completely different genres, and just for the record, Trap games do NOT appeal to the fujoshi audience.
‘Prince Maker Braveness’ had it’s English patch released a few hours ago 
It has 3 yaoi endings ( out of 42 possible endings ) and one of those Yaoi endings is the canon ending (According to the sequel ‘Prince Maker Renascence’).
Prince maker braveness is a chinese doujin game, so no, i don’t even think it counts.
It may not count to you, but it counts to Yaoi fans.
It’s the second yaoi all ages title to get an English release if one doesn’t count fandisks and US produced titles. Furthermore its the first Yaoi fan-translation to get a blessing/approval from the original creators. Last I heard the translators now moving on to either the 3rd game in the series or one of the mini-game spin-offs.
What part of “doujin game” don’t you get? It’s a fan-made game, it’s not official.
So you don’t count doujin games?
So going by that statement you don’t count Higurashi nor Umineko (as straight/all ages releases). They’re both doujin games and yet arguably considered better then 90%+ of the official games released.
I think the question is ‘count as what?’
If your referring to YouStoopet, my understanding of it is he doesn’t considered translating a doujin game as a ‘release’ and only counts official work being translated as a ‘release’. (By release i refer to what VNDB classifies as a release).
If your referring to me, i believe its counted as a release since Doujin games have long surpassed the stigma of being ‘just another title’ or ‘being lesser quality to official work’. With my example being higurashi and Umineko which are highly regarded despite being doujin titles.
First of all, Higurashi isn’t even popular in japan, the Visual novel was a doujin and the anime adaption sold terribly.
what people in the west and foreign countries like doesn’t really move an inch of butthair in japan, we don’t make Eroges and Visual novels so we don’t decide what’s “better then 90% of the official games released”, that statement was really dumb and ignorant, You clearly have no clue what’s going on within the eroge industry.
To put it bluntly, Higurashi isn’t better than even 1% of the official games, i can assure you that because i can tell you barely played any visual novels at all.
And for the record, 18+ sells better than All/ages, i don’t need to tell you that since for each all ages game there is a hundred 18+ game.
Bottom line, keep your invalid views to yourself, if the japanese or Visual novel otakus saw that “better then 90% of the official games released” statement, You’d be a laughing stock. but that’s beside the point, I don’t think an official eroge company would bother licensing a Doujin game, because they’re DOUJIN games after all, they’re FAN-MADE.
P,S why don’t you go look around Getchu a bit and learn a little here and there about the rankings and how the industry works?