So MangaGamer has thrown down the gauntlet, eh? If they have twins, I’m switching sides. Nothing personal… I just go where there’s twincest. 
MG’s actions remind me any market expo… where one company tries to up show their competitor by going extravagant, so everyone forgets about said competitor.
Lamuness and Shingo should perform a duo belly dancing routine: I’m sure that will take people’s attention away from MG. 
I didn’t see any twins working with Mangagamer but there were two sets of twins that came in matching cosplay. I can only imagine you would have wept with joy, and then “convinced” them to have an enlightening discussion on the merits of sharing.
Managed to get Peter and Shingo to answer all the questions that were posted. Shingo had to fill in for a couple because Peter wasn’t sure.
Regarding the uncensored data for Cleavage: There has been no progress here at all, mainly because the company in question still can’t seem to find said data. Peter suspects that they just don’t want to do it anymore.
His opinion on the C&D’s aimed at fan translations: He thinks it is unfortunate but doubts that it will stop the fans, and the companies are unlikely to actually pursue anything.
Nitro+ Royale’s status: There is no status yet as Nitro+ hasn’t given them the green light yet. He suspects it is partly due to the fact that there is currently an XBOX version being worked on, which would obviously be their priority.
Talks with Eushully: They have not contacted Eushully about licensing yet. He said that they tend to look at potential new partnerships about every six months so maybe next year.
Regarding Black Cyc negotiations: Talks with Black Cyc are completely dead. Cyc’s own incompetence with their own systems seems to have been the final nail in that coffin.
Regarding Fandiscs: He is definitely interested in getting out fandiscs after a game is released. Of course it would likely depend on the success of the game.
J-List becoming more like Erogeshop: As of now they are trying to list the top 10 or so games, however he also said that they would like to expand more and that if you have suggestions on titles they should look into carrying then let them know. Be advised not all games would be accepted, Kud Wafter for instance won’t be put up.
Rolling Star: I’d never heard of them before and apparently neither had Peter. Don’t know if that announcement actually happened or if it was a mistake but they don’t have any deal with them as far as Peter knows.
Kazoku Keika text patch: Currently on hold for a couple reasons. Number one is obviously the recent rush to get Raidy, Moero and Demonbane out. Games coming out in con season are almost always going to take priority. Secondly the company that they used for programming it has gone under and the programmers themselves have scattered to the winds. Shingo said they still want to work on it but right now it’s not a top priority.
Sorry Baldo but Shingo said they looked at it, and while they like the premise they didn’t think that that particular title would have been the best choice. So to answer your question, no Sodate Miryu.
Never got to talk to Kouryuu at MG’s booth as I never saw him until the panel, which was disorganized as hell. It was supposed to end at 2300 and I left at 2350. Of course having several singers there doing performances and having significant translation problems didn’t help. They did announce Degenki Striker, which hasn’t even been announced in Japan yet as well as an unnamed title exclusively for MG. They were running so late that they only allowed two questions before they had the singers start so I didn’t get to ask about the rumored Circus RPG, although Deardrops was finally officially confirmed. Also, Bamboo is freaking awesome.
Passing out, time now.
Hmm. I guess that’s not too bad. Not carrying Kud Wafter would have been a problem for me for last month, yes, but it’s not every month I have reason to get a loli game. The box at least didn’t have any ero on the back, although one CG was pretty close. Alright, thanks for asking the question.
Hmm, that’s odd, as Dengeki Striker has been listed on EGS for over a year, which was where I first noticed it. I guess that means that the homepage for it will be up fairly soon though. Good to hear all the other news from both Mangagamer and JAST.
At least I don’t have to re-buy it anymore, thanks you very much for adding my question to your list 
.
Oh well, now that I know for sure that Sodatete Miryu? is a lost cause , X Change Alternative2 becomes the Crowd game I’m hoping for, I’ve recently completed Mind Cross (this little gem) and a translated Crowd game sharing the same theme would be nice (especially because I CANNOT read the microscopic text in the original game 
… ).
was anybody at the mangagamer panel and can tell me what they announced
About Cyc, boohoo. 
Nail in the coffin… 
I just don’t understand how… programmers can be that incompetent with their own engine, unless maybe the original creators are no longer around?
1 more reason to continue loearniing jpn when im better.
Edit: Thx for asking the qns, TS. 
AX didn’t seems that event full in terms of h-games for either company but it did seem so for some of the major anime companies funimation most of all
prettty much most of the new series for summer seem to be streaming
Sorry, should have wrote Yumina from Will, my brain was scrambled then.
Anyway, there’s another thread saying that the game has got licensed, along with some other exciting stuffs.
Edit: Whoops, this was supposed to be a PM. I guess I’m more tired than I thought.
it sounds like alot of the companies mangagamer brought with them have no interest of localizing their games at all
Care to elaborate?
That is actually not true. Frontwing was scoping out the market (per say). They are interested in the english market if it becomes popular enough or they would never have shown up to an American anime convention at the panel of mangagamer. You have to remember Circus did not join Mangagamer until a year after their first appearance at Anime EXPO. Not to mention frontwing was probably trying to see which company they should try to turn to for releases (they were right next to jast after all).
Overdrive is releasing a game Study Abroad specifically for the English market (the game announced exclusively for mangagamer…in the beginning). If that does not show interest I do not know what does. Not to mention they plan on releasing Deardrops within a year of its japanese release.
Circus has already planned to release for Da Capo II and Da Capo If.
Age has specifically said that they are interested in the english market and this is more or less them seeing if it is worth it or not (same as frontwing I believe…why else would they be there?).
They also have signed agreements with Baseson (koihime) one of the most anticipated releases in a long time.
I believe mangagamer also mentioned something about navel but I’m not sure what it was about. Possibly just an off-side comment. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another shuffle game a few years (maybe more) from now.
Not to mention mangagamer has quite a number of games planned for release. Do you really think they can manage more at this time? We might also receive more information at the end of the month (what it sounds like) but really do we want them to take on more if it means less quality? Jast is the one I would agree needs more titles (but the yumina is a huge game and will probably take up a large part of their efforts.
The biggest problem with visual novels is piracy and since in japan it is probably a lot worse than over here (here they must translate first) the appeal of a less pirate-society is a hard one to ignore for some (my thoughts anyway). Piracy is still common everywhere and it hurts the industry.
If I remember right, Navel said they’ll allow more of their games to be licensed if Shuffle and Soul Link sell enough
well i hope some other companies are willing to work at localizing a and b list titles
The problem with the visual novel industry is that there are only two companies. They can only release a certain amount of titles at a time in good quality. Perhaps if either company expanded quite a bit then maybe we could see more games released. Which in turn would hopefully raise sales. Sadly piracy is preventing a lot of good companies from releasing over here.
I bought both shuffle and soul link and yet I’m not sure how many other people did. What we need is a list of games sold per year and how many of each to be released to us so we can see where on the scale the industry is. We are not Japan and considering we pay a lot less and a lot of people over here have issues with certain games (feminazis mainly) the industry over here is dangerous. I’m sure AliceSoft would have loved to jump at the chance of releasing games over here but a number of incidents with foreigners occurred in the last few years specifically aimed against visual novels (rapelay, pregnancy, attempts at bans, etc…) and this has scared many away from the u.s. market (scared cyc away). In some ways it is a good thing that the industry over here is not so large (it is being overlooked by the feminists and moralists). However considering it would be a freedom taken away people would fight for it even if they do not play the games it goes against the united states constitution and a good lawyer or speaker could easily argue his way through that…if the juries were not already decided.
Games announced:
Jast: 6 (nitroplus and now yumina will probably take up most of their time).
Mangagamer: 6 (I think) (also the reason we have not seen any real new announcements from these guys is because they are also doing the higurashi series and all age games…they have quite a few)
Still the most anticipated game for next year is Yumina…mangagamer will probably have released koihime (probably will be done by the end of the month and selling by end of august) and da capo II seems like a november or december release).
now i hope a few other companies will enter the visual novel fray
It comes down to sales. MangaGamer and its fans have to prove to licensors that the ventures are worthwhile.
I think expansion is the last thing the companies need. They’ve got to make sure what they have is successful first, otherwise they’d be throwing money away.