Japanese PC Sales Data and ErogameScape Scores

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

Notes

  • EGS scores correspond with the first release of a particular game (not a port or updated release)
  • Not all scores may be fair indicators due to low sampling
  • Exodus Guilty scores vary wildly between the various versions. The updated PC port should be 69/70
  • Rough sales figures only paint a picture of relative sales performance. They cover the PC releases
  • Except for Ever17, N/A indicates insufficient sales data for a game’s year of release (pre-2000, post-2006)
  • DNR indicates that a game failed to rank in the Top 100 during its year of release
  • I’ve excluded most older games since sales figures are unavailable

The format below is as follows:
Title (Brand), EGS Mean/EGS Median, Initial Sales Figure + Enhanced Release Figure

Hirameki International

Ever17 –out of infinity- (KID), 89/92, N/A
Day of Love (ACTRESS), 55/60, 13822
Hourglass of Summer (Princess Soft), 68/70, 8539
Phantom of Inferno (NitroPlus), 85/89, 7304 + 6880
Ai Yori Aoshi (KID), 56/60, N/A
Exodus Guilty (Imadio/Abel), 60/65, DNR
Ishika & Honori (AZURITE), 28/25, DNR
Tea Society of a Witch (FrontWing), 68/70, DNR
Amusement Park (Custom Software), 40/40, DNR

Peach Princess

Princess Waltz (Pulltop), 71/73, 17688
Yume Miru Kusuri (ruf), 78/80, DNR
Little My Maid (Sweet Basil), 54/55, N/A
Gibo ¬ñ Stepmother’s Sin (Guilty), 57/60, DNR
Critical Point (Sweet Basil), 68/70, N/A
Snow Drop (Sweet Basil), 47/50, DNR
Water Closet: The Forbidden Chamber (Guilty), 42/50, DNR

Yin-Yang! X-Change Alternative (Crowd), 73/75, 3162
X-Change 3 (Crowd), 59/60, 5503
Brave Soul (Crowd), 70/68, 20005
Doushin (Crowd), 58/60, DNR
X-Change 2 (Crowd), 61/65, N/A
Tokimeki Check-in! (Crowd), 62/65, N/A
X-Change (Crowd), 55/60, N/A

G-Collections

Amorous Professor Cherry (ZyX), 70/73, 4687
Lightning Warrior Raidy (ZyX), 49/56, 4238
The Sagara Family (ZyX), 67/70, DNR
Do you Like Horny Bunnies? 2 (ZyX), 64/67, 17803
Virgin Roster (ZyX), 54/57, 20677
Do You Like Horny Bunnies? ~ H na Bunny wa Kirai? (ZyX), 61/60, 21729
Tsuki (ZyX), 67/70, 17691
Chain (ZyX), 63/60, 15099

Family Project (D.O.), 86/90, 16656
Snow Sakura (D.O.), 74/75, DNR
Pretty Soldier Wars A.D. 2048 (D.O.), 54/50, 2611
Crescendo (D.O.), 78/80, DNR + 2475
Sensei 2 (D.O.), 63/61, 9811
Kana (D.O.), 81/84, N/A + 5532
DOR (D.O.), 64/63, 47/47, 41/40, DNR

Catgirl Alliance (Sekilala), 63/62, DNR
Cosplay Fetish Academy (Sekilala), 69/70, DNR
Idols Galore! (Sekilala), 54/60, DNR
Come See Me Tonight 2 (Sekilala), 62/60, DNR
Secret Wives Club (Sekilala), 60/60, DNR
Come See Me Tonight (Sekilala), 61/60, DNR

Bazooka Café (Trabulance), 60/60, DNR
Pick Me, Honey! (Trabulance), 60/63, DNR
I’m Gonna Serve You 4 (Trabulance), 56/60, 11594
Kango Shicyauzo 2 (Trabulance), 60/60, DNR
Kango Shicyauzo (Trabulance), 58/60, 23340
Tottemo Pheromone (Trabulance), 59/59, DNR

Figures of Happiness (Angel Smile), 67/70, DNR
Heart de Roommate (Angel Smile), 68/67, DNR
Private Nurse (Angel Smile), 71/70, DNR

Hitomi (Mercure), 57/54, DNR
Let’s Meow Meow! (Yamitsu), 53/58, DNR
Slave Pageant (Ignition), 51/55, DNR
Jewel Knights Crusaders (Zerocool), 59/64, DNR

LIBIDO

Casual Romance Club (LIBIDO), 30/30, DNR

Kitty Media

Discipline (Active), 76/80, 46915 + 2050
Bible Black (Active), 76/77, 20120

Miscellaneous

ADAM The Double Factor (C’s Ware), 47/50, 45211
Desire (C’s Ware), 83/85, 31900
Viper Paradice (SOGNA), 40/47, 15112

#2

Interesting. I see some ratings I like, and some that I don’t like. But that’s the way it is with everything.

#3

I think EGS sucks. The whole score system is broken and some scores are unfair.
I used to dislike the site but now even more.

See the Dies Iraefiasco. A very high quality game but yet it got a 60 because peoplewhere pissed that there “wishes” didn’t come true.
There plan is to give “Light” some trouble and decide to give poor scores so that not many people will buy it. Call it as some sort of revenge.
They where asking for somthing impossible that could have troubled “Light” financially since the game was pushed back quite a lot of times. “Light” tried there best to grand there selfish wishes but in the end it couldn’t work out.
The so called “fans” where asking for the impossible. They got pissed and wanted “Light” to suffer. So the result is poor scores.

I want to punch them for doing something so childish and stupid. (what I said was childish to but come one…)
There like angry kids that didn’t get there candy…

[size=150]Something like that is just sad an unacceptable![/size]
I rather check Big review sites then the “pile all reviews” and “what not” method EGS is using.

#4

With user rankings, I don’t think there’s such a thing as “fair”, “unfair”, or “broken”. EGS is simply a collection of opinions provided by a certain sampling of consumers. No one ever claimed that it’s the sole criterion by which you should base your purchases.

Now about method, consider sites like IGN, Gamespot, or GameRankings, where there’s a “user’s rating” or whatever. EGS follows that kind of concept.

Again, the Garden and Dies Irae issues have nothing to do with ErogameScape’s system but rather the otaku market as a whole. Being unable to read much Japanese, I can’t say much about that situation. However, those games are getting trashed elsewhere, including online retailers like Amazon (where reviewers generally seem more forgiving).

In the mainstream game industry, you get the same kind of backlash. It’s just that vocal, hardcore fans make up a mere fraction of buyers, so more casual players (who may not even be aware of developmental shifts or unfulfilled promises) easily drown out the noise.

While I generally agree, I suspect that many studios are digging themselves into that hole. With the eroge market shrinking, everyone’s rushing to release more games at a faster pace (counter-productive and possibly detrimental to the brand in the long run, but I guess it generates income at more regular intervals). For instance, instead of concentrating on one major release a year, many teams have ramped it up to two or three. So unless resources are well-staggered between smooth productions, they’re prone to shoot themselves in the foot. Niche studios can’t absorb inefficiencies like a large developer/publisher.

CUFFS = previously one game per year; three poorly received releases in 2007/2008
light = two original releases in 2005 and 2006; four in 2007, with three from acclaimed scenarists (high expectations…)

That’s asking for trouble, isn’t it?

#5

Also these scorings do not take into account release dates.
FE: Japanese release of Yume Muri Kusuri was December 22. How can you expect a game that isn’t the most hyped game of the year to reach the top 100 in 9 days? Yes it’s right before Christmas, but come tell me how many eroge games do you receive at Christmas?

#6

A review is what it is: opinions from whoever wrote the review. A score is just the same. A scoring system isn’t fair or unfair: it merely reflects the opinions of its users. For my part, I’d rather have a scoring system (with links to reviews) with feedback from users than buying blindly, based from the advertisements of the makers or the reviews from the press (which, in the end, are also opinions).

We talked about the matter in the appropriate thread: they were more pissed because they were lied to. light made promises it didn’t keep… nor even warned they wouldn’t keep until after the game was out.

So, you’d like to be lied by any company (say Microsoft), buy the products based on what it’s supposed to do (but doesn’t), but just keep your mouth shut, smile and them and tell them to do the same again next time? Customers have one power against makers: the power of their money. Disappoint your customers: get a backlash. light made promises: they should have kept, or not make them, or at least apologize they weren’t able to keep the promise before the game was out. Not after, when people certainly have bought the game based on the promises.
You’re talking as if a maker holds no responsibility about its customers, can pretend whatever he wants (about what his products do) in order to get sales, then call them whiners and tell them to shut up if it’s found out his product doesn’t do what it was sold as doing.

Sorry, if as a customer, I don’t agree with that.

As for being “childish and stupid”, so, light asked for opinions, ideas and suggestions during the game’s conception. I guess it was “childish and stupid” for the fans to answer and give them their wishes, opinions, ideas and suggestions, right? But, of course, it was perfectly mature and respectable for light to agree on these wishes, opinions, ideas and suggestions and promise to implement them in the actual game. Game is delayed, game is released, light didn’t keep the promises and the game doesn’t have most of whatever wishes, opinions, ideas and suggestions were promised, but, of course, it was a perfectly mature, respectable and acceptable move for light to not tell their customers about the matter before the game was actually released. So, the customers protested the only way they could (since they already bought the game, hence already gave light their money): they gave the game bad reviews, in order for it not to sell well. And, of course, this makes them the bad guys, being “childish and stupid”. What a great way to view things!!!
I mean, the fact light shouldn’t have made the promises, or should have kept them, or should have told they didn’t keep the promise, surely don’t justify at all the backlash, right? They’re not accountable for anything, right?

If a kid pays 9240Y (~$86) for a candy he doesn’t have, he doesn’t get a right to be angry?

#7

Well on a random observation (not an attack on your logic), this is fairly typical. As examples: VISTA Ultimate wasn’t complete when it was released (and its still not), the PS3 lacked some of the hardware it was supposed to have, and the 2007 Toyota Scion’s 1.5 litter engine doesn’t give the acceleration promised (and the 2008 still has the same issue). One sold at expectation. One is poorly selling. One sold like wildfire. Yea for customer complaints.

As I’ve slowly come to accept it, people can whine about Light “not making wishes come true” and all that, but the fact is Dies Irae is a great game. It’s like a movie really… you know, those cult classics that get ignored or insulted when they’re first released, but years latter people look back and say, “Wow! This is really good when you look at it from this prospective!”

Feh… as someone explained to me, it really doesn’t matter if Light goes out of business. They can just reform under a new label anyways… happens already. And hey, if they go out of business and don’t come back, that’s fine too. The loss of quality would hurt the industry more than it helps: if people wanna rate shitty titles like Ijitte Princess higher, and see more companies like that thrive, then hey… that’s the better game. After all, voting explains how we get idiot politicians in office: obviously humanity isn’t too good at the concept.

In any case this whole thing might be moot. I was talking to a clerk at Softmap and another at Gamers, and they told me that Dies Irae sells pretty good, all things considered. It’s not a “total failure” in that respect - just not a mega blockbuster seller. So while the critics are lamenting, enough buyers are still buying. Plus when said people purchase the game and realize its damn good - said people start to question what others are griping over - and question everything else (which a lot of the pro-Dies Irae group on 2ch consists of - the casual, not hardcore). Having a free mind is never a bad thing. Plus a lot of the critics haven’t even bothered playing the game - on 2ch, they claim its not even worth the time. So basically they’re whining about what a few people told them, rather than experiencing it for themselves. They say that buying something shitty out of company loyalty makes you sheep… oh the irony. :roll:

Unless Shingo has started it, I believe you and I are the only two who have public admitted in owning and playing the game on this board. Both of us like it. On 4chan it’s about the same: people who have played it, really like it. On torrent and pirate download boards, its a big request item - Google searching info for the title, pulls them up first in fact. So yeah… that in of itself says a lot. Great game. Poor marketing. Ugly critics.

#8

Narg, when I defended the people who complained about light, I don’t think I ever said the game was bad. Just that people were entirely in their right to complain. I don’t think “it happens everywhere and in some cases no one complains” is a valid argument to consider people don’t have a right to complain when it happens to them. No matter how excellent the chocolate cake you sold me was, if you told me it was a chocolate cake with strawberries, sold it to me as such, without even admitting to me the last moment it didn’t have strawberries, then I think I have a right to flame you. Of course, other people not in the deal could say “But, it’s an excellent chocolate cake”, for my part I think you broke my trust and the deal we had.

#9

Got a good point there lad that I think we can all agree on for you can more than likely never know the whole story behind this conundrum. All we can do is take the information “as is” and discern within ourselves how to intake and separate fact from fiction and then only in our heads make the solution (hopefully a BEST END lol).

#10

I understand the source of the unhappiness, and I’ve come to agree that the complainers are principally justified in hating Light and not buying their title. If a customer does not want to buy a product because it fails to meet their personal standards, then they are totally in the right for doing so. On the same token, I totally understand that Light made promises they could not keep, and played “Indian Giver” with people. The company deserves to be lambasted and villain-ized for that. I accept that Light totally fucked up. I agree with you that customers and fans have a right to show displeasure and discontent with what Light has done to them. They are in the right to say Dies Irae is not the game they were promised, because its totally true. Dies Irae is NOT what they were promised. However even incomplete, Dies Irae is an outstanding title. The game rating on Erogamescape should be for what Dies Irae currently is - not what it could have been. If the released product was crap, then the score should be crap. But if the released product is good, then score should be good.

My only contention is that Dies Irae is at least a 70+ game ¬ñ personally I feel it’s 85+ level. Being an angry customer is good and fine, but if a product is worth 70 points ¬ñ give it 70 points. Then tell people it could have been 100 points if they gave everything that’s promised (and truly I have no doubt that it would). Originally, this is what the critics were doing on Erogamescape. They’d give it fair score, and then mention the disappointment on Light. However thanks to 2chan, there was a MASSIVE flood of people throwing in “zero” ratings and insulting Light, but not saying a damn thing about the actual game itself (that is to say, the content that was delivered). I’m all for hating Light for lying ¬ñ just not for hating Dies Irae for what its not. If you get a good game, you get a good game. If you get a bad game, you get a bad game. But calling a good game bad, when its honestly not bad but good, is the problem. This is where Erogamescape is failing. If I went totally by the score, then the game is merely a substandard title (and at the rate things are going, it may rate below substandard)… the game is NOT substandard: its cream of the crop. Thus the false scoring not only poorly reflects on the critics, it poorly reflects on Erogamescape as a whole. If customers want to get back at Light for lying to them, and not buy Dies Irae, then I can support that. But I think they shouldn’t lie about the score either. :frowning:

Oh… and about your cake… :wink:

#11

[Note: I do not yet speak enough Japanese to actually be up to date on the reviews. I am going off what others here have said. If this is somehow incorrect … well, remember: you have no idea where I live. :)]

The complaint is that people are turning around and doing exactly the same thing they’re complaining about: that is, hypocrisy. Certainly you’re absolutely right; you’d be well within your rights to write a review and say “hey, this cake was an excellent chocolate cake. But it didn’t have the strawberries, and I was repeatedly told they would be there.” That would be 100% honest.

It would be another thing to say “This cake is terrible” or “There were maggots in the cake” or “it was stale” when your real complaint is “I want my strawberries!” That is saying something untrue about the product because it fits your agenda – exactly the same kind of thing people were kvetching about when Light did it! To turn around and do exactly the same thing is just ridiculous.

I can see pulling that kind of stunt as long as Light is denying they did anything wrong. After all, what goes around comes around, and if Light is going to claim that’s OK, then fine - they asked for it. But Light already fessed up, they apologized, and they said they’ll get the stuff that didn’t make it in into an expansion. No, it’s not perfect (are they going to give away this expansion? probably not) but the company apologized, dammit, and that should be the end of fictitious reviews. (People are of course welcome to correctly say “Does not deliver on the hype” but not say things that aren’t actually true.)

#12

And it’ll be another nail in the coffin for quality over quantity, this time made by whiny brats who likely most never even played the game (legally or illegally).

#13

Very interesting - thanks for gathering all the data together. :smiley:

For the VN’s on that list that I’ve played, the erogamescape scores closely correspond for the most part with my rankings (not my scores though). I find the sales figures much more interesting though, even though they are probably misleading for many of the games (where did the numbers come from?). I’m particularly amazed by the high sales of the early ZyX games. Although I can’t really comment on them, as I haven’t played any yet, I would guess most of their popularity is due to their artist and the animated sex scenes, rather than their plot (which is possibly why their scores are fairly low on erogamescape).

#14

Nandemonai & Nargrakhan…I completely agree. That’s what I had in mind to. Couldn’t have said it better!

Repeat repeat reapeat:
People have the right to complain about a product. thats a given but that doesn’t mean that they can just toss around extremely lows scores without any real valid reason. Just saying. “Light betrayed me” or “Light shouldn’t have…” isn’t enough for a review at all.

No doubt I would be angry if a “feature” was missing out of game X. Do I give it a zero? No. With all the disappointments aside. If the game is good it’s good but it COULD have been better.

Light apologized. So case closed. The angry mob will get what they want.
and hey. seems like my Dies Irae fix won’t be over soon thankfully.

Edit:
CUFFS game Garden also seems to have quite a few complaints. The same as Dies Irae.
but I can’t commend on that since I have yet to play it…

#15

I’m actually considering to get this title, because it contains twins. However the character description for the sisters, seems to indicate it’s a case of anti-twincest. Kinda divided, as it might contain twincest, but I don’t wanna waste my money if it doesn’t: there’s a lot of 2008 titles that I wanna get, that have confirmed twincest. Thus I’m in a bit of a rut, and waiting until some has played the game or seen the gallery, to at least let me know if I’d be disappointed in that aspect.

If the story sucks or not, is really not a concern to me. I just want more twincest. :lol:

#16

That is indeed rather strange. I suspect that you are correct; the plots of those games are at best pedestrian. Also, DYLHB sold like 20K copies of the first one, but the sequel didn’t even crack the top 100. I strongly suspect this is due to technical reasons: they adoped the lame “choose a character” tactic, and times changed. The originals are rather old, the sequel at a later time. AFAIK the market shifts regularly, so by the time the sequel came out the market had shifted, evidently.

#17

Yeah, tastes seem to shift rather quickly. Looking at older numbers, it seems that SOGNA and LIBIDO (a top brand during the late 90s) were once very successful. However, both companies fell off the map after a few years.

Maybe people just don’t play bishoujo games for long. If today’s younger consumers started with elaborate products, then formerly successful (but more shallow?) styles will die off.

I copied them from message board archives. However, these figures were originally published by PC-NEWS.

#18

Such a highly competitive market is subject to very strong comparative pressure, on all fronts (technical, artistic, music, VA, the works). Company X implements a feature that raises the bar; they have a hit title. All of a sudden everyone else’s product doesn’t look as good as company X’s; their games have a slide in sales.

So all the other companies either go broke, or start doing what company X is doing. This explains why voice got to be so ubiquitous so fast, for example, and so 3 years (say) is a very long time in this market.

#19