First, they gave us this when we walked in. http://db.tt/kptc7aQ, which is the Demonbane complete illustration book.
News:
Otome line.
Starry Sky
And that’s all. Everything else was announced last week.
If otome.girly.jp is anything to go by, the Starry Sky games all are 4.5/5, making them seem like a pretty good acquisition. I haven’t played enough otome games to know if their ratings have any value though.
SS has a completed and released fan translation…
bleh
Don’t worry selling SS seems like a great business move!
They’ll make LOADS of cash!
It seems most of their upcoming releases are based on fan translations now.
Only the first game has a fan translation. There are eight games in the series, each season has a main game and a fandisc.
I beg to differ;
The English patch came out in December last year, meaning by the time the first game comes out from JAST, anyone who wanted to play it would have already played it. The Nitro+ titles are somewhat lucky in that because of the brand name people will lap it up regardless of the fan patches . Honeybee hasn’t got this same status. The only otome company with similar fans to that is ‘Sugar Beans’ and that’s due to the popularity of ‘Under the Moon’.
If they release the other parts of the series it might not be so bad but… take 4chans comments of the announcement as one example:
In my opinion, they should’ve gone with Sugar Beans. They already have the connection with Will. License something from a company with a name, a following and no English release and branch out from there.
I was being sarcastic.
That’s an awfully pessimistic viewpoint, especially given that JAST is always looking to attract new markets, not just sustain the existing ones. I’d never even HEARD of the series before today and you know how many eroge I play. The point is that JAST isn’t just looking to sell to the people who already know about the game and have played it- they’re looking to target a wider market of people who are generally interested in otome games! You know, like the people papillion sells her games to.
For JAST to do this however, they’ll need to change some aspects. Unless they start selling in regular video-game stores (or stores that generally target a female audience), the only market they’re going to get are people who know about the game/JAST. And generally those who do know about it, will have played the patch for the 1st game already.
If they were trying to get a different market, they’d either have had to choose a game with something they can advertise in stores (are their any Otome RPG games? Sakura Wars i believe I’ve heard mentioned?) or find something they can link to a brand or support group (like ‘McKenzie & Co’ did, gaining support and advertisement from feminist organizations and being advertised with certain cosmetic products).
If they were selling in stores, they may reach a new market. But until then, JAST isn’t going to reach the younger female (and possibly younger male) audience.
I’m also somewhat concerned that JAST might receive some backlash for it. Should it actually reach that younger market I’m more concerned with JAST getting a bad name for ‘advertising porn’. Imagine a young girl looking up information on the game and finding the JAST USA site? Looking at it right now i see near nude-Raidy, smaller STARLESS image and that Yukkuri panic image right on the front page.
If JAST is indeed going for the younger market, they need an All Ages website before they get any backlash and they’ll need to market it accordingly.
Edit:
Another game that would’ve been better if they were looking for the all ages market would be ‘Otometeki Koi Kakumei Love Revo!!’
http://breadmasterlee.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/otome-game-review-otometeki-koi-kakumei-love-revo/
You’ve got the playability from the time management aspect, plus its all ages. Meaning its eligible for sales in Stores along with being put onto Steam (Steam wont accept straight up Visual Novels), Impulse, Direct2Drive, ect.
It also has PS2 and DS ports, which although JAST probably wouldn’t release, do give JAST the opportunity to try a different area should they have a wish too (Apparently they have similar text, the only difference between the 3 apparently is the final choices and the endings). Perhaps they could speak to Aksys Games about that and do a duo release (PC/DS) or something.
All of which do a lot more for expanding the market then Starry Sky.
I never even heard about the fan translation so this will all be new to me. I for one am glad to see we’re getting another otome game besides just Hakuoki (check siliconera) and will be watching for the release of this series like a hawk.
Consider that the market is slightly different than the 4chan pirates and hardcore importers. Many people haven’t seen the Starry Sky translation, or have seen it but couldn’t manage to get hold of the Japanese game to use it, or tried to pirate it and failed due to inexperience. (I have seen threads on the subject in places like Yahoo Answers from people who could not figure out how to install and use the patch.)
It is definitely not the case that everyone who would be interested will have already played it.
From a lot of other things you’re saying in your later post, I… don’t think you actually know much about the english otome market, lipp. For one thing you’re overlooking that Jlist already sells an all-ages otome game.
On the one hand a release like this competes with me slightly. On the other hand I expect to sell many copies to my customer base. 
" english otome market"
Lol? What market do you speak of?
I’m relatively interested in seeing official translations of the Starry Sky visual novels. So hopefully this will be confirmed soon.
Also, one of the reasons why imageboards exist is to enable trolling, flame wars, and the phenomenon known as “GIFT” Iif I may borrow a not-worksafe term from Penny Arcade). I consider anonymous posters on 4chan to be about as uninformed and obnoxious as Youtube comments. Nor do I consider imageboard comments to be genuine indicators of fan attitudes. Most fans I’ve met in real life do not seem antisocial.
Right now it’s small. It doesn’t help that only a few companies have released otome games in English on consoles or computers. Hanako Games has been releasing complex G x B style games for years, including recent products such as Magical Diary and Date Warp. One of Hirameki’s last releases was Yo-Jin-Bo for PC/Mac. Natsume released Princess Debut for the DS. There’s been a few iOS games available on the US App Store, such as Heian Love, Renai Shugi Road to Emerald, and Pinky Distortion. Also, the indie group Zeiva Inc is selling a reverse harem game called X-Note.
Jack_Norton from the Winter Wolves / Tycoon Games indie game teams has commented on which products sell and don’t sell. Apparently only a few people bought Card Sweethearts, but their games aimed at women such as Love & Order and Always Remember Me have been profitable. I have purchased both games.
AnimeNewsNetwork has more info on it.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-07-03/jast-usa-looking-into-licensing-starry-sky-project
Apparently they haven’t licensed it yet, however they are looking into it.
Just in case you weren’t aware - Papillon makes and sells games in the indie market. I think she might have more direct knowledge of what does / doesn’t sell than most of us here 
She might be making a “profit”
But is the effort worth the time?
You seem to forget that the JAST website isn’t the only place that Peter sells these games. There is a perfectly good All Ages site in use. In case you have forgotten, it is JList’s sister site JBox.
http://www.jastusa.com/ is the company website however
theirs a difference between a Vendor (I believe that’s the term to describe JBox) and a Companies website.
i could care less about starry skies they should’ve got 3 methods instead