You’re ignoring another factor: those that are initially exposed to the games via piracy, and that at some point start buying the games (not necessarily games they’ve already pirated). Piracy creates paying fans too, in a market this small. Would you or I even be here if we hadn’t pirated eroge years ago? I can’t even answer that for myself, much less thousands of other people.
I think I agree with Lancer-X about this. It is kind of like saying to yourself, “I should have”, “I could have”, “I would have”, or “If only” when looking back at an event. It is the way it is. Does piracy hurt the market? Of course, but not in the way you might think. Instead of an intangible number of lost sales, it puts across the impression that the majority of western players are thieves. Why would any company want to make it easier for thieves to enjoy their product? Personally, given this strong impression, I find it amazing that Japanese companies are even trying to sell their games here. In the case of Jast/PP/GC, my impression that it is more a labor of love than business, since Peter himself enjoys these games and wants to share them with others. (Not that I’m saying that it isn’t done to attempt to make money as well. Like all businesses, the goal is to try and make a profit.) Keep in mind also that many of the games we get through Jast/PP/GC are games which have run their course through the Japanese market. For the Japanese companies that license out to them, any royalties they receive from the games Jast/PP/GC release are just icing on the cake since the game isn’t really making them money anymore in Japan.
The US government has done a multimillion dollar research on piracy, that was published back in April 2010. Because Uncle Sam will not be denied his taxes from lost sales.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10423.pdf
Long story short: there is no creditable source that piracy has an impact on economics. However there are indicators that piracy has a negative impact - it’s a real paradox! There’s also a huge amount of [u]theoretical[/u] dangers. However there is no [u]unbiased[/u] research on it from either side of the argument. Therefore the government is saying someone - maybe the government - needs to fill that role… because for the moment, everyone is assuming without hard statistical data that cannot be argued against. Some data that does exist, might even be totally made up. Basically they want more factual data, because there isn’t enough of it. Once there’s more factual data, then they can see if they can do something about it… until then, the report basically says there’s more important stuff to worry about on the economy and taxation.
Their conclusion: Economy-Wide Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy Is Unknown
Seeing how no one else has funded a multimillion dollar unbiased report, they’re the closest thing we have to an “authoritative oversight” on the matter. 
Steering away from the piracy/voice issue, the demo is up for DL now. I would assume the demo has no voices, but even without them the game is pretty good so I’d recommend doubters DL it just to see if maybe it IS worth a purchase.
My only worry now is that bigger name games come out at about the same time as KM is scheduled to release. This includes Dragon Age 2 (Bioware fan so if I have to choose…), Deus Ex Human Revolution, Capcom vs. Marvel 3, FEAR 3, and Gears of War 3. Those games alone would put a strain on the budget
While its not the same, you can look for studies that check for
a) Played eroge X demo, and
b) did not buy eroge X, but
c) would have bought eroge X, at the price asked, if demo weren’t available.
a) Played eroge X demo, and
b) then decided to buy it, but
c) Would not have bought eroge X, at the price asked, if they hadn’t been exposed to it via playable demo
I’m under the impression that PP’s bestsellers like X-Change and Brave Soul have broken 10k copies. I don’t remember from where I got this information, so I guess I could be wrong, but at the very least, I’m confident that they sold significantly more than 2k. I don’t know what the sales numbers for other titles in the JAST lineup would be, but I have to believe that a large number of those have also broken 2k in sales. Of course, the key here is how long each of those titles took to hit that mark.
Currently playing the demo and have come to the conclusion that the game is great even without voices (I just imagine I’m playing a good old Playstation era game and let my imagination do the rest). The characters are still interesting and the story’s fine too. I encourage everyone to try out this demo and give the game a chance.
On a side note, this game’s setting invokes a very nostalgic feeling to the anime fan in me. I can’t help but think of Fushigi Yugi and Gensoumaden Saiyuki when I’m playing this. If anyone here knows what I’m talking about then please give this game a try, you may feel the same way.
You just reminded me of all the JRPG games i used to play that had 0% voices and were still so engaging and enjoyable. I’ll try the demo but I have already decided i think to buy it next year.
Considering the price of an erogee seiyuu, a solution would be if the CEO of NEXTON had a highschool cute little sister, able to enter some kind of “ero-trance” and willing to voice (for free). Better, she’d come with two classmates and best female friends, one with a snarky loli voice and the other with an airhead boobie voice, both interested in the erogee seiyuu profession and willing to help as well!
(Of course, this is but a supposition. Any resemblance with an existing manga or upcoming anime is nothing but a coincidence! ;))
Great manga.
well i just played a bit of the demo and the battle part of game is so confusing to me…lol
Both of those titles have been on the market for nearly a decade (X-Change came out in 2001, Brave Soul in 2003.) They also had physical copies available, which increased sales.
how will we even know if they make the goal?
Kouryuu would say so, I would imagine.
Just saw the release date. February 28th, 2011… just wow. I think it’s safe to say that the “release race” with Demonbane is over.
Pft, I wouldn’t count JAST out yet. JAST has a proven track record of delays.
my guess demonbane will be out by halloween at the latest if not that Christmas season
It seems to have changed to 1/31 now …
And I wouldn’t be too hasty. Jast USA has had some absolutely spectacular delays. Little My Maid, for example, was finally released in 2005. It was one of the first batch of games they announced; my original copy of Snow Drop (one of the first games they ever released, back in 2001) announced it as “coming soon”. (In fact, LMM is the reasons they have tried to avoid opening preorders too far in advance of the title coming out.)
Since they announced the game was definitely coming out in Summer 2010, and yet the game isn’t out … it seems clear to me they were almost ready, and then an issue came up at the last minute.