This could potentially be good for eroge out west. Or fail horribly.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94485-Manufacturing-Firm-Plans-Adults-Only-Sex-Box
Given that it is a western company (located in San Jose, CA), I don’t really see this as potentially being good for “eroge”, at least as I would imagine many of us would define it here. It might have erotic games, but just like we don’t generally call anime “cartoons”, I don’t think many of us would call the games “eroge”.
On another note, I couldn’t help but laugh at the article that was in “related news” (especially since I and some friends recently got the game to play together): Zombies Get Some Lovin’ In Left 4 Dead Porn
I think it’s too early to say to how this’ll affect the eroge market. More awareness that erogames exist can never hurt; and if it became popular enough there’s the possibility that localized eroge might be released for it too. Most likely it’ll barely create a ripple and will exist in the same state as the current eroge market, a niche industry completely separate from the eroge market we currently know–if it doesn’t fail outright from the start, that is.
I predict we’ll end up with games like this:
Sorry, but I’d be willing to bet money that this console won’t do much better than the CDI or 3DO.
My automatic response is, “We already have one, it’s called a PC.”
Yeah, I can’t say this console is likely to succeed. Big game companies aren’t going to touch it, they have too much at stake to risk tainting their brand by association with the “AO material” (read: porn) that will be the intended product. This means they’re going to be left by and large with low-budget subpar fare the likes of Custer’s Revenge. You can’t have a viable console ecosystem without both software companies and an install base, and I see big issues getting quality product.
Never mind that a console is not the kind of thing you can hide easily. You can ditch the case and hide the CD for a porn movie or a b-game, or hide magazines, but a console whose sole purpose is the playing of porn? It’s one thing to have some DVDs or magazines - those are cheap. People will pay $19.95 for a DVD or a few bucks for a magazine. But a lot of people would get a lot of flak from their significant others if they spend a few hundred bucks on the porn console. To say “the porn market is huge, the market for this stuff should be just as huge” is … well, probably just not true at all.
Man, I’ve been calling my Xbox/Xbox360 a Sexbox for years, now people will just think I’m perverted rather than a comic genius… although come to think of it, most people think I’m perverted anyway. Carry on.
They’d be better spending money developing better androids that will be fully functional in every way.
A related article on Vivid Entertainment’s (the largest adult video producer in the world) attempt to get Sony to allow them to release pornographic videos on the Playstation Network for the PS3:
http://kotaku.com/5354956/adult-films-p … g-consoles
Sony recently (about a month ago) decided to allow this in Japan, which is why Vivid Ent. is approaching them to expand the policy to the international market.
I doubt Sony will bite, but it’s interesting at least. If the ban on pornographic videos available on console networks is lifted, a similar lift on the ban of pornographic games could follow.
The PSP has had porn UMD’s available for years, but actual games aren’t allowed. PSN is the next logical step.