Hi everyone! Just got back from NYCC. Lots of news to share from Hirameki’s visual novel panel.
First, in a bit of disappointing news, gothic pc game Animamundi is being DELAYED until May of 2006. The reason given was that the ESRB is giving them a hard tme. Company representatives didn’t specific what rating ESRB gave, but if we assume that Hirameki targeted the 17+ audience (“M” rating), the only other possible rating ESRB could have given is an “AO” (adults only), which wouldn’t fly w/ mainstream retailers like Best Buy.
Piece of Wonder, the next PC release following Animamundi, will come out in June of 2006.
Hirameki is leaving the dvd game game market and will focus solely on pc games. Exodus Guilty volumes 2 and 3 will the last dvd game titles from Hirameki.
Hirameki does not plan to offer adult games; they want to focus on pc games that mainstream retailers are willing to carry. They also want to change the perception of bishojo gaming as being just sex and violence.