Well, as for me, I’ve not been follwing th V-mate debatte very closely, but I was at first pretty depressed when the news first reached me through Unicorn and feared that I’d have to give up Doushin, but now the danger of that seems to be ovver for the time being… Through personally, if PP decides to use V-mate for their future games, I cannot be happy about that as it’s require me to give up PP’s future games since I cannot confirm my games online, especially not in the current situation…
But, maa ii, the storm’s over for the time being so no complainments from me…
quote:Originally posted by Peter: [B]The v-mate crack for Sagara Family on emule is a fake, damn ;-( B]
Be careful. This "fake" crack could to be a Virus.
Anyway, about this whole v-mate thing...
I never had a big problem with vmate, so as long we can keep playing bgames, i don't care if requires on-line activation or don't.
But now because this entire war, even considerating they really gave a hard blow at the piracy, G-Col coudn't to survive because too many problems with unsatisfied fans.
They're a part of Peapri, now. But what that really means? Will G-col stop to translate bgames from CD-Bros Group or don't? What if we'll never see other heavily story-focused D.O. game like KANA or CRESCENDO translated again? What will happens next?
I'm losing almost all my hopes to see translated someday KAZOKU KEIKAKU and SUMERAGI NO MIKOTACHI, here... (T_T)
Why does everybody keeps telling that GC went broke because “too much unsatisfied fans”? Am i wrong or Lamuness said that actually, GC sales rised after VM went out? If i’m wrong, i should check because i might be having Alzheimer
I would have to agree with The Unholy Avenger, given recent news. If anything, maybe the increase in sales wasn’t enough to cover the reduced profit from lowering the price, as well as the cost of licensing the system from Interlex.
[This message has been edited by Dark_Shiki (edited 04-26-2005).]
Given the fact that those who are in the know aren’t telling, it would seem that G-Col is in something of a hiatus of sorts. If, as according to a poster in another thread, Interlex is owned by the same company as G-Col, then there shouldn’t really be any problems to do with license fees for V-Mate.
Then again, if that person was correct, G-Col wouldn’t be paying for game license fees either, as he also stated that GC’s parent company owns GC’s major game licensors as well.
Perhaps I am just talking out of my ass, then. After playing Water Closet I am now fully aware of what evil things asses are capable of.
quote:Originally posted by Schnugget: Perhaps I am just talking out of my ass, then. After playing Water Closet I am now fully aware of what evil things asses are capable of. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/eek.gif[/img]
Welcome to reality, and how twisted it can be...
quote:Originally posted by Dark_Shiki: I would have to agree with The Unholy Avenger
AWWW! COME ON!! You make it sound like you dont want to agree with me!! [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img] [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img] [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]
[This message has been edited by The Unholy Avenger (edited 04-26-2005).]
quote:Originally posted by Peter Gilis: I'm losing almost all my hopes to see translated someday KAZOKU KEIKAKU and SUMERAGI NO MIKOTACHI, here... (T_T)
You know, these two were even back then when Vaga42bond was a member of G-Coll's staff among the "rather unlikely" list. So, I already gave up on them after I saw all those "-"...
quote:Originally posted by The Unholy Avenger: Why does everybody keeps telling that GC went broke because "too much unsatisfied fans"? Am i wrong or Lamuness said that actually, GC sales rised after VM went out?
I agree, these sentences seem too contradict each other. I say "seem" because there might be a way how both sentences still can be true.
My guess is: Sales first increased because the price was lowered and people wanted to give the system a try, just as G-Coll originally pleaded. But after the customers tried the system and found out the way they were inconvenienced by it, they were also dissatisfied and sales dropped afterwards.
Lamuness told about an impressive increase in sales after the system was implemented, but he never told about what happened later!
After all, the main reason that was offically given to us for dropping V-mate was that Interlex was either not able or not willing to comply with new requirements/amendments that Peter asked for in order to make it more acceptable.
[This message has been edited by Unicorn (edited 04-27-2005).]
quote:Originally posted by Schnugget: If, as according to a poster in another thread, Interlex is owned by the same company as G-Col, then there shouldn't really be any problems to do with license fees for V-Mate.
Err...where did you see this?
[This message has been edited by Dark_Shiki (edited 04-26-2005).]
Basically, very smart move. Saved you (in the least) another heart break when you came to know of pirated versions going around.
Now, if I may point you in the direction of the “extras you’d like to see included with the games” thread (it read something like that anyway). That and more widespread/aggressive marketing will sell you more games than all the anti-piracy in the world put together.
As some of you assumed, GC had never paid any games or V-Mate licensing fees to Interlex because G-Collections IS Interlex (= CD Bros and its sub brands) itself. And it’s also true, their profit was increased after they released V-Mated games, but it just wasn’t enough to pay off their debt. The reason why they went down is purely a management problem you believe or not.
[This message has been edited by KOG (edited 04-27-2005).]
quote:Originally posted by GoHF: Now, if I may point you in the direction of the "extras you'd like to see included with the games" thread (it read something like that anyway). That and more widespread/aggressive marketing will sell you more games than all the anti-piracy in the world put together.
That and I say they should also try to promote a reason to buy it such as LE stuff. Then also the industry at large should try to promote the idea that its a sign of who you are if you biy actual games/DVDs/CDs or pay for them to download them online, ie a sign of minor prestige. Then they haveto start bringing down the price of their normal products (which can be made up with the first idea of more LE or SE stuff, or just include it as normal add add the price. For anime DVDs they'd really haveto dtart putting more episodes on the DVDs. The fact that those are $30 and they strng them out to atleast 6 discs puts off a lot of people from spending on them.
This isn't an overnight solution, but it can work as its done so for other industries.
They'd still haveto allow easy viewing and download online though that isn't expensive as is good quality. There have been studies done as well and many who do pirate games, movies or music online would pay if it they could download it legit and it wasn't expensive and it was easy to use afterowrds.
The only problem with price decreasing for bishoujo games is that the originals regularly go for 7000+ yen over in Japan. Hell, I just shelled out $84 before shipping for Tears to Tiara… >>
And LE items go for even more. To me, the usual 40 or so dollars that I’ve seen US-released bishoujo games go for is pretty damned cheap, considering the amount I’ve paid for import games at retail…
To me, the easiest way I’d imagine sales to increase is name recognition. By some miracle, even if the horrible Bible Black got released in English, the massive amount of people who bought the anime would likely be all over it.
And for titles that have actual appeal outside of the “ZOMG ITS PR0N!!!” market, it’d likely be even more.
Of course, to do this, other companies would have to be willing to license their games… >>
quote:Originally posted by Schnugget: Given the fact that those who are in the know aren't telling, it would seem that G-Col is in something of a hiatus of sorts. If, as according to a poster in another thread, Interlex is owned by the same company as G-Col, then there shouldn't really be any problems to do with license fees for V-Mate.
Then again, if that person was correct, G-Col wouldn't be paying for game license fees either, as he also stated that GC's parent company owns GC's major game licensors as well.
Even if we assume that GC didn't have to pay for licensing fees, there's still the nagging problem of profitability. If GC couldn't sell enough copies of their products to recover at least localizing costs, then it doesn't make sense to continue translating games into English.
quote:Originally posted by KOG: As some of you assumed, GC had never paid any games or V-Mate licensing fees to Interlex because G-Collections IS Interlex (= CD Bros and its sub brands) itself. And it's also true, their profit was increased after they released V-Mated games, but it just wasn't enough to pay off their debt. The reason why they went down is purely a management problem you believe or not.
[This message has been edited by KOG (edited 04-27-2005).]
If you have a source for this bit of information, that would be greatly appreciated.
quote:Originally posted by Ecchifan: If you have a source for this bit of information, that would be greatly appreciated.
All of my info is from one of the ex-GC insiders (about 10 people have quit GC in its four years history and I was close to them). Like I wrote in another topic, this person is afraid of retalitation from his/her ex-employer (this person has a history of doing pretty nasty things to his employees) by opening the company info, so I really don't want to give him any hints to specify my source.... By the way, if you looked GC games' ending staff rolls carefully, you might have noticed that no matter which brand, all the games are made by the same staff except for AngelSmile games. They use Interlex names when they do business with major players like MS and Sony. When they do adult materials, they use different brand names (GC is one of them) because they don't want thier clients to know that they're in the adult contents. Do you think I'm making up all of this? Maybe, but I'm not writing this for fun for sure. I know some of you are eager to know why GC's silencing. I feel the same. That's why I decided to share the info I found about them.
No matter what we speculate, it's a fact that GC/Interlex (including their HQ in Japan) bankrupted. But I heard they are in a process of restructuring with remaining company executives, so let's see what happens next.
The games are all by the same staff? I know at least the character designer is different. Probably the scenario writer too. That’s two major differences right there.
The Japan HQ bankrupted? So this failure was largely independent of US operations and sales?
None of the news about GC is altogether surprising. When they began their campaign of releasing a new game every other month, I wondered where they got the funding. It didn’t seem like sales to the small b-game community could support it.
Since we’re left to speculate, here’s my contribution. GC started as a joint effort with CD Bros to see whether they could grow the English market by releasing a broad selection of new titles in a short amount of time. They got a lot of up front funding to hire enough staff and make a go of it. The one area they neglected was promotion and customer support. Their actions were typical of a Japanese-run business unused to dealing with a Western market. All decisions came from the top. Their position was We’re the company. You’re the customer. Don’t tell us how to run our business. Unfortunately, that model doesn’t always work here.
Sometime during their campaign, the money began to run out. Sales forecasts didn’t look good, so they tried other strategies like broadening the product line to include downloadable Japanese and Chinese games. V-Mate may have been a last desperate attempt to generate new sales, but even that wasn’t enough. The last measure - and this is pure speculation - was an infusion of cash from PP to continue their operation. This probably included conditions such as hiring a public relations type person [Vaga] to interface with customers. Unfortunately, upper management wouldn’t loosen the reins enough to make that successful. Finally, somebody decided to cut their losses and hand over control to their overseas investor, PP. That’s why Peter is able to talk about releasing patches and end-of-lifing VM. So how close am I to hitting the target?
Now we are left with a number of questions that only Peach Princess is able or willing to, answer.
Is G-Collections finished as an independent provider? Will there be an future titles released in their name?
Will PP begin distributing the VM games with patches? If so, when?
Is PP going to risk alienating their customer base by including VM in future releases?
I know anti-piracy is one of Peter’s strongest concerns, but I urge him to tread lightly. Any solution that makes a game hard to pirate because part of the product remains in the hands of the seller is going to discourage those of us who have been accustomed to full ownership.
That’s how I see things today. We’ll have to wait for PP to announce the next move.
