Peach Princess / G-Collections & Virtual Mate

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#81
quote:
Originally posted by perigee:
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 [[b]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? [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img][/b]

Are you a psychic or something...? Your speculation is almost right on the money, except Vaga part. He was hired purely by GC's decision. Nonetheless, this almost covers what happened to GC in the past four years.

#82
quote:
Originally posted by KOG:
Are you a psychic or something...? Your speculation is almost right on the money, except Vaga part. He was hired purely by GC's decision. Nonetheless, this almost covers what happened to GC in the past four years.

My guesses are based on the limited information I've picked up over the last couple years by following the boards. I added the bit about Vaga42bond because he had been an active member here, and I thought PP might have recommended him, given their interest in helping GC survive its crisis. What they probably needed more was an experienced business advisor to look for ways to increase their customer base.

I made a private effort in that regard. Last year I contacted the product marketing manager at Harlequin Romance about starting a line of interactive novels based on localized renai games. Their response was that such products are too closely identified with cartoon-porn to be associated with the company's good name. But think what inroads could be opened if the entire population of adult pulp fiction fans were made aware of romance stories with graphics, sound and multiple endings!

That's the challenge that lies before the b-game developers. How can they introduce new customers to these great stories while distancing themselves from the disreputable elements? The anime market is another target. Fans seem to have made room for hentai buyers, but still see b-game lovers as somehow perverted.

#83

hrmmm not good. I wanted some of those coins. Anyone wanna sell me one of each? a 10 a 50 and a 100? I’m willing to pay decently if this info about GC turns out to be true. I haven’t ordered a GC game after they implemented these coins, so can i get coins by ordering GC games through PP or no?

EDIT:

Forgot to mention my email is Duckhand@ hotmail.com. Mail me if your interested.

[This message has been edited by Laslow (edited 04-27-2005).]

#84

If KOG is right, the whole coin trade-in thing is defunct now, and G-money isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on anymore.

#85

I think he wants it more for the collector’s value than anything.

#86
quote:
Originally posted by Dark Lord Zenigame:
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... >_>

Comparing markets isn't the way. The SoL in Japan is more first off. But secondly, its the way people prioritize. The market appetite obviously isn't capable of supporting it if there is such large amounts of piracy, especially when several scienticly done polls show that many would be willing to pay a certain fee.

However if you look at resale the market for stuff with speical items included and whatnot, you'll notice a distince lack of drop in resale price as compared to those that don't have these items included. The fact that resale values are parity the original means there is a constant apetitie for such things and people willing to conituously shell out extra money for them.

Now name recognition, or branding as its more commonly called, is also key, but that only goes so far. If people still feel its overpriced and they can get the same quality for free, it won't matter. If its more resonable for them, then that means they'll be less incentive to pirate. Also if they miss out on some stuff like pins or artbooks or other sutff this also hits another crowd who might decide its worth buying it rather than downloading for the extras and they can charge more, especially if they do make it LE stuff. Again it goes back to the prestige issue.

#87
quote:
Originally posted by perigee:
This probably included conditions such as hiring a public relations type person [[b]Vaga] to interface with customers.

...

So how close am I to hitting the target? [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

Now we are left with a number of questions that only Peach Princess is able or willing to, answer.

  1. Is G-Collections finished as an independent provider? Will there be an future titles released in their name?
  2. Will PP begin distributing the VM games with patches? If so, when?
  3. 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.[/b]

Actually, I was the replacement for the last proofreader, and as far as I could tell, I happened to have asked about a job at G-Collections at the same time as their previous proofreader was quitting. Goodness knows, I am definatly not a PR person. (Way too cynical, too much of an attitude, and a bit of a smartass.)

As for the Questions 1, 2, and 3, I REALLY have no idea what is going on anymore. My most recent info is what I said on my last Q&A and my Open Letter to all. (Minus the careful wording of a few things.) I can take a guess at a number of things, based upon what I heard during my time. Which probably isn't a very accurate guess.

And, back into the flame proof bunker with me.

[This message has been edited by Vaga42Bond (edited 04-28-2005).]

#88

wow I had been gone for couple months, and all hell break lose around here, it took me couple hours to read through the latest news, just wow, I went from hearbreak to relief Well I am really sad if G-collection really does go out of business, now it is back to what we had three years ago with PP being the only major US B-games supplier. It is a sad day indeed.

I had such high hope when G-collection began, because I hope we would see an expansion of the market. I don’t think it has grow at all these past two or three years, my spirit does drop a bit after all these years of really waiting for some sucess in this market, it seems we aren’t any closer to any major break through toward mainstream, I don’t know if the current marketing scheme is still effective, can anyone tell me if it has bring this genre any fruit of success.

#89

Looks like I took the wrong week to not check the forums here Man if this is true that sucks It was nice getting 1 new game to play every month. Hopefully PP will be able to continue releasing g-coll games. I’m all for more games released.

#90

Yeah. Not only that. If we think well, in the last few months PeaPri released/announced more bgames than in the last 2 years. There’s still a hope…

As for G-Col, apparently was not their fault in the first place. Was the original japanese company who bankrupted, not them. But even they cannot release anymore 1 game per month, i’d be happy if they keep releasing any game, even 1 new each 6 months.

[This message has been edited by Peter Gilis (edited 04-28-2005).]

#91
quote:
Originally posted by Laslow:
hrmmm not good. I wanted some of those coins. Anyone wanna sell me one of each? a 10 a 50 and a 100? I'm willing to pay decently if this info about GC turns out to be true. I haven't ordered a GC game after they implemented these coins, so can i get coins by ordering GC games through PP or no?

EDIT:

Forgot to mention my email is Duckhand@ hotmail.com. Mail me if your interested.

[This message has been edited by Laslow (edited 04-27-2005).]

If we end up doing a deal (i.e. me selling you OOP copies of original games), I can toss in GC money as freebies. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

#92
quote:
Originally posted by perigee:

I made a private effort in that regard. Last year I contacted the product marketing manager at Harlequin Romance about starting a line of interactive novels based on localized renai games. Their response was that such products are too closely identified with cartoon-porn to be associated with the company's good name. But think what inroads could be opened if the entire population of adult pulp fiction fans were made aware of romance stories with graphics, sound and multiple endings!

That's the challenge that lies before the b-game developers. How can they introduce new customers to these great stories while distancing themselves from the disreputable elements? The anime market is another target. Fans seem to have made room for hentai buyers, but still see b-game lovers as somehow perverted.

Believe it or not, anime was originally thought of as all about tentacles and female bondage. That was the mainstream view of Americans in the late 80s due to Central Park Media's release of Urotsukidoji. Fast forward ten years, the mainstream view is cute and cuddly (Pokemon). Views do change over time, however slowly.

If you haven't gotten anywhere trying to convince companies to start up a renai line of products, you may wish to consider rolling up your sleeves and create your own start up company.

#93
quote:
Originally posted by KOG:
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.

I appreciate your reply to my question. And it's helpful to understand what's going on behind the scenes at GC/Interlex.

#94

I don’t think Harlequin/romance novels is the right place to push the TYPICAL b-game. The standards of the two genres are very different.

I don’t read many romance novels myself (I have a few - some have been tons of fun, some were AWFUL) but the situations that are all too common in bgames would NEVER EVER EVER happen in romance novels.

Most especially, the young and rather clueless/awkward, possibly slightly perverted boy character. Just doesn’t happen.

Romance novels are generally read by older women who are bored with their lives or young girls who are lonely and inexperienced. (Many exceptions, of course, but GENERALLY.)

The central character is a) Always female b) Almost always young and virginal when we start c) Generally good-hearted, kind to puppies, adopts stray orphans, etc d) Post-1980, ‘spunky’ and ‘adventurous’ and ‘smart’ (or so the text says, but more probably CLAIMS to be clever and then does something truly idiotic so the hero can save her.) e) Post-Bridget-Jones, incredibly frazzled and quirky (and not so young and virginal).

The love interest is a) Older than she is b) A total hunk c) Rich, even if he’s hiding it, doesn’t know it, or requires gold to fall from the sky at the ending to achieve this d) An experienced and SKILLFUL lover e) Has been hurt in the past and Mistrusts Women f) Is a jerk to the female lead when they first meet.

There is also at least one evil bitch who tries to sink her claws into the love interest. Probably to get his money, but sometimes just because she’s obsessive. There’s also quite possibly an evil man lurking around desperately trying to rape the heroine. He’ll die by the end of the book.

Doesn’t sound much like the typical b-game, does it? At least, not any English one I can think of… The demo for Fate/stay night comes awfully close, but as I understand it the real game actually focuses on a guy, not the girl from the demo.

Anyway. Romance novel readers not interested in gawky boys seducing waves of willing girls. Also most of them probably not too interested in BL either, though it might work better.

#95
quote:
Originally posted by papillon:
I don't think Harlequin/romance novels is the right place to push the TYPICAL b-game. The standards of the two genres are very different.

Note that I said ren'ai games, rather than bishoujo games. The former are completely missing from the Western market, but might appeal to readers of romance novels. I think that's their primary audience in Japan. The typical b-games we enjoy are aimed at a different group, though some titles like Kana and Crescendo could have crossover appeal. The tactical reason for bringing over ren'ai games is to make the format more widely known and accepted. Lack of awareness is one of the factors limiting mainstream interest in all types of ADV games in the West.

#96
quote:
Originally posted by Ecchifan:
Believe it or not, anime was originally thought of as all about tentacles and female bondage. That was the mainstream view of Americans in the late 80s due to Central Park Media's release of Urotsukidoji. Fast forward ten years, the mainstream view is cute and cuddly (Pokemon). Views do change over time, however slowly.
It was that or extreme martial arts. That last one still sticks even today.

#97
quote:
Originally posted by Vaga42Bond:

And, back into the flame proof bunker with me.

GOD! You are no fun at all!! [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]

#98
quote:
Originally posted by papillon:
Doesn't sound much like the typical b-game, does it?
To be honest, I thought it sounded mostly like a shoujo manga... >_>

#99

It seems G-Collections are re-doing their site again. What will come of that, i don’t know… (o_O)

#100

Well, at least there’s some activity going on over there. Good or bad, I don’t know, but surely it’s a sign of life.