se.kirara

It will be for free:

http://se-kirara.jp/index2.html

Special edition will cost 2800 yen. Educated guess is that the company expects to make profit off the merchandising?

An interesting experiment. Hoping it works.

PS: I call dibs on Nozomi. That is all. :stuck_out_tongue:

So this is the Gundam profit model applied to eroge?

Ignosco and I saw this and just assumed it was a mistake. How can a company release their first eroge for free?

What better way to advertise their brand? :stuck_out_tongue:

what better way to bankrupt their brand? =P

Yeah, unlike other companies/doujin circles that have done this (say Alicesoft), this looks completely insane. Thereā€™s some information about the content here. If this title is really as substantial as they suggest (seemingly above the usual amount of content in a full price eroge), added to the cost of top tier seiyuu, and some fairly well known writers, I canā€™t see how theyā€™ll manage to flog off enough merchandise/fan disks etc. to recover even a fraction of the costs.

The biggest remaining question is how the free version will be distributed, or in other words, will their be any restrictions on gaijin acquiring/playing it?

Even if they do go bankrupt, thereā€™s not much they can loseā€¦ I agree itā€™s a gamble, but if it works out, all the more power to them. Iā€™m guessing their thinking is that itā€™s only the collectors who would buy the stuff and that most of the rest of the people would just pirate it anyway. Furthermore, itā€™s a lot harder to ā€œpirateā€ a figure.

Well, the alternate explanation is that theyā€™ll post a delay announcement on 3/26 and then reveal that it was an April Foolā€™s joke on 4/1 :stuck_out_tongue:

Except their credit rating. :wink:

According to industry insiders, if it cost $500,000 to make an eroge, then 11,400 copies have to be sold at $88 (before taxes) before it starts to earn actual profit.

Do they really expect to sell thousands of special editions? Itā€™s gotta be one hell of a good game for people to pay money, for something they can get for free.

Iā€™m not saying it canā€™t be doneā€¦ Iā€™m sure it canā€¦ but is se.kirara that kind of game? I guess weā€™ll soon see.

Imagine the next generation of Pokemon being offered as a no strings attached free download, and then Nintendo asking if you really like it, please buy the store version for $30 bucks and get a ā€œfreeā€ figurine with it. Or if a car dealer gave away free cars, and asked if you really liked it, youā€™d only buy gas and make repairs at his dealership.

Would some people do it? Sure. Would everyone do it? Not a chance in Hell. :stuck_out_tongue:

Well, theyā€™re figure creators. If theyā€™re successful theyā€™ve probably got a bit of money to burn on something like this. I suppose itā€™s just a really expensive promotion strategy =P

Native (the Dev Studio of Se.kirara) is a sub company of a big Figurine Company (MaxFactory) with a very well Know Brand (Figma).
se.kirara is a game wich the character design is based on a new incoming Figma Figurine Collectionā€¦ in fact itā€™s a big ads for this new collection.

Anyway, for those who wonder if it will be goodā€¦ You can still try the Trial Version.

And since itā€™s a full free game, i hope some people will do an English translation of it.

So that explains it. Thanks for the info.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/50996100.html

Eye opening, to say the least. Hope this works for them. Guess Iā€™ll have to buy it with the figma, then. Never bought a figure beforeā€¦

Good Godā€¦ what a gamble theyā€™re making. Three years of development? Full cost production with no short cuts?

Hehā€¦ heā€™s joking about the money sunk into this project, but it wonā€™t be funny if this turns out to be a losing bet.

However I applaud the effort. Iā€™ll buy a figurine of Nozomi then.

Wellā€¦ at least piracy wonā€™t be an issue, eh? Until cheaper Chinese knockoffs of the figures are made. :stuck_out_tongue:

Ignosco spotted it at erogeshop but itā€™s pretty pricey there.

that a custom order so that does not surprise me the least, can email see if they are gonna carry it.

Ask if theyā€™re going to carry Subarashiki Hibi, too. I donā€™t see it on the preorder page.

Too late; preorders have closed. Although they might still carry it, but you wonā€™t get the preorder.

Donā€™t care about tokuten, just want the game.

Could always give Jlist a shot. They still offer the game for preorder even though preorders have closed.