Steins;Gate Discussion Thread

JAST Games Game Discussions
#1

![Steins;Gate Box](upload://b0CmDcfKc9S6jY18Ls8P4xN6xEu.jpeg)

Greetings, all fans of visual novels and supporters of JAST USA. This is a thread to continue the one on the old JAST USA forums about the Steins;Gate English release.

We were very happy with the response from fans, who taught us that we need to print more limited editions of games like this in the future. For those who don't know, Steins;Gate was recently re-printed at a lower price. You can get these newly issued shrink-wrapped package edition from J-List. As always, the digital download is available at our site.

Before people start asking, we do know you'd love to see Steins;Gate on Steam, and we'd love to make this happen. Unfortunately we're not the ones who can make that decision. Those are the rights of the Steins;Gate IP holder, Mages. We'd be happy to work with them on such a project, if/when they give approval.

For those who've played the game, I hope you enjoyed it. Please share your favorite moments, characters and experiences here. (But no spoilers please.)

#2

As Nandemonai said from the past forum thread, PS3 and Vita versions announced for English release. This is of course separate from our version, by the guys over at PQube. We hope for the best in getting this title into the hands of more fans.

#3

I love your translation of Steins Gate! I hope you can translate the sequels someday as well :)

#4

Thanks. We'd love to do more of the games, though anything that involves a certain company that starts with an "M" and rhymes with "ages" is extra challenging because they want to control everything. It gets to be quite ridiculous...

#5

I really hope you can find a way to do the YU-NO remake that Mages is doing if nothing else.


. I'm rather surprised about the PS3 and vita version of Steins;Gate getting released/translated especially by a different company I half expect this new version to be censored to reach a wider audience...probably what they wanted to do on Steam as well assuming they had any interest in that platform to begin with.


Hopefully they'll realize that console releases don't really work outside of Japan for visual novels and they'll move their focus to PC. I'm really hoping Eiyuu Senki ends up doing that as well (moves to PC release).


I enjoyed what I've played of this game and do need to get back to it. I ended up moving and misplaced it somewhere and just recently found it but am in the middle of romanesque so continuing it will have to wait. I did enjoy what I have played though.



#6

Well, it's based on our translation. We don't work on those platforms so it makes sense. Mages is trying to build something worthwhile outside Japan since frankly the era of fans buying $88 games like Steins;Gate is on its way out, and makers are all trying to find a new business model.

#7

There isn’t anything to censor in Steins;Gate, though. Nothing in there would be harder than an R rating.

And Steins;Gate cost $88 in Japan? It isn’t even an eroge!

#8

I think Peter was making a broad statement about VNs in general, which are mostly eroge, many of which retail at 88,000 yen.

#9

"Mages is trying to build something worthwhile outside Japan"


That's just it though. While it appears they have gotten better, they still seem to do as much as they can to prevent their games really reaching the West. Lets take Steins;Gate on Steam, for instance. Now, I believe Steins;Gate sold decently at least - I don't know the exact figures but they should be decent enough. That's great news. But on Steam, it could sell more. Achievements (I know Steins Gate has them, but there is more incentive to get Steam achievements over game-specific achievements), routine sales, easy advertising, wider user base... the list goes on. But no. Mages have to use their own special version, or whatever, and refuse to have it on Steam. JAST is clearly up for it.


And just look at Chaos;Head. When Steins;Gate was released, a number of people asked "is Chaos;Head coming?". Hell, I believe JAST tried to work with them in the past to get Chaos;Head released in the West. The demand is still clearly there. Later games in the SciADV series have made every game pretty important to the overarching story - none of them can just be skipped really. And yet, it's no where to be seen. We're stuck with a half-working translation obtained through torrents. And it's not like it was JAST who pulled the plug on it, or now just refuse to license it. It's Mages, and how they don't want their games to be released in the West.


And now it's come back to hurt them. Poor sales for Chaos;Child, through more dumb marketing moves (Xbox One exclusive, in Japan!) have really thrown the entire fate of the SciADV series into jeopardy, where there is now a reliance on the ports in order to secure an anime, which will ideally secure more sales of the source material. If there is a time where they need to look to the Western market to recover from the poor performance of the games, it is now. And yet, there is nothing to be found. I honestly don't think they'll ever learn or be satisfied until the series is dead in the ground, having milked Steins;Gate all the way possible and managing to ruin it entirely.

#10

Yes, there's a lot of frustration out there. And it's worse now too, because Mages got bought (possibly was merged) with Kadokawa, who is eating the world. Now every property will operate at the lowest possible efficiency. I fear for some aspects of the future of the industry, especially now that a certain online distribution system is offering fabulous potential riches to Japanese companies. They'll all dig in their heels and won't get anything of value done in the end.

#11

"I fear for some aspects of the future of the industry, especially now that a certain online distribution system is offering fabulous potential riches to Japanese companies. They'll all dig in their heels and won't get anything of value done in the end."


Well that sounds ominous. Come to think of it, Littlewitch Romanesque is JAST's only Steam attempt to date, even though they have a number of titles that seem like a perfect fit (like Aselia the Eternal and Steins; Gate).


Oh well, you could always try an all-ages version of Raidy 3. You could market it as a "trial"...or something. Given the success of Sakura Spirits, I wouldn't be surprised if it became the next viral hit. :P

#12

With Steins;gate seemingly doing so well, is there any chance we might see some of it's spin-offs/sequels ported to PC for the English market? Would there be any chance for an English release of Steins;gate 8-bit, the alternate telling/viewpoints seen in Steins;Gate Senkei Kousoku no Phenogram or the largely filler fandisc Steins;Gate Hiyoku Renri no Darling?


Also, is there any chance we might see more Sci-ADVs in the Steins;gate "series" or in general? I've already posted requests for specific games elsewhere, but I'd be interested to know what the chances are we might see more Mystery-style VNs. Outside Steins;gate, Ever17, and the Kara no Shoujo series, I can't think of many official releases for mystery-style VNs in the English market.

#13

Personally we’d love to do more S;G games, though as you know Mages holds the keys to that universe, and were recently bought by (or merged with) Kadokawa, which complicates everything.

#14

What about other games in the same genre/vein that are not owned by MAGES/Kadokawa? Like I/O Revision II?

Does that mean that under the Kadokawa banner is now MAGES. and 5pb.? Would the licenses for Never7, Ever17, Remember11, and 12Riven fall under one of these companies? It seems like those titles would be the first to come to mind as predecessors to Steins;gate.

#15

Um. The first thing that comes to mind as Steins;Gate related is Chaos;Head and Robotics;Notes. The second thing is the various fandiscs and sequels and so forth to Steins;Gate itself. (Like the alternate-world dating sim.)

Being much newer, and more directly related to S;G which is a very recent release, any of these would be more likely than the Infinity Series (whose English release is nearly ten years old).

#16

@Nandemonai - As the release of the other games in the series looks unlikely right now, I was more referring to releasing other games by the same people involved and/or other games in the genre (science fiction, mystery).

The Infinity series is far less likely, but would probably be relatively cheap (unless licensing fees for those are expensive) to release games in that series as they have all either been released in English through fanTL or official release - yet are not currently available in any reasonable way for the English speaking audience right now.

#17

Other games made by the same people involved are only really less likely than other games from the SciADV series.

#18

It is very sad to hear that Mages are the ones making it impossible to get the rest of the Science Adventure series in the west. For the longest time, I thought that only 5pb and Nitroplus were the rights holders. And with 5pb now publishing some of their titles on Steam, it gave me some hope that they might pursue to publish some of their back catalog there as well. Guess it ain’t happening in the end. :frowning:

#19

Mages is 5pb.

#20

^ ah thanks, got it.

Hopefully if Phantom Breaker does good on Steam they will work with Degica and JAST to have it available there as well!