The whole point is that higher quality titles would have better potential to bring in MORE potential customers than would exist otherwise. I don’t think JAST is selling to anywhere near the potential market for this stuff currently.
I agree, but only if you refer to non ero-focused games. I don’t think that ero-focused games, no matter how good they are, can actually help widening the market.
The point is that JAST already has lots of good non-ero-focused games. They don’t have ANY good ero-focused games. Nada. None. Zilch. I think you’d bring in more new customers by localising Prima Stella than you would, say, localising Yumemishi or Ashita Deatta Shoujo, good as those games are.
Aweee…
So we pretty much can forget about Raidy 3 and any more ZyX games. 
Just as an aside, Ane Summer! 2 has right around 20ish scenes and is pretty entertaining, though its a bit tricky in parts…gotta know when to train kendo style (which is its own minigame) and who to visit/spend time with. The art is out of this world good, its funny when it tries to be, and overall its a very, very good romp. Probably wouldn’t be as tricky if I was completely fluent, but I’ll take what I can get. Playing through it and Shiofuki Mermaid atm. Though Shiofuki is still only available on the DLSite Professional side of things, but considering it’s right around $66 USD as opposed to ErogeShops $105 before shipping…you get the idea. Though Shiofuki is basically just your run of the mill sexromp (albeit with swimsuits and waterworks), its got um…48ish scenes iirc, and has at least one easter egg to an earlier title of theirs that I’ve found.
I know I wouldn’t mind seeing anything from Artemis released through JAST, though its neva gonna happen.
someone asked a question at the VN site that I would like to echo here. Why can’t companies redraw the censored part of the CG when they lose the original uncensored CG? No one is going to know the difference any way!
about the all-ages eroge, I can understand the fear that JAST might have for not trying to go that route. Hirameki, which only released all ages titles, did sink after all* 
. There are many that are interested in non-ero story driven titles, but not enough to have helped keep Hirameki afloat. So until MG say that they had a great success with Higurashi, I won’t hold my breath until JAST releases an all-ages title.
- plus the AnimePlay DVD idea did suck.
Nothing wrong with DVDPG, lots of companies release DVDPG versions and they do alright - they wouldn’t keep making them if they didn’t sell. The only problem was that there were titles Hirameki only released in DVDPG format, which was a big mistake, and something not repeated anywhere else in the industry as far as I can tell.
Don’t see why you expected the release in 2011.
Well, it’s true that Demonbane have is fair share of text, but it still far from a Clannad ^^
They were at first projecting a late '09 release, but weren’t optimistic that would be met. About a month ago though they updated their “status update” thread and said they hoped to get it out in Q2 '10. And really, they have to get moving if they’re going to do more than just keep up with the current releases.
Yeah, really. They have a lot going on right now, and it would be wise to get as much of it done efficiently while still maintaining a fast pace. Though if it means another texty mess then I’m kind of willing to wait…except the last time we did wait extra and it was still a texty mess. I’m speaking of Family Project, of course. I just hope whatever is going on is being done quickly and efficiently, that’s all.
I’m assuming they got a decent first translation this time, unlike what happened with Family Project…
From their comments during the interview, it sounds like Nitro+ has been doing their fair share of micromanaging the project. I’m guessing they won’t let JAST release Demonbane with a subpar translation. They’re trying to build a name for themselves overseas, after all (unlike companies like D.O. which probably just see the English market as an afterthought). Shoddiness on JAST’s part would reflect badly on them and could harm their other endeavors as well.
More exactly, G-Collections was the American Branc of Cd-Bros (Sekilala,Trabulance, AngelSmile and some other) before “selling” it to Peter Payne because CD-Bors was in bad shape in Japan (but, it’s ironic, was selling fine with G-Collections in USA).D.O. and ZyX was like a partnership between them.
So now CD-Bros is dead since 2006, D.O. it’s the same and it’s more than one years since the last ZyX Game and also more than 1 year and half since le last news on raidy III, so you can consider ZyX as dead too.
in contrary, Nitro+ it’s still here after 10 years, their game sell well in Japan and often got Anime… They seems to be very carefull about their game.
Huh, I hadn’t realized all the Japanese developers previously behind GC are now dead.
Does that make Peter a necromancer? 
That’s why G-Collections went out of business. The rumor is they put so much money into the US division (remember, they were putting out a game every 6 weeks for a good year or more) that it caused expenses to overshoot revenue and they imploded. Whatever the cause, Peter came along and said “hey, we’ll take over” and they basically said “you mean you want to pay us?”
Note how after the brand resurrected itself (or was necro’ed?) they totally changed the way they did things: they brought over games GC had passed up (like the RPGs) and dramatically slowed down their rate of new releases. In fact, if I were to guess, I’d say that whatever shell of the associated Japanese brands remains, is propped up by sales of the English catalog (since those titles remain in print but not really in Japan - unless they’re on DLsite or something).
At this point probably 35-40% of all the English-translated eroge that you can buy include their products. In Japan, they’re a drop in an ocean.
Many CD bros titles are on dlsite and other DL sales sites.
Sales on DLsite (at the time of writing):
- The Sagara Family: 1,476 units
- Lightning Warrior Raidy: 738 units
- Do You Like Horny Bunnies? 2: 668 units
- Amorous Professor Cherry: 503 units
- Lightning Warrior Raidy II: 426 units
- Tsuki ~ Possession: 340 units
- Do You Like Horny Bunnies?: 286 units
- Virgin Roster: 226 units
- Chain: 170 units
If you would like a comparison, the title that is IMHO the #1 eroge on dlsite, ???, has 280 sales =P
In terms of sales, Nitro+ is definitely struggling these days. They were quite popular up to around 2005/2006, but demand for their product sharply declined after.
You have to consider why they’ve been pursuing so many new ventures lately - anime, console game collaborations, partnership with JAST USA, atypical works like Sumaga, etc. Traditional Nitro+ isn’t doing so hot, so they need more avenues of income.
To be fair, the RPGs didn’t exist when G-Collections was in business. After CD Bros. scaled back, they shifted away from visual novels and began using the D.O. and ZyX brands (AFAIK, the core staff behind the VNs had also moved on by this point) to resurrect the old RPG properties that made them popular in the first place. This meant remakes of Pretty Soldier Wars, Raidy, and Branmarker.
On the whole, I think GC actually represented the CD Bros. line quite well. They brought most of the heavyhitters across their brands, released all worthwhile Angel Smile games, and even launched their best story-focused titles (only Family Project and arguably Hoshizora Planet were missing).
And that’s a point i didn’t “see” in the Interview (or i missed it big time) : What will they do with GC?
I mean, they are still title in those catalog but… not so much, and they starting to get old now or/and impossible to be released here (The Daughter Maker for exemple, and we know why)
I think its time for them to form new partnership for the GC Brand.
that was a really good episode. When they asked a question about an orginal english langue visual novel, if they ever do that, they should make am Aoi House one. I always thought Aoi House an OEL manga would make a good visual novel