I’m afraid you’ll have to take another look at the situation…
The US porn industry has lost considerable interest in “anime porn” because it fails to generate the revenue of real porn. Depending on what source you want to believe, American porn is a multi-billon dollar enterprise, but hentai in the States was less than 1% of total sales generated. Also much like the conventional anime market, hentai sales have been going down (according to distributors like AnimeNation). In fact Asian porn in general has been experiencing a bit of a down turn, thanks to the lack of charismatic actresses to keep buyers going (many of the current superstars like Asia Carrera are waaaay past their prime). Moodyz, a rather large Japanese porn company, has been experiencing major failure with getting Americans hooked on their releases. So established Japanese companies HAVE tried; they didn’t get anywhere.
Actually the anime and manga market in the US has burst, becoming a losing proposition for many investors: the largest impact being the death of Geneon USA. The combination of oversaturation, network muscling (i.e. Cartoon Network), Internet piracy, and a fluxing dollar value are to blame. Now you’re going to try to convince investors that eroge ¬ñ already something that’s not a major market in the West ¬ñ is worth taking a risky gamble that it is? The track record says otherwise: with the exception of Peach Princess, eroge companies in North America have died. The verdict on MG is still out. Even with the success of PP, it’s nowhere in the league of EA Games… or even “small” groups like Codemasters.
As an investor my interest in earning money will overlook the eroge market. There is no “perfect storm of opportunity” ¬ñ there’s only been a cataclysm of repeated failure. I have more odds of success investing in a console or PC venture, than I do with an ero venture. Why should I put my money on some “free ero” idea, when I can put my money on The SIMS 3 (which is still taking investors) or Final Fantasy 13? Those are SURE FIRE money makers. Those are the perfect storms.
And don’t forget piracy. Eroge suffers a MASSIVE issue with that. I know people always argue over the “morality of piracy” and how it really has no effect on sales. Bull. Investors care about piracy: too much of it will keep them away. The music and film industry feel that pinch everyday, and that’s one of the reasons why they’re so anal in stopping it: no investors means no productions.
The demand is for REAL PORN, not animated porn. Demographics show that “big natural tits” and “teens” generate the most sales. There’s a massive rise in gay porn as well. But the “Japanimation” stuff? Failure. Massive failure. Except for the pirate sites… which are part of the problem to begin with.