A New Market For Visual Novels?

I know that [1] this post is an April Fool's joke, but it really made me think: could visual novels achieve greater popularity through Steam? While it's true that pornographic content may turn some off (and not in that way), I think that Steam could be a really great platform for visual novels to become much more popular. The question is, what's stopping companies like Manga Gamer and JAST? Is it popularity? 18+ content? Or is it the Japanese companies themselves not wanting to be affiliated with Valve/Steam?

No.

Hahaha, got you going there for a minute, didn't I? But, in all seriousness, probably not. It's doubtful that the returns Valve would get would be worth the extra expense. And besides, there's no way to effectively age-restrict content on Steam (sure, there's an age gate, but that only works if people don't lie). In general, it's really more trouble than it's worth, considering the tiny, tiny (relative to FPS or MMO players) market V Ns have in English-speaking territories.

They sell indie games all the time on Steam, so I personally don't see why not.

I doubt they'd actually do it, though. Becoming a platform for crazy Japanese porn won't do much good for Steam's reputation.

I emailed Manga Gamer about it, so I'll see what the reply is in the next couple of days...

The complex, worksafe romance game Shira Oka Second Chances was first released on Impulse Driven, and is now also available through Gamers Gate.

Likewise, the complex, worksafe raising sim Spirited Heart is being sold on Impulse Driven.

Notice I said "complex" and "worksafe." It's a bit easier to sell gameplay-centered content to most fans. And even though some of today's video games have R-rated sex scenes, it's probably tough to sell cute / moe games to most fans.

Currently, English-speaking fans who are creating commercial visual novels tend to release free demos, and then sell their content as paid downloads. Groups such as Winter Wolves, Hanako Games, Zeiva Inc, and Sakevisual all use this method. (One exception is a serious commercial visual novel called The Chaos Gateway, which is only available through Xbox Live Arcade's indie games.)

Celso Riva from Winter Wolves has blogged and tweeted about the viability of formats. He's said that making money through iTunes and XBLA is difficult. I think he's said that signing up for Impulse Driven was easy.

During Anime Central 2011, the Shira Oka staff will host a panel. I will strive to ask them about what they think about selling games through various paid download services.

Finally, as for eastern games... I wonder if Jast might consider selling its planned translation of Eien no Aselia on Steam or other services. Keep in mind that it's a complex RPG as well as a visual novel, and that Jast is planning to release only a worksafe version. This is something I should ask.

Somehow I doubt that they will react by slapping their foreheads and shouting "Oh, yeah, digital distribution! That's it! How Did We Miss This One? Thank you, Five X!"

edited 16th May '11 11:05:26 PM by EternalSeptember

You never know! :P

Actually, bamboo, one of the Japanese producers of Manga Gamer, recently mentioned that visual novels need a popular system like Steam for better distribution, and that the Western visual novel market was an ever increasing one that Japanese companies really shouldn't ignore.

edited 17th May '11 4:57:01 PM by Five_X

For example, 999 was crazy popular. Just imagine what would happen if Ever 17 was distributed better in the west.

With the 360 remake coming out soon, it may just be on the edge of possibility.

Many people would LIKE to distribute stuff on steam, but steam is NOT an open platform. You can't just choose to put your game on it. I know many visual novel companies (doing worksafe games) have asked Steam to carry their games and been turned down. Including Mangagamer IIRC - it's been discussed on their forums more than once.

If you want more games on Steam, you need to ask STEAM to carry them. 99% of the time, if a game is not on steam, it's not because the author hasn't heard of it or doesn't want to put it there.

edited 22nd May '11 1:47:46 PM by butterflygrrl

Went to the Shira Oka Second Chances panel at Anime Central, but due to time constraints, couldn't stay for the whole event. While I was there, they said that they'll be at E3 2011, and that they're *talking* with an unnamed company about the *possibility* of publishing their game on Wii. No other information was disclosed. Also, the staff has said on Twitter that "Shira Oka on Steam someday isn't totally out of the question. But it IS partly their decision as well..."

Sakura River, the group who created Fading Hearts, is now talking about how they're striving to increase their audience. On their dev blog, they state, "It seems that a Blue Ocean strategy is in order... kind of. Selling hybrid V Ns (V Ns with game play) and marketing them to gamers both casual and hardcore seems to be the way to go. That's right. VN's Blue Ocean is the gaming market. Why? Because they don't really know about V Ns. If you make a decent quality game with VN level stories then you got it made." (Sakura River is mostly selling their game for direct download through the merchant BMT Micro. I don't know if the group has considered selling through other services.)

An interesting read, courtesy of Manga Gamer. Man they're awesome.

How sad that they just can't actually sell their stuff in the west.

I blame piracy!

^ Nah, piracy isn't the problem here. It's just they're afraid of the risks. They need more investment for releasing their products in the west (translation, localization, distribution, etc), an investment they're not sure to get back, much less make a profit of, due to how niche the genre is there. And most of those Japanese VN companies are small businesses (as explained in the Manga Gamer link above), so that doesn't help.

So in short, their idea is: why would you bother going for a non-profitable foreign market that could potentially torpedo your business, when you have at hand a national market that's profitable and safe?

So I guess that the only real option for doing anything outside of Japan would be starting their own digital distribution platform, which would screw us out of all the sweet limited edition deals.

Meh, I'd still take that. Too bad it's easier said then done.

I think at least. Just how difficult is it to set up something like Steam?

Hi, Celso Riva here. As posted already, STEAM IS NOT AN OPEN PLATFORM. You cannot say "I'll put this game on Steam." you can only submit and hope/pray that somehow they reply "yes we'll carry your game." The last game I submitted was Planet Stronghold (http://www.winterwolves.com/planetstronghold.htm) and they even took time to play it (usually they would instantly reject the game). But after a week, response was "no" - NO REASON GIVEN. Yes, they don't tell you why :)

You signed up to say stuff that has already been said?

Anime Expo has started, so in the next day or two there *may* be marketing-related news from Jast, Mangagamer, or Aksys. We shall see.

Until then, Okashi Studio has a partnership with Judobaby. This relevant article is rather vague — http://www.shira-oka.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/196-new-partnership-with-judobaby-announced-at-e3.html — but it does say the business deal "...will be a great opportunity to bring Shira Oka to an even larger audience."

Winter Wolves is talking about if free-to-play is a good idea for commercial games (blog link: http://blog.winterwolves.net/can-the-free-to-play-business-model-work-for ). I can currently name only one game in which the player has to pay more money in order to unlock additional love interests. That would be an iOS reverse harem visual novel called Shall We Date? Heian Love.

Finally, the people creating Cinders, a fairy tale story with a western aesthetic, are talking about sales stats now that their game is available for pre-order. Here's the specific article: http://moacube.com/blog/some-moacube-sales-stats

So the TLWiki group released a partial patch for Never 7, and in the discussion, they casually mentioned that the game is available on Game Liner. Looking at the site, it offers a number of Japanese language games in varied genres, many of them with considerable discounts. Never 7 and Remember 11 are currently being sold for a mere 500 yen.

Other stuff I've learned (and which has happened) since last summer...

Even though JAST released a worksafe version of Aselia the Eternal, in both DVD-ROM and paid download editions, it still isn't available on any download service.

There's now two visual novels in English for PSP. The first, Corpse Party, is download only. The second, Hakuouki, is also on UMD with an optional deluxe edition.

Here and there, some commendable content in English gets released on DLSite. Hatoful Boyfriend, Koenchu! and a couple of Vocaloid VNs (sold unpatched) are available in the worksafe section.

Voltage Inc has released two visual novels for iOS/Android which ask customers to pay per route. These are Pirates in Love and My Forged Wedding. Both are reverse harem stories.

English speaking indie VN creators don't currently seem to be aiming for major download services. For instance, Winter Wolves continues to make games, but nothing since Spirited Heart has been released for Impulse Driven. Also, while the people at Okashi Studio got their game Shira Oka on several services, they haven't announced any new projects. I'm curious... are indie creators having too much trouble getting their content accepted? Are they not making the profit they need from these sites?

On this subject I think the VN name needs to clean its name up before we can see any of this. We need to see more titles like 999 which have good writing, a relevant story, beautiful imagery, and Limited perversity( you know what I mean).

This is a median with a lot of potential, it mustn't be squandered.

edited 20th Apr '15 8:32:38 AM by TempusIV

Higurashi's release on Steam next month might help. I believe it is the first major English release in such a mainstream platform. At first glance it still suffer from some of the stereotypes of the genre, with the cute girls and school setting, but the excellent story and themes might win over many new readers. Not to mention it is ultimately an horror/mystery story, instead of the cliched romance fare.

It might be me, but I have the impression that non-eroge visual novels are becoming more frequent in the 2010s/late 2000s, which might be an attempt at expanding the market a bit… there's 07th Expansion of course, but even Type-Moon ended up releasing a worksafe VN (Mahou Tsukai no Yoru)… and I think Steins Gate got an English release?

Because yeah, let's face it, Eroges have little chance of making the format attractive for professional translators.

And I think, for that matter, that one issue is that VNs are freaking long to translate. It can be like translating a book of a few thousand pages for some. It probably does little to help…

And the Japanese editors can do little to help too. Pierre Bancov, the French translator of Higurashi for example, had to go through no small amount of trouble to get all the rights (the same trouble that led MG to change the musics in the original English version) and spent several years translating the stuff; he isn't exactly enthusiastic at going through these trouble all over again for Umineko (which is much longer), despite loving it.

edited 21st Apr '15 3:22:30 AM by Lyendith

Steins Gate got a English release? I wasn't aware of that. Still not a Steam release, though, which makes all the difference. Higurashi have been out in English for years, after all, but the lack of Steam exposure hurts the general public awareness. Specially since you can only buy in a full eroge site.

At any rate, I wasn't talking just about eroge myself. The thing is, I've seem a lot of new VN releases on Steam. But they seem to be almost exclusively romance stories. And, anyway, they are all minor indie titles that no one really knows about. Higurashi, meanwhile, have some broader recognition. It is still fairly niche, as far as Steam games go, of course, but still way more than most, if not all, other VN there.

That is why I think Higurashi may open new doors. Steam release will make more people to try it out. And even though Higurashi have some VN cliches, it is not a romance story^note and even the cutesy school stuff is not the main focus, so this will make these people realize there is more to VN than galges.

Of course, all the other problems that hinder VN translation will still exist. I just think Higurashi may bring more awareness to the genre, which only helps overall.

PS:I thought the rights trouble with Higurashi was because Ryukishi used a lot of license free songs, and the translator had to track each one to make sure they were still okay to be used in a foreign translation. It is a trouble quite unique to Higurashi that didn't exist even in Higurashi Kai, much less Umineko.

edited 21st Apr '15 10:38:27 AM by Heatth

Yeah, it got an English release a year or so ago. I think later this year the Vita port is also getting a release, which I'm going to pick up.

Porn VNs tend to sell better.

Do they? In the international market, I mean. That is something I am actually curious about.

At any rate, I am fairly confident a Steam release improves sales, regardless. By the simply virtue it reaches a much broader number of people (more people will know it exists). It is easier to buy too.