Kotaku
Japan's erotic gaming industry isn't all raindrops and lollypops! Website Canned Dogs has a look at what's hurting the once throbbing thriving genre. Apparently, erotic game companies have hit hard times and are restructuring. With doujin games generating a bigger and bigger fan base, erotic games are having a difficult time competing. Doujin games are typically made by only a few people, and some doujin makers are popular enough to even make a living off selling their wares, while avoiding all the headaches that go with being an actual company. To compete, eroge companies try to offer better quality art than the "amateur" doujin titles. The thinking is that they can sell the game just based on screenshots. Companies are also restructuring, and the first to go are the writers. Not good for text heavy erotic games where sharp writing is key! What's more, many eroge writers have moved on from naughty games and are publishing novels instead. Companies are forced to outsource stuff out to freelancers to varying degrees of success. And with the erotic game industry becoming less and less appealing, the new talent pool shrinkage. Hey, that's not erotic at all!
Eds Note: Hobby Blog has some interesting insights on this as well.
Eroge Industry Probs [Canned Dogs]
Comments
I'm happy that my Kotaku is willing to cover this stuff.
Here's an idea: How about making an erotic game with decent game play?
No surprise. They're not even really games.
Wow, this sounds a lot like the problem the porn industry is having with all the amateur porn around these days.
@kevinski: How about making an erotic game that's not just a interactive slideshow?
I understand that there is a market for these types of game, but I don't really see the appeal. I mean, it just feels like working for porn? Why would I do that when I have google image search?
@Touy: because 8-"pronged" tentacle-love is the achievement MS just won't give us.
This is worst news I have heard all year! How will we learn how to pleasure anime sluts now??
@Sinfjotle: Somone find a way to copyright digital medium and he/she will /bitchslap Bill Gate's fortune.
The days of firms and mediums/agents will be less apparent in the coming years with all this, you know, digital age and stuff...
Just look at Monster.com and see how many physical HR employment offices disappeared..
bring all the games to u.s.
@TheIrishNinja: I would buy a game just so I could say that I got that achievement. Holy shit.
The matter revolving gameplay/storyline in the Eroge Brand has been a issue of the last 4 years, firstly people were satisfied from the just basic chitchat/one-chan/Yamateeee system.
But now they want more, more interaction, more quality, and the most of the companies out there doesn't seem to care enough about it.
Instead of firing they should hire more in my opinion, a good squad of writers isn't such a hassle to gather, and then hire a lead artist with a different style that will be the "real" brand on thier products, to train his team.
Just see at the Tinklebell.jp works, some people even tried to copy their stuff with shameful results, while their fanbase raised day by day.
Then decide if go for a game or just an interactive movie, not something between the two.
@iceketch: Pretty knowledged eh?..eh???
^^;;
Hopefully we're not looking at the beginnings of a negative backlash on the doujin[shi] culture in Japan. As I've come to understand, it's a delicate legal/economic balance, and, well... this could present problems.
Japan wants to sell more eroge, huh? Well, I could sell 50 million copies if my game had just one actual uncensored pic in it. It's really interesting that (supposedly, and I am a firm believer) there is no law in Japan that actually restricts ero makers (pic, game and movie) from showing pubic areas- it's just something that isn't done. Recently more and more small-time outfits have begun to show things uncensored, and they can charge a ton for it. Seeing as how the Japanese porn industry is basically no-holds barred, it's really, really strange that they'll show other girls vomitting and shitting all over eachother while fish are used liberally in places they shouldn't be but you can't actually see anything "graphic." I mean, it's not like you're going to gross anyone out by it.
I should be writing eroges! Well... maybe not.
@Sinfjotle: Yeah, anyone can make porn as long as they have a few people horny/drunk enough.
Meh. Not surprising considering most eroge suck. Thirty minutes of clicking through text just to get to a sex scene composed of 3 still images, some questionalbe voice acting, and about 300 lines of text.
Not Fun. Not Sexy. Not Fapable.
I've seen a few good eroge, and non of them are based on the story book "game" model. When eroge companies start putting actual gameplay in their "games" maybe I'll consider looking down that avenue of perversion again.
I LOVE how you make that all doujin or visual novels have eroge scenes...thats not wrong at all. Could have sworn Clannad did very well for it having nothing. And quite a few other ones. Or is this article about writers moving from hentai only games to Visual novels?
Also nearly all the fan made free Doujin doesnt have any sex what so ever.Except that stupid Narcissu (Which is a critics few of modern medicine and how evil docters/nurses are that when i read it i was offended being a nurse myself) Anyways I love reading visual novels as much as I love reading my books.
But it is true that the games that actually are kid friendly. (Most of Key's releases) or PS2 versions of w/e do a lot better than games that are based merely on eroge and have some stupid slutty story.
@iceketch: 100% agree with you. Get more writers. Pay them more and get more unique artists. Play around with new ideas now and then to get some attention. They have the advantage of manpower compared to the doujin circles, so they should at least start brewing some new concepts :-/
@Kilian: Yeah. It's a messy situation. Try to crack down on the doujin scene and that company would be losing tons of fans. Let them continue and they continue to make money on their intellectual property.
Personally, I think they should just throw money at those doujin guys and hire them instead of fighting.
@acrana:
I LOVE how you don't click on the source link. Of course, there are LOADS of different kinds of doujin games -- from shooting games to fighters to whatever. Not just the sexy stuff! But hey, that's what we're talking about here, eroge.
@denki:
But you see pixelated genitals are what makes it hot. Anything else just lacks class.
IllusionSoft is the "EA" of the Hentai world... lol
@Touy: Or around 3 million sites that offer good enough free erotic flash games...
@Fyren:
Yush and the cool thing is that I rarely play them, I'm more of an art junkie in love with the coloring tecnique used in the eroge art departments, even if those people do naughty stuff it can't be denied they're some of the best concept artists around. even better than some worksafe artists that work for very important publishers.
So I dig their stuff and try to figure out their layer structures and such, like the fighting effects in the Fate/Stay Night-Tsukihime series, man those fighting scenes were hard to reproduce.
@Sauce: Does this type of game need better writing? I'm not attacking, I really am wondering. I have scant knowledge of these games, other than something about a mouse pad that has squeezable boobs. I'm not sure if the squeeze pad has anything to do with a game. I was just thinking about porn ( per my agreement I made with myself at the age of thirteen), and I don't see where strong writing is necessary. Plot points and epic amounts of the boob are like peanut butter and broken glass-unnecessary.
Man, i'll tell you what's killing them. CENSORING! everywhere and on everything you want to see. Nothing kills a boner better than a random assortment of large colorful squares. But maybe i'm just drawing too much attention to myself, but i still feel censoring or the amount of it plays a part.
this is where CryEngine 2 can REALLY shine!!
if there are h-games using CryEngine 2, there would be mass appeal in both Japan AND US!!!
i'm all for realistic physics....in breast areas
Number one problem plaguing the erotic games industry? The level of creepiness, maybe?
Damn!
Without writers, how will we have more heartwarming tales of the true love between a small, effeminate boy and a girl, who just happens to be 12? And also his sister? And also some kind of fairy-demon thing? And also a dog? Possibly a robot?
@jive238: actually, I'd guess that there's a significant number of people that'd tell you otherwise (that it's better censored) -- a matter of seeing cartoon parts or using the power of imagination, I guess.
@Trekka: I think these games are 99% about the writing, unless there's some masterful technology behind the game. It's probably one of the most sought-after elements, yet one of the most overlooked, as beautiful art can't save a story that makes none of the characters appealing.
I hear there's fan-translations of some of Type-Moon's series; might want to give it a look, as it's surprisingly good writing (dunno about the translation, but the original is).
@all those who say they should focus more on good writing: seconded. the best eroge were good not for teh pr0n, but for the awesome story. Such stories are great even without the sex scenes. Hell, even those games that were inseparable from their sex scenes can have an awesome story. I know people who aren't interested in "hentai" that played games in the X-Change series because they thought it was hilarious.@
iceketch: "I'll show you. This is what it means to kill something."
@kevinski:
What's more erotic than a game with a good gameplay? ;)
The only problem is there aren't any hentai-erotic DS games in English.
Look up "Phoenix Drive". It shows everything that's wrong with the eroge industry. (BTW- if you couldn't tell from the name, it IS Phoenix Wright-themed).
Hey, Japanse eroge companies, here's a tip - learn English and release your titles in America. With no censorship. (which means you can reimport into Japan for added bucks) Ignore all the prudish people that will fight it, and no lolicon and shotacon are not illegal here. Just get yourself a translator and release the things for cheap (none of that crazy J-List markup), hell maybe put together a sort of digital distribution platform. if you do that, you can invite the doujin game writers to participate too. This business stuff isn't hard. You have an untapped market of 300 million people over here, and we've got sex drives too. Just keep your stuff on offer, the social stuff will work itself out.
...i suddenly feel like playing a Newgrounds sim game.
ogawd
@Akin: "You Can't Kill Something That's Already Dead."
lol those lines got famous thanks to 4chan I fear...
@Touy: Because the most important organ involved with porn is the brain. Giving a story and some context goes a long way.
@denki: Do some research on the Macarthur Morality Codes. I believe it IS illegal to show stuff uncensored. It's stupid and a leftover from America extending their puritanical influence out across the globe. Japan should reject it wholeheartedly. Uncensored stuff is available in Japan because it IS legal to export uncensored stuff.... and to re-import it.
@Trekka: You agreed with yourself at 13 to think about porn?
Maybe they would have less problems if their games were actually arousing.
@Akin:
*_*
Also, source on the main image? ;_;
If the doujin games that are edging in on commercial titles are like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (doesn't even need sex anywhere to be a smash hit!), Tsukihime, and Fate/Stay Night, and the various awesome spinoffs of those three, then I'm really not bothered if it upsets a few giants - I wasn't paying attention to them anyway.
Back in high school when I cared about these, I thought Sogna was onto something - their games seemed well ahead of the rest (not for visual novels, but definitely for eroge.) And then they folded. Fast forward 6-8 years and doujin games are booming. To me the time in between was just blank, though I know I missed some popular elf and Leaf titles.
I guess the point I'm getting at is... viva 07th Expansion and Type-Moon! The thing about making games that require so little technical (programming) skill is that anyone can just swoop in and take the market by storm!
How long will it be before desperate companies use the IP infringement laws to attack the doujin games?
@Akin: lol X-change was too hilarious. XD
@fuchikoma: And quite frankly both Type-Moon and 7th Expansion focused on one thing: story. I do concur that a strong story is what drives the industry. Knowing that, the companies should hire more writers, and then to get a one-up on the doujinshi people, hire good programmers to make some good gameplay.
@otakucode: Gotta love those legal loopholes.
Oh, and anybody knows what's up with leaf's Kimi ga Yobu, Megiddo no Oka de?
@kevinski:
And actually throw in some decent pr0n as well!!!
I have a suggestion: UNCENSOR THE GAMES!
Yay!
But seriously, I'd have to be more japanese to understand those games I guess... because to be quite frank, I don't see the fun on reading a Bible everytime I want to strip an animu girl off of one piece of clothing.
I don't even have the pacience to watch pr0ns with stories... I just skip to the goods.
Is that so wrong?
They should just bring the games to the US iam sure their sales would increase on the consoles 10-fold cause of it. hahaha at least if would give me a reason to play with my DS or Wii. Shit at least PSP has video even though to format your own collection is a pain in the ass.
Maybe it's because eroge are so damned expensive, where many doujin of almost equal quality is much cheaper. I'm not gonna pay 10,000 yen for a visual novel when I could get DQ or what have you for less.