yirba: Is Dengeki Stryker confirmed as a MangaGamer release?
bamboo: Yes, we’ll be selling Dengeki Stryker on MangaGamer so please look forward to it!

bamboo: We won’t be able to make it for AX, but we are making this game for everyone overseas…
(At this point, showed off the cover art for Go Go Nippon.)
bamboo: Go Go Nippon!
bamboo: So choose 1 of the two heroines and visit all the places in japan
bamboo: A bit erotic ^^
bamboo: The game itself is complete so hopefully i can show it in action soon
bamboo: Iphone application is strict as (censored by JustinTV) so even if its a bit erotic, it gets rejected
bamboo: For those who have difficulty coming to Japan, we made this game to kind of experience what its like here

hamusumo: How much is the planned game time of Go Go Nippon?
bamboo: The game is kind of like a guidebook, so it’s not that long, but I’ll let you know when I actually play it throughly
bamboo: Maybe we can make patches that does this in that in the future =P
bamboo: Yes we’ll be selling it online at a cheap price

(Below are the front and back covers for Go Go Nippon, from screen captures taken from the stream)

drmchsr0: Say, are Kamen Rider questions valid now? :3c
bamboo: I dunno much about Kamen Rider but if its something i can answer. lol

(no question)
bamboo: Hoping well continue to make games for everyone who is interested in japan but can’t come here
bamboo: We’ll be holding a panel at AX to have sort of a meeting with everyone
bamboo: We’ll be answering question along with Tororo Dancho from Circus and tell you some updates from Japan

asceai: Will the Japanese text work for people without Japanese OS/locale in the release?
bamboo: We will be testing the Japanese part for Go Go Nippon but its not final yet

hikari_sc: has companies in japan recovered from the earthquake, how is the scheduling of games like ef coming along?
bamboo: There was a big impact from the earthquake and directly affected us
bamboo: You can say the recent slow release of MangaGamer is mostly because of the quake
bamboo: Sales in Japan has gone down too

drmchsr0: Oh wait, here’s a serious one. How is Bill 156 and Ishihara’s recent comments gonna affect the future of Overdrive and MangaGamer? D:
bamboo: Isihara’s comment and bill has little to do with MangaGamer

yirba: Will we possibly see the MangaGamer mascot (Comko) in games? :-P
bamboo: No plan to including our mascot in a game at the moment
bamboo: I did see the image on 4chan with our mascot being naked and was laughing with everyone

hikari_sc: When do you think Japanese developers will start making games with internationalization in mind (ie: writing it in such a way so it can easily be ported to other languages)
bamboo: There are some developers who are interested, but it all depends on the demand and what they consider a success in oversea sales
bamboo: We need to make a good basis for business for that, for us to succeed in such circumstance
bamboo: We actually have Dengeki Stryker and Go Go Nippon with the oversea fans in mind

furbysbadday: Might we see more Higurashi?
timpkmn89: Alongside Furbys comment, will we ever specifically see Higurashi Rei, the series epilogue?
bamboo: If there is a high demand for Higurashi Rei, yes

(no question)
bamboo: i would like to study English too, so someone show me a cute English speaking girl, btw

snowballer: How’s the progress with âge going?
bamboo: Negotiation with âge is going steadily

miragecg: Have you contact with “old” eroge maker (like Mink for example)
bamboo: Sorry I don’t have much connection with Mink
bamboo: I only know developers that started in the early 2000s

drmchsr0: How do you view 999’s success in the US? Are you planning to do something like that in the future?
bamboo: In relation to 999, since we are releasing Kara no Shoujo, we are looking forward to see how much that will sell

swiftnissity: Whats happening with the comics section of the website, its empty right now.
bamboo: The comic section of MangaGamer should be opening soon
bamboo: I’m personally not in charge of it, but we are planning that and the video(anime) section

hikari_sc: what motivated you to get into eroge development? Was it difficult to start a company? What do your friends and family think about your job?
bamboo: I was originally a creator for Playstation game, but I was tricked into joining a bishoujo game company!
bamboo: My friends and family are like, do what you like
bamboo: Since I sing songs and stuff as well as make games, I’m in a bit dif situation
bamboo: It takes a lot of work to make a company, but i was able to make a living for the past 10 years by doing so
bamboo: I was happy to see a fan who said he liked Kira Kira when i was about to get on a Taxi at AX btw

miragecg: Are you planning to coming to European Convention (like Japan expo in Paris France)
bamboo: We participated at the Japan Expo several years ago, but since it wasn’t truly an English speaking environment, I’m iffy about it
bamboo: So we are concentrating in the American market for now
bamboo: I personally love USA too

thedoddler: There are a few new guest companies coming to AX this year that do not currently have games in English (like Clochette). Is it possible that these guests may get English language versions of their games at some point in the future?
bamboo: There is a possibility that companies like Clochette will release game for us, but
bamboo: We are just taking guest companies to AX to show them how the American market is like
bamboo: So it’s like a future investment to show them around and get them interested

bearhunterx: A lot of unofficial translations are getting picked up for official releases lately(Demonbane, ef, School Days, Kara no Shojo). Does the threat of an unofficial release floating around make negotiations with companies easier?
bamboo: It depends on the companies. and since the translation quality varies, we have to check it thoroughly anyway
bamboo: and of course the Japanese companies are suspicious about the unofficial translations
bamboo: and since the priority for the Japanese releases come first, the oversea market become secondary
bamboo: reminder. MangaGamer is still in the red…
bamboo: so please purchase our games
bamboo: and if you can, try to help us by boycotting illegal download sites

swiftnissity: Are we able to know which is Mangagamer’s worst selling game? Since Koihime Musou was supposedly their best selling game.
bamboo: Koihime is our number 1 selling game with Shuffle coming close
bamboo: Worst selling game is a secret =P

hikari_sc: What plans do MangaGamer have against piracy?
bamboo: Kill them all j/k

hikari_sc: What is your most memorable moment in an eroge? Who is your favorite girl in all the games you have played so far?
bamboo: my favorite heroine in a bishoujo game is Multi from To Heart

omonomono: Totally random topic: I bought Good Smile Company’s B.G.M. Nendoroid Petit set volume 0. Is there going to be volume 1? I would love a GSC Kirarin figure that’s slightly bigger lol. Or other characters from the game.
bamboo: I would personally like to release vol.1 of the Petiet Nendoroids, but it depends on if GSC says yes

swiftnissity: Has MangaGamer considered releasing updated re-releases (D.C > D.C.P.C for example) or are they out of the question?
bamboo: If there is a high demand for D.C.P.C, we can… but at the moment not really
bamboo: It is costly for us to localize one title and if it fails, it hurts us bad…

miragecg: Are you planning to make overdrive titles goodies (like figure and such) available to sale for us westerner via MG Website?
bamboo: We don’t have any plans to sell overdrive goods overseas
bamboo: Because of customs, we have difficulty sending made in China merchandise to the US too

dave1278: Given the current sales count for Koihime Musou is there a chance of getting Shin Koihime Musou (with or without voice)? ie are Baseson happy with the current sales to continue?
bamboo: We don’t have a plan to release Shin Koihime Musou at the moment, but since the sales were good, I’m sure we’ll start talking about it sooner or later
bamboo: About the voice acting issue: since the voice actor agency are hard headed, they demand a lot and thus there are some games without voices

(no question)
bamboo: Evangelion’s Shinji (Ogata Megumi) is voice acting for Dengeki Stryker
bamboo: She’s a really awesome person so respect her!

swiftnissity: Any plans to work with Baseson~Spice~? (The bl branch of Baseson)
bamboo: We don’t have any plans for BL titles because i don’t really know how well it will sell…

zalas: Over here, when people think games, they think gameplay. What do you think about bringing out more games with gameplay?
bamboo: About games with gameplay, it is difficult because porting it is a lot of work, and the game company needs to be really interested and has to help us
bamboo: I personally would like to make a bishoujo game like Fallout 3… if i had such money

tdavis0079: Oh yeah, speaking of Nakano, Go! Go! Nippon 2 needs a trip to Nakano Broadway. Such an awesome place.
bamboo: Yeah, we would certainly add Nakano Broadway in the next version
bamboo: We are planning to update it with patches, maybe $5 a patch?
bamboo: Try to think of it as a DLC pack for X-box or the likes

drmchsr0: Are there any plans to negotiate with Illusion?
bamboo: Doesn’t Illusion have a English page of their own? Not really sure but…
(some discussion of Rapelay by the commenters at this point)

jjjlmx: Are there plans for more Overdrive music theme games?
bamboo: Yes OVERDRIVE is planning to make music related game in the future for sure
bamboo: As long as I’m still interested in playing music

bearhunterx: Do Overdrive games have a better profit margin, since you don’t have to negotiate with other companies?
bamboo: The profit margin for our game is still the same….
bamboo: OVERDRIVE is an experimental release, using a lot of our resource

drmchsr0: Is MangaGamer gonna sell VN OSTs?
bamboo: Is there a high demand for Soundtrack releases?
bamboo: We are worried about piracy
bamboo: Since it would probably be uploaded on an illegal site as soon as it goes up.
(At this point, a bunch of discussion on demand for OSTs by the chatters)
bamboo: Thanks for the comments though, really happy to know that American fans care about my songs.
bamboo: I’m really against piracy so i would appreciate if you tell your friends who download from those sites that it is hurting us btw

nuriohin: Are there any plans for Limited Editions of OVERDRIVE’s titles?
bamboo: We’ll see how Da Capo LE sells before releasing other Limited Editions for now

amorim: Are there any updates about ef?
bamboo: Minori told me we should have something to look at soon
bamboo: Sorry about the delay (although i have no control over it)
bamboo: Minori is taking everything seriously

y10nrdy: It’s the general consensus that the only thing MangaGamer is lacking is hard copy versions of the games. Are there any plans to release packaged editions of your upcoming releases?
bamboo: We are negotiating about future hard copies, but ideally would like to release all our games in package form
bamboo: The most difficult thing is though, is how we are going to sell it
bamboo: Since there isn’t really a concrete selling route other than conventions

bamboo: Ok, that is all for today
bamboo: We will be using this site again in the future, and hopefully you can visit us again
bamboo: We will try to make the announcement early next time
bamboo: Thanks for joining us at such a late time
bamboo: It is a small market right now, but i would love to expand it so please continue to support us
bamboo: See you at AX for those who are going to be there, and if not see you here again!
bamboo: Thank you~

The long story is that due to MangaGamer’s investment structure, BaseSon parent company NEXTON has been shouldering most of the costs for the localization. Since the game has an extremely large cast of characters, the voice acting licensing costs in this case are also quite high. Even in the original game, there were so many roles that some of the voice actresses had to work on more than one role. This issue, combined with the fact that NEXTON feels that MangaGamer’s current sales haven’t been all that high, has led NEXTON to conclude that it is currently too expensive to license all the voices for the game.

Obviously, the permanent removal of voices from a game would decrease its value and sales. Therefore, there were discussions internally within MangaGamer about a way to solve this issue. The compromise reached was two-fold:

1. that the price of the game would be ddropped from 44.95 euros to 39.95 euros, and
2. if at least 2000 copies are sold, a patch will be created that will add the voices back in.

There are currently 663 users on the MangaGamer official forums. Hence, the blog post states that if every one on the forums got 2-3 friends to buy a copy, they would reach 2000. Considering what is known about their sales numbers, it will be difficult (although not impossible) to accumulate that many sales. However, Koihime Musou is also MangaGamer’s first game to feature a lot of gameplay, so its sales performance may differ from other games in the catalog. In either case, this situation should reveal information about the extent of MangaGamer’s current (potential) market.

UPDATE: With the release of the trial version, the game now has been given a February 28, 2011 release date.

UPDATE 2: The release date has been changed to January 31, 2011.

The major players had their booths as usual. One of the islands was mostly occupied by CIRCUS, who had various t-shirts, key chains, posters, CDs and fabrics for sale. Singers Aina Kase and rino also signed their CDs at the booth, while artists Yuki Takano and Yuka Kayura drew custom sketches for customers. OVERDRIVE had a booth on the other island, selling the all-ages and physically packaged version of KIRA KIRA along with other merchandise like CDs. Love+, d2b’s latest album (and not to be confused with the Nintendo DS game) was prominently featured, but there were also copies of a Touhou album by bamboo for sale. Illustrator Shinji Katakura was present, doing commissioned sketches, and singer UR@N was around signing CDs. BaseSon/NEXTON also had their little area selling Koihime Musou related merchandise.

What’s interesting this year, however, are the other companies MangaGamer brought. HOBIBOX, who was here last year, had a corner of an island, selling hardcore electronic music as well as 07th Expansion games. The head of SHOT MUSIC was there, selling their latest release, SUPER SHOT2, which was a remix album of songs from bishoujo games that was released one week before Anime Expo. The first six chapters of Umineko were available for purchase, and there was a prominent sign encouraging buyers to visit Witch Hunt for the game’s translation patches. The eight main arcs of Higurashi in Japanese were also available for purchase, as well as a packaged version of MangaGamer’s released of the question arcs to Higurashi.

Collectible card game publisher Bushiroad also had a booth with MangaGamer for the first two days, and had an area where they taught beginners how to play their games. Bushiroad publishes such CCGs as Weiβ Schwarz and Chaos TCG, which feature characters from bishoujo games.PRODUCTION PENCIL also had a booth, selling their PENCIL LIVE 2010 t-shirts as well as wallscrolls and posters of games from their brands Lillian and PajamasSoft.

The highly anticipated âge was selling Minami Kuribayashi CDs (one featuring songs from âge and one featuring the more mainstream songs from anime) at their booth along with models of mecha from their Muv Luv series. Their artists were also available to do customized sketches. Front Wing’s booth for days 3 and 4 had some merchandise for sale, but it was dominated by the presence of their artists. Akio Watanabe was quite busy during the day, working on sketches for people. Apparently, only a handful of sketches were done each day. The most popular sketches seemed to be of Komugi from Soultaker/Nurse Witch Komugi-chan and the characters from Bakemonogatari, with Hitagi Senjougahara beating out Komugi Nakahara (Soultaker version) in popularity. 0verflow of School Days fame also had a booth, where they sold pillow paraphernalia from their latest Cross Days and displayed on a netbook their English build of the trial version of Summer Days that was released as an April Fool’s joke a few years back. Lastly, there were representatives from at least two other major game companies present, although probably not in an official capacity.

The major crowd grabber was obviously the series of mini-concerts they held. MangaGamer erected a miniature stage for the concerts, enough for a couple of people to stand on, just like last year. Each of the first three days, there were two performances, one held at 1:00pm and one held at 4:00pm. Each concert had three vocalists perform approximately five songs each. Aina Kase performed in all the concerts, and the other three switched up. UR@N dressed up in traditional Japanese attire, Aina dressed up in a pop idol outfit with her zettai ryouiki, rino dressed up in a more sedated attire and Minami sported either the waitress uniform from Sky Temple (a family restaurant in the âge game universe) or the school uniform. Of course, each concert was accompanied by a sizeable crowd, with glowstick users in the front. Parts of the concerts were broadcasted live, either through Nico Nico Douga or Ustream.

On the last day, instead of a concert, tororo-dancho gathered together some unsold items and held an event to sell them, each item coming with complementary Subway sandwich, Pepsi and a t-shirt. Finally, around the time the exhibition floor closed for the last time, several dealers came by and bought up a lot of MangaGamer’s remaining stock, including a large pile of KIRA KIRA discs.