HuniePop Dev Offers $1 Million for Right to Publish Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 in US

[RJ 17]

Wow...I certainly never expected nearly as much hub-bub regarding this game. I mean hell, the thread in the gaming section already has over 200 comments.

What I find really funny about this whole situation is that - I'd imagine - the majority of people bickering over this game couldn't give two shits about it, they're just using it as more ammo to fuel the GG vs Anti-GG rage debate.

Seriously...does either side even know what they're arguing about anymore?

To be clear: that was a hypothetical, I really couldn't care less.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Wow...I certainly never expected nearly as much hub-bub regarding this game. I mean hell, the thread in the gaming section already has over 200 comments.

What I find really funny about this whole situation is that - I'd imagine - the majority of people bickering over this game couldn't give two shits about it, they're just using it as more ammo to fuel the GG vs Anti-GG rage debate.

Seriously...does either side even know what they're arguing about anymore?

To be clear: that was a hypothetical, I really couldn't care less.

The funny thing is that it's been pretty much proven that the backlash is either not the sole reason or has nothing to do with the game not being released here, yet people are still ***** about it. at least it looks like people who want to play the game (because they find it fun or out of spite) can play the game now.

 

[RJ 17]

The funny thing is that it's been pretty much proven that the backlash is either not the sole reason or has nothing to do with the game not being released here, yet people are still ***** about it. at least it looks like people who want to play the game (because they find it fun or out of spite) can play the game now.

I thought I read somewhere that both of the previous games - while not being wild sellers to begin with - actually sold better in western markets than they did in Asia and Japan. If so, then from a business standpoint there's really no reason to withhold the game from western markets. I could be wrong about that "they sold better in western markets" bit, but even so I really don't care all that much.

One thing's for certain, though: I actually did like the volleyball in the previous games...and I won't lie, the eyecandy was nice as well. I'll be getting this game either by import or if Koei accepts HoneyPop's offer and allows them to publish it in the west...or if it gets a western release in some other fashion.

...of course there is the possibility that they have every intention of announcing a western release and this entire controversy is just a marketing scheme to drum up hype for a supposedly "controversial" game.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

So...if I do buy the game from that Play-Asia website, will it work on my PS4? There's not region lock or anything right? Because I do want to buy this game now, just because of all the noise it's getting.

No, it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Rose is my current theme on my PS4. Why do you ask? Shut up!

 

[Irridium]

So, with them talking about how they're not releasing the game because of debates about women in games or whatever, is anyone else going to point out the DLC for Dead or Alive 5 Last Round?

You know, all those skimpy outfits and whatnot. Plus the fact that if you for some reason want to buy ALL the DLC it'll cost you literally hundreds of dollars? On the Xbone/PS4 there's TWO season passes for new costumes costing $93 each. And those don't include all the old outfits, which I think also have a $93 pass if you want them all. And on Steam if you want it all it's about $402.37. And that's with the current sale price. Without it the cheapest costume pack is $19, and it has no season pass or individual purchase so you have no choice but to buy a bunch of stuff you don't want to get something you do. Again though that's only on Steam. On consoles you generally buy whatever costume you want on your own. Assuming you can navigate the clusterfuck that is the game's dlc store page. Christ.

Also the Steam version still doesn't have the two maps the PS4/Xbone versions have.

Just some things I feel we should all keep in mind during all this.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Also something I see nobody mention is that this game is compatible with Morpheus, when it eventually releases.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

If they did get to do it, maybe we'd get a PC release? That'd be cool.

Yes, I bought HuniePop. It's hilarious and very fun to play.

 

[Winnosh]

Ok this just sickens me. It's people drumming up a false conspiracy and problem just to get gullible Anti SJWs to support something they otherwise wouldn't care about.

How many of these people would care about this game if they didn't think they were " Sticking it to the SJWs. "

First game sold about 300k
Second sold 140k
Third game sold 50k

There was no reason to even make the game let alone localize it since most people don't even want to play it, but now people are rushing to defend it.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Ok this just sickens me. It's people drumming up a false conspiracy and problem just to get gullible Anti SJWs to support something they otherwise wouldn't care about.

How many of these people would care about this game if they didn't think they were " Sticking it to the SJWs. "

First game sold about 300k
Second sold 140k
Third game sold 50k

There was no reason to even make the game let alone localize it since most people don't even want to play it, but now people are rushing to defend it.

There's literally tons of japanese games which sell about 50k and they keep being made and keep being localized, they're just really niche is all. Having various niches is fine, great, even. The japanese game niche is a very devoted one in particular.

 

[DemomanHusband]

...because they don't want to deal with the games journalism industry here that is dominated by bloggers who got grandfathered into where they are...

I don't think a handful of blogs with maybe 1,000 average views apiece are going to match a site like IGN or GiantBomb. From what I can tell, Play-Asia was trying to start a non-troversy to see how many easily-manipulated people (mostly men) were going to bite the bait.

I wouldn't call it a non-troversy, nor would I say it was particularly aimed at men who would be interested in the game. From what I've seen from watching the whole thing unfold, it seems it was a situation that arose from simply having an opinionated twitter persona running a company's page. It's kind of like Sonic the Hedgehog's twitter "hype-man" now, they have a lot of personality and aren't afraid to crack a joke or (in the Play-Asia twitter's case) simplify what's stated in a more or less complex statement.

I've never really been a fan of Dead or Alive up until the latest edition of 5, which has some pretty damn solid mechanics, but I can certainly see the appeal outside of fanservice for people who play Xtreme. It's got some dating sim elements alongside other general sim mechanics, and that draws a lot of people with free time. If I remember right, the Xtreme games did better in the U.S. than in Japan, or perhaps that's the series as a whole. Either way, poor sales projections have rarely stopped niche titles from being localized, it often comes down to western publisher branches not wanting to bother localizing it without cutting content, and I think Play-Asia was right to ruffle some feathers at the current trend of hating on sexualized media for merely existing and 'setting unreasonable expectations'.

 

[Winnosh]

Ok this just sickens me. It's people drumming up a false conspiracy and problem just to get gullible Anti SJWs to support something they otherwise wouldn't care about.

How many of these people would care about this game if they didn't think they were " Sticking it to the SJWs. "

First game sold about 300k
Second sold 140k
Third game sold 50k

There was no reason to even make the game let alone localize it since most people don't even want to play it, but now people are rushing to defend it.

There's literally tons of japanese games which sell about 50k and they keep being made and keep being localized, they're just really niche is all. Having various niches is fine, great, even. The japanese game niche is a very devoted one in particular.

Yes but this was a game almost no one was really screaming about, and what I'm saying is most of the people upset have probably never even played the series. I actually played the first one and second for work. Hated the games, and I actually like dating sims.

And no one was raging against this one because most SJWs steer clear of blatant things like Dating Sims and visual novels.

 

[Dosbilliam]

...because they don't want to deal with the games journalism industry here that is dominated by bloggers who got grandfathered into where they are...

I don't think a handful of blogs with maybe 1,000 average views apiece are going to match a site like IGN or GiantBomb. From what I can tell, Play-Asia was trying to start a non-troversy to see how many easily-manipulated people (mostly men) were going to bite the bait.

I don't think you understand, IGN and GiantBomb are exactly the people I'm talking about. The major gaming sites in the US are dominated by people who are just bloggers who where at the right place at the right time when the industry went through its massive shift in the late 90s/early 2000s from being a niche hobby into a mainstream form of entertainment.

Those are the sites least likely to complain about this game, since before this happened it was going to fly so far under the radar This War of Mine would have been looking down on it. There'd be no reason to since, for IGN at least, they're getting enough views on random Fallout 4 crap to not have needed to cover this before it became news due to Play-Asia doing just what I said.

If they did get to do it, maybe we'd get a PC release? That'd be cool.

Yes, I bought HuniePop. It's hilarious and very fun to play.

I've got the uncensored version myself. The women are fairly well-written, even if the fairy is a bit too bro-heim for me and the entire premise is a bit stalker-y.

...the current trend of hating on sexualized media for merely existing and 'setting unreasonable expectations'.

That's sort of missing all the nuance. Sexual characters are fine, as long as they're in the Bayonetta sense of being both obviously of inhuman proportions and they own it. Characters like the women in DoAX miss both those marks, even though the chesty bits aren't anywhere close to how they work IRL.

Basically, they need to be more than T&A for it to not be douchy, and these characters are literally just T&A.

 

[Naqel]

I guess HuniePop sold a whole lot better than I originally expected.

They do no crowdfunding on their next game, they have new artists working alongside the old ones(including VA's), and can afford to risk a style change that might alienate some of their existing fans...

And a million $ to spare on top of that.


HuniePop must have really done phenomenally(it's not even on mobile, for obvious reasons).

 

[DemomanHusband]

...the current trend of hating on sexualized media for merely existing and 'setting unreasonable expectations'.

That's sort of missing all the nuance. Sexual characters are fine, as long as they're in the Bayonetta sense of being both obviously of inhuman proportions and they own it. Characters like the women in DoAX miss both those marks, even though the chesty bits aren't anywhere close to how they work IRL.

Basically, they need to be more than T&A for it to not be douchy, and these characters are literally just T&A.

Well, here's the thing. Why does a sexual character have to be the 'wink wink nudge nudge we know it's ridiculous' sort for it to be considered acceptable? What's wrong with just plain sexy, especially if the people against it would rather not play the game in the first place? Also, I'm not really certain how you come to determine that the women of DOA 'don't own' their ridiculous proportions. I mean, Tina certainly seems to, she has an absolute ball being sexy in the ring. (Or at least trying to. Her English VA still gives me nightmares) Even her dad owns his absolute beefcake-ness, it seems that the Armstrong family has a history of absolutely owning their looks. I can kind of understand what you mean if you consider 'acting as if battling in a skimpy one-piece swimsuit is completely normal' to not really count as owning their sexiness, but I'd still say it's reaching.

 

[Norithics]

Basically, they need to be more than T&A for it to not be douchy, and these characters are literally just T&A.

Argh, no!
The whole issue from the start was the quantity, not the quality. There wasn't supposed to be a litmus test that all characters have to pass- it was the criticism of the trend that was supposed to gain traction so creators would be armed with that knowledge and be more likely to make numerically more nuanced characters.

Then for some reason the message got garbled and now it's a mandate on all projects?? No! God no! Staaaahhhp!

Diversity is where you put more in the pool, not swap out things you don't like for things you do.

 

[Dosbilliam]

...the current trend of hating on sexualized media for merely existing and 'setting unreasonable expectations'.

That's sort of missing all the nuance. Sexual characters are fine, as long as they're in the Bayonetta sense of being both obviously of inhuman proportions and they own it. Characters like the women in DoAX miss both those marks, even though the chesty bits aren't anywhere close to how they work IRL.

Basically, they need to be more than T&A for it to not be douchy, and these characters are literally just T&A.

Well, here's the thing. Why does a sexual character have to be the 'wink wink nudge nudge we know it's ridiculous' sort for it to be considered acceptable? What's wrong with just plain sexy, especially if the people against it would rather not play the game in the first place? Also, I'm not really certain how you come to determine that the women of DOA 'don't own' their ridiculous proportions. I mean, Tina certainly seems to, she has an absolute ball being sexy in the ring. (Or at least trying to. Her English VA still gives me nightmares) Even her dad owns his absolute beefcake-ness, it seems that the Armstrong family has a history of absolutely owning their looks. I can kind of understand what you mean if you consider 'acting as if battling in a skimpy one-piece swimsuit is completely normal' to not really count as owning their sexiness, but I'd still say it's reaching.

I should point out I've never actually played the series, nor do I really want to since fighting games or...whatever the hell DoAX is...are something I really find myself interested in. If they're like that in the main series, that's good. I just find myself skeptical that they're like that in a game that seems to be designed for jiggle physics and only jiggle physics, at least based on the parts of the game I know from the cutscenes and basic descriptions.

Basically, they need to be more than T&A for it to not be douchy, and these characters are literally just T&A.

Argh, no!
The whole issue from the start was the quantity, not the quality. There wasn't supposed to be a litmus test that all characters have to pass- it was the criticism of the trend that was supposed to gain traction so creators would be armed with that knowledge and be more likely to make numerically more nuanced characters.

Then for some reason the message got garbled and now it's a mandate on all projects?? No! God no! Staaaahhhp!

Diversity is where you put more in the pool, not swap out things you don't like for things you do.

That actually makes more sense, but I'd prefer it (as a proto-game designer myself) to go between something like the companions in Fallout New Vegas/4 in that they're really well-written and their actions could be predicted with a decent degree of accuracy...

...or Zhang He/Yuan Shao/everyone else in Dynasty Warriors where they're one-note characters, but that note is played really well. There is room for a middle-ground, but it'd be like the Uncanny Valley of characterization.

 

[Fox12]

The huniepop dev has a million dollars to toss around? Goddamn, screw being an artist, I'm trading in my integrity for big breasted anime women and crappy discount J-Pop.

"Do you know how many issue happening in video game industry with regard how to treat female in video game industry? We do not want to talk those thing here."

Yeah, I bet you don't. I like to picture him reading that in a sweaty, panicked tone.

 

[DemomanHusband]

I should point out I've never actually played the series, nor do I really want to since fighting games or...whatever the hell DoAX is...are something I really find myself interested in. If they're like that in the main series, that's good. I just find myself skeptical that they're like that in a game that seems to be designed for jiggle physics and only jiggle physics, at least based on the parts of the game I know from the cutscenes and basic descriptions.

Argh, no!
The whole issue from the start was the quantity, not the quality. There wasn't supposed to be a litmus test that all characters have to pass- it was the criticism of the trend that was supposed to gain traction so creators would be armed with that knowledge and be more likely to make numerically more nuanced characters.

Then for some reason the message got garbled and now it's a mandate on all projects?? No! God no! Staaaahhhp!

Diversity is where you put more in the pool, not swap out things you don't like for things you do.

That actually makes more sense, but I'd prefer it (as a proto-game designer myself) to go between something like the companions in Fallout New Vegas/4 in that they're really well-written and their actions could be predicted with a decent degree of accuracy...

...or Zhang He/Yuan Shao/everyone else in Dynasty Warriors where they're one-note characters, but that note is played really well. There is room for a middle-ground, but it'd be like the Uncanny Valley of characterization.

Well it's funny that you mention Dynasty Warriors, since Tecmo/Koei publishes it. I'm sure that it seems like a fairly tangential connection to make, but hey, I notice trends. Besides, it's kind of odd that you'd say the characters are 'all T&A' when you admit that you've never actually played a game of the main series or the spin-off series. (By the way, DOA is the main fighting game series, Xtreme is the Beach Volleyball.) All the characters, girls included, have personalities. The characters that have a presence in the story mode certainly are more fleshed out (for a degree of 'fleshed out' in a fighting game excuse plot, but you work with what you get I suppose,) while the later-edition inclusions can be hard to read thanks to a lack of presence outside of regular game modes. A few of the characters though, Nyotengu for example, are simply an excuse to include older movesets in the newer games, which is something I wish more series would do. Just throw in a character who knows a certain style a boss used to have for the sake of gameplay, it's great!

What really peeves me though is the idea that a game with fanservice must be developed only with the fanservice in mind. The mechanics in the early DOA games were wonky to be sure, but they gradually got better with every installment. Xtreme is a more cut-and-dry case, but that then leads back to the silly argument that a game designed around fanservice is bad in any sense of the word.

 

[Fappy]

HoniePot comes off as being completely clueless in these tweets/comments. I doubt any big dev would be comfortable handing the reins over to a group who doesn't even know what the localization license is worth.

 

[weirdee]

Basically, they need to be more than T&A for it to not be douchy, and these characters are literally just T&A.

Argh, no!
The whole issue from the start was the quantity, not the quality. There wasn't supposed to be a litmus test that all characters have to pass- it was the criticism of the trend that was supposed to gain traction so creators would be armed with that knowledge and be more likely to make numerically more nuanced characters.

Then for some reason the message got garbled and now it's a mandate on all projects?? No! God no! Staaaahhhp!

Diversity is where you put more in the pool, not swap out things you don't like for things you do.

There used to be more room in the market, but they were literally shoved out of the pool by AAA practices, so the pool does seem to have a limit, and things will have to be swapped out for others unless the pool was expanded somehow, but there's an ongoing issue where any new space is immediately occupied by AAA after it becomes viable. It's not as cut and dried as it sounds. There is no motivation or room for diversity without another expansion or purge.