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

[EndlessSporadic]

Well, that was certainly not a news story I was expecting to read.

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

I'll be honest - the game itself wasn't bad. Nothing amazing, but certainly of better quality than the rest of the stuff out there. It was also serious Youtube fodder, so that earned them a few sales. While I can't say I really enjoyed it I was not disappointed with my purchase.

Back on topic, I find it funny how they state they are concerned about the portrayal of women in video games yet they still made the game anyway. We all know you don't really care, and you lose nothing by publishing it in America. The people who want it will buy it, and any negative press means nothing if you were releasing the game in other countries anyway.

There is nothing wrong with putting a woman in a bikini as long as you give her a real personality and character. If you are so concerned about how you portray women, how about treating the characters in your games as women and not, you know, sex objects? Women on a beach/at a resort in bikinis playing volleyball? They exist. Everywhere. It is a legitimate reason to put a woman in a bikini. Nothing to be ashamed about.

 

[Erttheking]

Uh....why is it I get the feeling that in his rush to make an offer he's making an investment that most likely won't see a good return?

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Well, he's keen as mustard; I'll give him that. I'd be more in his corner if he hadn't pissed away the goodwill made by HuniePop by shitting the bed with the art style of its sequel. Still if he wants to have a crack at distributing it, I say let him.

Though if I were TK I might have gone halfway and said "No boxed release, but a subtitled version will be available on PSN for customers outside Asia". There, everyone wins a bit.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Man, this debacle's getting more entertaining by the minute! Gonna have to get me some popcorn...

I would love this to end in a Hatred-type scenario, where the buzz around the game ends up making the game sell like hotcakes. Just to totally fuck with people. That would be the consumers truly showing their power.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Though if I were TK I might have gone halfway and said "No boxed release, but a subtitled version will be available on PSN for customers outside Asia". There, everyone wins a bit.

Yeah, I can't exactly see them really losing out on much if they took this sort of route, especially considering that an English-subtitled version already exists.

I'm not sure of the costs involved in simply making the game available for different regions but I can't think it'd be that bad of an investment for KT when they still release quite a number of games in the West that seem to fit an even smaller niche than DoAX3. At least, smaller from my perspective; could very much be wrong on that.

Personally...couldn't care less about this game, but that's my two cents on the situation.

Uh....why is it I get the feeling that in his rush to make an offer he's making an investment that most likely won't see a good return?

As was said earlier by someone else in the thread, making an actual offer or investment wasn't really the point. It's about gaining (more) favor and ground with a certain crowd. It isn't really too difficult to figure out the identity of said crowd. Which I may or may not be a part of at times. I'm sorry, I really enjoyed HuniePop.

Anyway, I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been a more substantial statement from KT themselves on this, besides the quick redacting of what was said to be the cause for not localizing DoAX3 in the West. Maybe it is just a cynical marketing scheme between Play-Asia and KT to drive up import sales as a mutually beneficial arrangement without the burden of localization costs, but that's just a bit too far out of the realm of the believable for me right now.

Play-Asia by themselves though? Yeah, without a doubt. Trying to cash in on those sweet anti-SJW bills. Pretty damn scummy.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

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.

He's a creep looking for creep cred with his creep buddies, it's not a serious offer because the game isn't the point.

Yeah, that's probably the case.

I just learned about this silly DoA nontroversy tonight. This is Hatred all over again.

Sillier actually. Hatred sold because certain people criticized it. This is happening because certain people are mad that other people might criticize it at some future point.

I can't wait for the next one where people get mad that certain people are going to get mad that other people might criticize a game.

 

[VanQ]

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.

I hate that a game has to sell 5million copies on day 1 to be considered a success these days. There was once a time where a 100,000 player MMO was considered a beast of a success. Let's be honest here, with a game like DOAX, they can probably recoup their expenses at around 20k copies at full price. They're not the most mechanically deep games out there, they don't have huge sprawling open worlds like Fallout 4 or Skyrim. It's a bunch of 3D model and animation assets that they already have from the regular DOA titles, put into another game with different menus and a couple of sports/beach related minigames.

 

[Davroth]

You know, this whole position wouldn't be nearly as polarising if there weren't people threatening others over dismissively using the term "SJW". But by now the sides are so defined that there's any minutia lost, so it's not really worth arguing about. That said, a game not coming out and getting censored for a western release is always a net negative to me. You, the consumer, can still sort out what you want and don't want to buy, but reducing selection is not something that should be celebrated.

 

[Winnosh]

You know, this whole position wouldn't be nearly as polarising if there weren't people threatening others over dismissively using the term "SJW". But by now the sides are so defined that there's any minutia lost, so it's not really worth arguing about. That said, a game not coming out and getting censored for a western release is always a net negative to me. You, the consumer, can still sort out what you want and don't want to buy, but reducing selection is not something that should be celebrated.

My point is that the game constantly had diminishing returns. And that was back when the core DOA series actually sold well. The Current DOA fighting games sell like crap so why would you think a niche Gravaure simulator which always sold a fraction of the series that is already struggling would be worth producing?

Sorry was replying to the person above you.

 

[Mikeybb]

Well, I've no interest in buying the game at all, but I'm glad to see there's a chance it'll be available for those who have a love for improbably violent jigglephysics and volleyball.

 

[stormtrooper9091]

It's a win-win for the devs, worst case scenario, they are not really gonna go bankrupt if the game bombs. Why not

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I'd buy it. I've no shame in admitting that I enjoyed the series previous, and yes it wasn't just the mini-games. Yep and I don't need to defend my tastes either, just say that I'd buy it because I like the games and the content, just because of how ridiculously over-the-top it its. I've also enjoyed the crap out of DOA as a fighting game.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I see the misinformation and misunderstandings are gaining traction once again.

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,

Citation needed. As far as I've seen people are just sitting back and going "oh its OBVIOUS they're lying" and having absolutely nothing to back that up.

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.

Quite so, good post.

Also literally nothing else you said is relevant, this isn't DOA, the latest of which came out this year just fine (well not fine, buried under microtransactions, but you know), this is the volleyball shit. Shit which has never sold well in the West. If they don't bring it over (and they probably won't because it's not worth it), that isn't going to stop you from getting an English version if you really want to.

It has been pointed out many, many, many times in the various threads on this that:
1. This series actually sold better in the West; so they'd actually be cutting out their biggest market by not localising it. Bizarre considering they already have an English translation done for the Asian version.
2. "its not worth it" can be applied to a LOT of games Tecmo-Koei has published, at least from the point of view of a huge publisher. They localise a lot of niche game series that, whilst typically well received, don't exactly sell GTA or Fallout levels of copies.

As a result the "its not worth it, the game doesn't sell enough is all" argument makes absolutely zero sense as an alternative reason to the reason explicitly stated by the PR people for the development team. That a bunch of people think is a lie because it raises uncomfortable questions for them.

Back on topic, I find it funny how they state they are concerned about the portrayal of women in video games yet they still made the game anyway.

You missed the point of the statement. Eastern developers have for years been very free with their depictions of any characters and frankly tend to end up producing a startlingly diverse range of characters as a result; because they're allowed to do what they want. They're not "concerned" about their portrayal of women because it doesn't make sense to be concerned about it from their point of view.

What they're concerned about is being sent harrassment and being lambasted in the western press and possibly even sent death threats (come on, we ALL know that's going to happen from at least a few lunatics). And they're concerned about that because of the massive conservatively sex-negativism that has been going on in recent years.

Sillier actually. Hatred sold because certain people criticized it. This is happening because certain people are mad that other people might criticize it at some future point.

Actually people are mad that the harrassment and abuse that's been thrown around by conservatively-minded individuals for the past couple of years over any depictions of sex or titillation are literally Satan incarnate has resulted in a developer deciding not to import a niche game. Purely out of fear of being attacked and not wanting to put up with the inevitable.

Strawmanning that its "people are mad because it might get criticised" is grossly misrepresenting the situation.



Also as a side thing: I read someone saying that Tecmo-Koei have backtracked on their statement with what was in this news article. You're fundamentally misunderstanding what they said. They HAVEN'T said this isn't the reason for it not coming across. What they HAVE said is that the PR person in question shouldn't have said it was due to specific people.

i.e. its a case of "we're sorry that you heard about that" than a "no, this was an incorrect statement". Which is frankly all the more worrying.

 

[Fox12]

Actually people are mad that the harrassment and abuse that's been thrown around by conservatively-minded individuals for the past couple of years...

....

Strawmanning that its "people are mad because it might get criticised" is grossly misrepresenting the situation.

I find this rather ironic.

Can we please stop pretending that this is about anti-sex conservatives vs. free minded liberals? We all know that's not true. I mean, have you heard country music? It's largely been liberals vs. liberals. And it's never been about prudes, or people being anti-sex. It's been about how women are, or are not, being presented as sex objects, and about how some people find that offensive.

In any case, I find it funny that developers are learning to use politics to sell bad games. "Oh no, we're so scared we're going to be oppressed. There's a vague possibility that someone may, at some point, offer perfectly valid criticism. Something something Social Justice Warriors." I mean, this is the industry where people get death threats for altering a shotgun in COD. Report it to the police and move on. I find it hard to believe that they're not doing this for financial reasons. They're either lying because they don't think this game will sell, or they're hoping to drum up support for an otherwise bland and lifeless game.

 

[Superbeast]

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,

Citation needed. As far as I've seen people are just sitting back and going "oh its OBVIOUS they're lying" and having absolutely nothing to back that up.

https://twitter.com/koeitecmoeurope/status/669507094584950784

Developer saying the CM who made the Facebook post blaming "SJWs" was wrong to blame anyone for the game not being localised (as they said back in August). I have also heard that the Facebook post and others by said CM have been deleted from the Facebook pages in question.

++

Also, Play-Asia is being incredibly childish about this too, both in posts and re-tweets:

https://twitter.com/playasia/status/669498158573981697

https://twitter.com/playasia/status/669740920326127616

https://twitter.com/playasia/status/669526236784267264/photo/1

https://twitter.com/SainguinLibras/status/669373637221154816/photo/1

That last re-tweet...what the hell has Anita Sarkeesian got to do with this particular instance?

It really seems like they are courting the "anti-SJW" crowd and drumming up fake controversy.

 

[FredTheUndead]

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,

Citation needed. As far as I've seen people are just sitting back and going "oh its OBVIOUS they're lying" and having absolutely nothing to back that up.

That last re-tweet...what the hell has Anita Sarkeesian got to do with this particular instance? It really seems like they are courting the "anti-SJW" crowd and drumming up fake controversy.

Because they are.

 

[weirdee]

Honestly, the expansion angle is the only way we're getting anywhere, and that doesn't involve throwing people out of the pool. We've gotta convince more people to get in.

The main issue is that the majority of people occupying the pool either don't care enough to make any kind of effort towards that end or don't want to expand the pool because they're convinced that it will end up throwing them out of the pool (the ol' "I've got mine" syndrome). The other issue is that many larger developers seem to think that they have to continue practicing extreme exclusion (for either mainstream or false marketed diversity) in order to stay viable in the market, because of what happened in the past, even though that's counterproductive to growth.

The biggest future hurdle, though, is that any new space needs to be protected from being co-opted by existing groups for the purpose of becoming another part of the same garbage that the new space was trying to avoid. This becomes increasingly difficult when AAA already occupies such a wide area that scale becomes the issue for anything new. However, we're already seeing decay affecting such an expensive occupation (there have been an increasing number of rereleases over new content due to nostalgia being more profitable than revealing that you've strip mined the current generation and cannot produce anything of value), and even though a purge is potentially dangerous and undesirable, it will eventually happen if no other options are explored, much like the ongoing cycle of extremism, instability, and destruction occurring in the real world due to inaction.

 

[Areloch]

That last re-tweet...what the hell has Anita Sarkeesian got to do with this particular instance? It really seems like they are courting the "anti-SJW" crowd and drumming up fake controversy.

Gotta ask, but what are you even referring to?

Are you referring to the one reply with the 'Anita eating popcorn' clip?
Or are you referring to the 'Chrono Triggered' image? Because a) that's not Anita, and b) the Triggered image macro is a running meme for a looooong time now.

 

[Superbeast]

Gotta ask, but what are you even referring to?

Are you referring to the one reply with the 'Anita eating popcorn' clip?
Or are you referring to the 'Chrono Triggered' image? Because a) that's not Anita, and b) the Triggered image macro is a running meme for a looooong time now.

Eh, I thought it was an old picture of Anita, because that meme comes up in virtually every discussion about her that I've seen online, for a long time as you state, so I assumed it had something to do with her. My mistake.