Mangagamer partners with Alicesoft to cockblock the Rance series

[sanahtlig 10]

Mangagamer partners with Alicesoft to prevent the Rance series from being released in English

 

Preview (hyperlinks disabled):

 

This year's Anime Expo is over, and the news is in: Mangagamer has partnered with Alicesoft, bringing an end to a Golden Age of Alicesoft translations that included Daibanchou! Big Bang Age, Toushin Toushi I and II, Rance 01-04, Kichikuou Rance, Sengoku Rance, as well as several lesser known titles.

 

To stake their territory, Mangagamer has announced Beat Blades Haruka, a relatively unknown nukige with gameplay elements. The story centers on a delinquent ninja who grants superpowers to female heroines with the power of his dick. Players will need all the milky liquid they can muster to face down the Evil Organization which terrorizes the city, culminating in Power Rangers-like confrontations with each Monster of the Week. The gameplay itself utilizes a complex stat-based system with the success of actions determined by random dice rolls, making the system difficult to get into yet easy to master. Upon victory nothing particularly interesting happens, while defeat is rewarded with gratuitous and highly varied rape scenes, which are the game's main selling point.

 

Note that this article is satire (some readers never caught on to that). I made a (real) info thread for the game here.

[IllyrioM 11]

I don't really see why this partnering should stop any fan translation from taking place. It's all in the translators hands, isn't it?

[Ivan 147]

I don't really see why this partnering should stop any fan translation from taking place. It's all in the translators hands, isn't it?

Depends on company. JAST is notoriously famous for acquiring licenses and sitting on them for years. ( Sumaga for example had very advanced progress of translation project before JAST bought the rights and they had to take fantranslation down. It was six years ago. Sumaga isn't out yet.).

 

As for translators - most people who do this want to bring certain title to the western audience. Once an official translation gets announced there's really no point in working on second, separate translation, isn't there? Also, there is legal stuff involved - fantranslations are quite grey area - as long as the Japanese company had no intention of bringing title over, it's "victimless crime", but if western company announces the plans, whole dynamic changes.

[IllyrioM 11]

As for translators - most people who do this want to bring certain title to the western audience. Once an official translation gets announced there's really no point in working on second, separate translation, isn't there?

 

Yes, of course. But, in this case, there hasn't been any announcement, only a partnering, and yet all the translators put their translations under lock even though a couple of them were more then 80% done. Why not finish the stuff and put it out there? Obviously they're hoping to get money for it. Good for them i guess (if it pans out). Seems a shame though that the translators of this type of games are scarce. It would be funny if some group/person took it upon themselves to translate said games and trolled them out of their hoped comission, just as they have trolled the people looking at those translation percentages for a long time. Not that i'm an entitled smartass or anything, i'm just looking at it from the perspective of someone who spent a long time on various modding comunities making mods, and as you said/implied, yes, you actually do that kind of thing simply for the fun of doing it (then again, i never had any prospects of making money with it so who knows? ha!).

 

Also, there is legal stuff involved - fantranslations are quite grey area - as long as the Japanese company had no intention of bringing title over, it's "victimless crime", but if western company announces the plans, whole dynamic changes.

 

Well, out of sight, out of mind, doesn't it?

[sanahtlig 10]

The most active translators involved with the Rance series (Arunaru and Tulip Goddess Maria) have been hired by Mangagamer. Many fan translators start their projects to bring attention to certain titles or companies, in hopes of an official release someday. It's highly frowned upon in the community to start or continue work on a fan translation when the Japanese company has shown an interest in English releases.

 

Some notable examples of groups who defied this rule-of-thumb:

1) Aaeru of Fuwanovel (Da capo 3): Ended up C&D'd by Circus, widely criticized by the community, and disappeared without a trace 6 months later

2) Amaterasu Translations (MuvLuv Alternative): Caused a huge stir when negotiations with AGE fell through and they released their patch without AGE's consent, delaying AGE from releasing their products in English for almost 5 years. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien was to be AGE's first English release.

3) TLwiki: They appear to have some sort of under-the-table agreement with Nitroplus to release fan translations of works Nitroplus isn't interested in releasing in English (e.g., DraKoi).