It's a sad day for people who love weeb trash visual novels, as Sekai Project laid off everyone at their main office today.
This seems like a savage cost cutting move, of the type doesn't ususally happen unless there's a real cirisis going on.

Edit: As per official press release, the main office apaprently was mostly marketing folk. i guess they're banking on these games selling themselves or something ?

Curious to see how this plays out further, hope those affected can find new jobs quickly.

Edit:
Better official statement here:
https://sekaiproject.com/2018/08/13/official-statement/

First Official statement here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/tokyo-chronos-a-new-vr-mystery-visual-novel-game/posts/2262566

Twitter posts from those affected paint a slightly different story:
https://twitter.com/DancingQueen_DQ/status/1029094072168853504
https://twitter.com/search?q=sekai%20project&src=typd

6 years ago*

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So, will the Humble "Sekai bonepick last cash grab" rebundle be ready by tomorrow or are we going to have to wait a week?

6 years ago
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I'm torn. I despise sekai and am glad to see them lose workforce, but on the other hand, those are people :(

6 years ago
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Why do you despise them? Honest question.

6 years ago
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Those "games" are trash and shouldn't be on steam, make gamers look like pervs, etc

EDIT : Wow.... so many butthurt weebs

6 years ago*
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Are you discriminating against pervs? And does playing crappy FPS games make gamers look like mass murderers?

6 years ago
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That makes about as much sense as saying "porn makes TV owners look like pervs".

6 years ago
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No, since the individual in question is generalizing all visual novels, it'd be more equivalent to "romance movies make TV owners look like pervs". Not every film based around romantic encounters is going to have a sex scene, and not every one of those sex scenes is going to be explicit. Of course, being able to properly distinguish details outside of abstract generalizations is a key foundation of higher intelligence, so logical sensibility isn't necessarily something you're going to be able to hold onto when forgoing the more nuanced considerations of complex matters. To rephrase that, overstated generalizations are typically a sign that things haven't been considered well in the first place.

6 years ago
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Fair enough!

6 years ago
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LOL, if you think that about Sekai, then don't even try Dharker Studios. :D
They also have a lot of proper games as well, not just Nekopara

6 years ago
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As I recall, the common sentiment is that Sekai rushed projects and released to subpar results. Googling it, this seems to offer a decent glimpse into some of the general considerations.

6 years ago
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Pretty sure I'm not the only one thinking they always seemed to have had an impossible amount of projects going on...

6 years ago*
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Endless projects as they always had something popping out round the corner.

6 years ago
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...and even though they claim this isn't going to affect any of them... at this point, I just wonder.

6 years ago
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Anyrhing could change within a day or two, you never know.

6 years ago
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That's what I'm afraid of. Personally I couldn't care less about all the Kickstarter stuff, since I never took part in that, but it would be a shame to lose a somewhat established company that localizes visual novels...

6 years ago
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Well, that sucks. Besides them who do we really have... That SakuraGames hack that just runs games through Google Translate?

Seems lots of people are cheering this on Twitter, but it'll be a serious blow to the VN scene and I can't see much good coming from it aside far poorer translations :(

6 years ago
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MangaGamer and JAST USA are two other well-known VN publishers that have been active for years now.

6 years ago
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Seems JAST is very small-scale (handful titles)... none even wishlisted by me 0_o
Fair enough on Mangagamer... I generally associate them more with their own site though, but it seems a fair number of Games on Steam are also by them (damn those useless pos game publisher pages Steam made though, lists of old where so much better)

6 years ago
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Personally, I'm more into the idea of buying physical copies... would love to have my own small collection soon. That includes lots of titles not released on Steam for multiple reasons.

6 years ago
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Both JAST USA and MangaGamer have a vast amount of visual novels, but most of them are not things you will find on the steam store at any point for various reasons

6 years ago
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Literally what I meant to convey in my previous reply.

6 years ago
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Oh yeah those publisher pages are just bad..it's a pain to go through all releases - especially because you can't sort games there like you were able to before....
I'm just for once glad that there are lazy publishers who didn't make their pages so far...those are still in these neat lists and without the crap around them.

6 years ago
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Honestly, that's what they get for licensing every damn VN on the planet and just releasing less than half of them, and the ones that they do release have either a shit translation, a ton of programming errors or typos, not to mention the endless kickstarters that, as far as I know, haven't delivered on their promises either.

But those poor employers didn't deserve that, it's not their fault and I hope they get another job soon, be that in the VN industry or elsewhere, I wish them the best.

6 years ago
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every damn VN on the planet

I mean, they did call it Sekai Project, gotta live up to the name :P

6 years ago
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So that's why they manage money terribly, huh? The name is the key here!! They just want to show-off!

Now in all seriousness, thanks, you made me laught with that. I appreciate it.

6 years ago
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:)

6 years ago
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I hope that doesn't mean bad things for "fault - SILENCE THE PEDANT" or they can get another publisher

6 years ago
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Hm, on one hand, they do all that Sakura stuff, that looks really bad (do correct me if I am wrong, never played any of them).

That said.... hold on... they did publish Root Double, right? That was a great game, with possibly the best presented...

(very very light spoiler)
plot twist

...I have ever seen, in any media whatsoever.... ;)

So, not just weeb trash stuff, I think. Maybe. Don't know. I would miss them, I guess.

6 years ago*
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Apparently, Winged Cloud (the devs for the Sakura series) has had an on again-off again relationship with Sekai Project over the years. Winged Cloud currently self-publishes their works.

6 years ago
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That sucks for the staff, hopefully they find jobs soon.

So he basically got rid of his direct staff and kept anyone that was developing games for the company.

6 years ago
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Options > Skip all text > wait some seconds > 100% game...

6 years ago
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Welp, most vn shouldn't be called "games" since there is no interaction, so those are just picture books. But making another category on steam would make no sense, since some vn have gameplay. So how much gameplay would be needed to consider vn as a game and not as a picture book?

6 years ago
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The interaction and gameplay happens between chair and keyboard.

6 years ago
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Well in this case paper book would be also a game, but it doesn't.

6 years ago
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It doesn't use a keyboard or even mouse for clicking. :)

6 years ago
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Sigh, so reading the same book in pdf reader would make it a game?

6 years ago
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Stop taking it so seriously :)

6 years ago
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I can't. I need to work for my "you must be funny at parties" status.

6 years ago
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There are series like Corpse Party and Ace Attorney, which have entries in VNDB, according to them, by a huge stretch; pretty much only because if someone deleted said entries, another user would add them again.

6 years ago
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Well a decent VN normally has different story paths and endings at least..

6 years ago
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Isn't that what any normal story-driven game would have? Besides, there are also kinetic novels, which don't give you any choices and only invite to read through the story they offer.

6 years ago
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I want to give my argument, but I've seen AvidWriter's comment's reply and I can foresaw weebs and non-weebs will gonna bully me out

6 years ago
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