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Forum - View topicClannad Kickstarter Ends With US$541,101
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grooven
Posts: 1428 Location: Canada |
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Yay go Clannad. I can only hope for the other novels to get translated like Angel Beats
 Many with the extra funds we can see Kappei route animated lol.
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2480 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Happy to be getting Clannad (I'm in for $100), but at the end of the day, it does seem a little nuts that Sekai had to go the Kickstarter route in order to bring over what may be the best-known and most-wanted of all Japanese visual novels (sorry, Fate/Stay Night, maybe you can be next). By more than tripling their initial goal, it makes you wonder what kind of risk needed to mitigated up-front through Kickstarter, and why they (or Mangagamer, JAST, etc.) couldn't have just committed the money up front to license and release this title. Was it the case that Key/Visual Art's needed to be shown that there was this level of interest in an English-language version of Clannad?
I know the hosts over on the Eroge Bus podcast have been pretty critical of Sekai for going to Kickstarter so often — it seems like it's their business model? — and they kind of have a point. It kind of obscures the fact that Mangagamer and JAST have been able to bring out major titles like ef and Steins;Gate without all the pledge-drive ballyhoo. Oh well, glad to be getting Clannad at any rate… |
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1529 Location: Sunny California |
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I'm happy for its fans. Hooray!
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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This was a long 60-days wait. Over half a million for the translation and publishing of the English version is a good feat.
A slight typo in the article, it stated that:
The numbers are -- KickStarter: $541,161 from 5,819 backers PayPal: $10,820 from 180 backers Total: $551,981 from 5,999 backers. Last edited by Hameyadea on Sat Jan 10, 2015 9:26 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Penguin_Factory
 Posts: 732 Location: Ireland |
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Don't like Clannad, but it's still amazing to see an anime Kickstarter get this much money. I never thought I'd see the day, honestly.
The show's fans must be super excited about this. Good for them! |
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nhat
Posts: 922 |
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Type-Moon VN next I hope....
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2480 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Little Witch Academia 2 did even better: $625,000. |
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partially
Posts: 702 Location: Oz |
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@invalidname
You have to remember that these companies aren't big. They generally don't make a lot of money to be able to throw around hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own cash. Just look at what Mangagamer and JAST gets, they are generally smaller titles, likely the ones they can work out deals where they aren't paying much up front. For a title like Clannad though that can demand a big upfront payment, they simply cannot afford it. Companies are risk averse, and a single one of these premium games going sour could sink them. I imagine JAST did not make a huge upfront outlay on S;G, although who knows, maybe they risked it. They did do the licence as cheap as they could though, as it was a very restrictive licence they received. They cannot even release the game on Steam for instance. Also you say there the "kickstarter route" as if it is something negative. There are many reasons to use it even if one does have the funds. A big one is the safety net. It is other peoples money you can throw around and use however you want. Also it provides a lot of free publicity. What do you think sounds better. "Look Clannad got licenced, cool I might buy that." or "Holy crap! Did you see Clannad, it's been licenced and doing really well, it has made a ton of money!" It generates a lot more discussion. Really there isn't much in the way of negatives for using Kickstarter. As long as they can consistently deliver what they promise, I see no problem even if they did make it their business model. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14886 |
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What's more impressive is not the money but the 6k backers.
So at least 6k people were willing to put some money where their....... mouth(?)........... is! |
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midori kou
Posts: 469 |
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The way I see it, a Kickstarter campaign guarantees that the Japanese company gets the money they need to distribute back to the voice actors and staff as well as reducing the net loss for the distributor (Sekai Project) for acquiring the rights to sell it to the Western audience.
If Sekai bought the license to Clannad upfront, sold the game, but didn't got a positive return in sales, that would reduce any possible chances of getting higher tier releases in the future. They'll be stuck in the red and any free money would be used to pay off anything they owe. Eventually, it becomes a slippery slope of losses. We've seen this happen too many times in the anime and manga industry. Tokyopop is an obvious example of licensing/distribution rights gone wrong. With Kickstarter, at least there's that cushion to avoid all of that. After all, this is a really tiny market. |
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2480 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Expenses for Clannad were cleared a decade ago with its original development and release. At this point, it's all gravy for Key.
I would argue that there is no higher tier release than Clannad. It has been the Great White Whale of VN licensing, and at this time a year ago, the premise of it ever coming out here was unthinkable.
But what you're describing is the entire rest of the anime/manga//VN market. Paying a license fee up-front (and possibly a percentage of subsequent revenues) and then making that back with direct sales or subscriptions is the business model of Funimation, Sentai, NIS America, Viz, Seven Seas, Yen Press, Vertical, Crunchyroll, Mangagamer, etc. etc. Some companies fail doing this, some don't. That's business. Perhaps part of the appeal of Kickstarter is that it moves the risk from the western licensor to the backers, who are shit out of luck if the project never ships. That's highly unlikely with Sekai Project and their well-established track-record, but what do you suppose the odds are at this point of the $300K-Kickstarted Megatokyo VN ever shipping? |
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Mizuki-Takashima
 Posts: 215 |
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I like the idea of visual novels making their way to Steam. I'm sure it's been done before, but I'd love to see other classics make their way to that platform as well! (I feel bad for those who may get dating sim and visual novel confused though)
That said, I'm very happy for Clannad. It's funny that this is taking place now seeing as how I've been watching the anime for the first time very recently! (I finished the first 16 episodes so far) I would have watched the show back when it first came out, but even when it was still new I remember Clannad being infamous for making people cry. I had enough problems, I didn't wanna go through all that! (I'm glad I waited...my hardened adult heart hasn't cried at all so far) |
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Ryvius213
Posts: 291 |
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Clannad is quite a behemoth of a visual novel for licensing, enough so that even JAST USA, who successfully licensed and released Steins;Gate, said there was a very low chance that they could afford it. One of the big things with JAST was that they likely cut a deal with Nitro+ for a partnership and licensed it as part of a set of different visual novels, even some of the less popular ones. I wouldn't be surprised if even Steins;Gate didn't come near the asking prices of things like Fate/Stay Night and Clannad.(the former in particular has been brought up countless times at industry panels and licensors ALWAYS say that Type Moon is completely out of their league)
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