t seems like BL games are gradually disappearing

[ninnikuryona]

Oh it's Alcot that shut down sorry about that! AliceSoft shifted to gacha, and they closed the official store down (with games being unavailable bc of that lol) for payment processor troubles

i got so concerned for a moment LMAO this sucks for overseas fans. i heard japan wants to establish their own payment processor that isnt visa/mastercard? hopefully they succeed. also hoping other countries follow suit

The CN market especially has been investing heavily, while some JP companies lost the timing on it :(

true. the problem is that jp gachage still follow an old formula without trying to improve, which ultimately leaves them behind. most top gacha are non-jp. hoyo is chinese, nikke and blue archive are korean. meanwhile jp has fgo (11 years of age) and umamusume (an enormous ip). i wish they figured something soon D:

payment processing has also been a huge pain on that front, so it's not looking too bright for major eroge releases tbh...

also true. saw news earlier today that watamari 2 has issues with funds, despite not even being eroge? but also, the biggest gaming store aka steam somehow allows rance and FUCKING BLACKSOULS games on there (granted, both are butchered, but you know)? while still censoring the shit out of most jp eroge releases, WHILE promoting ai porn slop on their home page. i genuinely dont understand what is happening with gaming these days

 

[ninnikuryona]

saw news earlier today that watamari 2 has issues with funds, despite not even being eroge?

read some more on it, and apparently processors blocked devs' payment accounts? i really hope this is fake news, otherwise what the actual fuck

 

[khatruong1804]

Actually, I don't think BL games are really disappearing. There are still developers working on them, and some projects are probably still in development or going through a lot of experimentation before they're ready to be released. We just don't get to see those projects yet. After all, I don't think any developer wants to put out a game that feels unfinished, buggy, or fails to live up to what they envisioned. So maybe it's less about BL games disappearing and more about the development process becoming quieter and less visible.

 

[failedwebsite]

Hmm, I cannot say I have not seen such discussion, but do you think it is really the defining feature of the fujo community in general?

It's not - that poster just likes shitting on fujoshi for no reason.

I do think Japanese single-player BLVN big studios are falling. Not completely, but it seems there are fewer big releases than there were in the 2010s. Could be a combo of R18 and PC; could be that BLVN players just do not have enough purchasing power for a big company to survive. If you check out these filters, in comparison to otome games, it is just not as many https://vndb.org/v?q=&ch=&f=053gja184on3d

I've noticed that too. Fewer VNs from established developers and plenty of (typically short) games from no-name brands/people (I wonder whether using the term 'doujin' is appropriate if it's released by a company, no matter how small?). I also don't think it's the lack of PP, more like that power shifting towards other media... Maybe gacha is eating up all that spare time/money?

ok i'll shut up before this turns into a rant about how making a whole game about bro-play is not that interesting

No, please continue! So creators lurking here can learn! (Yep, I'll go with that )

Big studios like Nitroplus moved on from eroge; their last title was Mojika I think? And Slow Damage seemed like a "final chapter" in their BL releases as well.

If that's true, then losing Nitro is such a huge blow. Moe VNs are aplenty, but seeing the niche of sick, dark stories getting even smaller hurts.

I read the recent interview with Gen Urobuchi (Saya no Uta author Gen Urobuchi thinks audiences no longer crave "poison" from fiction, but an "antidote" to reality) where he states that consumers these days no longer crave edgier content, everything has to be 'comfy' and escapist. We've entered some dark times of saccharine brainrot, I'm afraid.