Questions to VisualArt's/Key Answered!

Key News Blog Discussion
#1
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Sekai Project's dovac has posted to reddit, publishing the answers to the top questions submitted to the AMA written by VisualArt's president Takahiro Baba! Seven questions were chosen, and you can view the answers in the link below.

Click here to read the replies!

Were you satisfied with the questions asked and the responses? Here's hoping there will be many more opportunities in the future for the western Key fans to interact with Key and VisualArt's!

Also, a quick reminder that the CLANNAD Kickstarter ends in 35 hours! And if you can't afford to back the game right now, you can just pledge $1 now and add money on later to get CLANNAD from BackerKit at any time in the future. If you haven't been able to pledge yet, please consider it!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/clannad-official-english-release/posts/1102144

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://kazamatsuri.org/questions-to-visualartskey-answered/
#2

The reply to that first question was so PR doe… But the questions were actually better then what I thought they would be

#3

I’m pretty satisfied. Very professional responses but still pretty insightful. They take their work seriously~

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#4

“That all depends on the reception of CLANNAD’s English version.” That means if the release of Clannad is well endorsed, then we can expect an English release close to the original Japanese release of most of their VNs… Yup, buying 10 copies.

#5

“Really? I didn’t know that. I never had the opportunity to find out.” This sentence really suprised me. Like there are so many people who loves Key and all and yet they still cant see how much love ppl are giving them (from the west I mean). Well I guess I cant blame them since they are so busy but wow, I tought they would at least think t here is some kind of fanbase or something but naaah… hmm…

#6

From these responses plus everything else I’ve seen around, VisualArt’s seems to have quite high hopes for Sekai Project. What this means is that the success of CLANNAD will probably make or break any chances of seeing more VisualArt’s works released in English.

Basically, if CLANNAD fails (to either be successful or to be a good translation, as VA is hoping it to be), then we will probably never see any more VA works released in English. If it succeeds, though, well… I guess I should prepare my wallet for when that happens

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#7

You have to take those answers with a grain of salt. They license the anime, plus virtually every VN localization company has tried to sign them at some point. I’ll eat my hat if VisualArt’s never knew about the fan enthusiasm.

However, up until now, no one presented a convincing business case since claims of numerous fans don’t necessarily translate to money. Visual Art’s is well known for not wanting to go through with new things unless there’s proof of a good return.

In that regard, Steam Greenlight (lots of potential, plus good early numbers for MangaGamer and Sekai Project) and crowdfunding (money up front) have changed the situation.

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#8

Regarding writers, only Maeda (officially employed under the music division now, so he’s technically not a writer anymore) and Tonokawa (the young guy) are permanent employees. Most contributors are freelancers hired on a per-project basis to add extra scenarios.

That’s a contrast from the early days when they had multiple writers on board, but business directions change.