The future of Cave

[Observer]

The only protip I know really works involves TF2 hats. Best way to get more people into the genre. Having them stay is another story. The problem is that CAVE might have an issue "MAN"nconomizing its finances, right? Perhaps they should lolify them more? Just kidding, just kidding you bloody serious business crowd.

Other than that, I get the feeling we will see another DDP or one of the older games getting re-released like Guwange... but it would be killer to get another original title.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

The yearly Cave festivals, if there are no arcade games, will have whatever games they are making. You can go plug in your Windows phone and play the matsuri version of Instant Brain.

[brentsg]

The only reasons they even HAVE anything for 360 or iOS that anyone cares about is their previous arcade development.

The only reason anyone attends their festivals or buys any fanservice goods is their previous arcade development.

The only reason anyone gives half a shit about their new niche titles is their previous arcade development.

If they leave it behind they deserve to go the way of Irem.

[kernow]

The cries of a million goobers from the west will persuade them otherwise

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Nobody claimed to be fixing the situation.

[Matskat]

WOW...that was fast...I was creating the new thread regarding Cave's financial forecast news...

"no more arcade development"


????


OMGZ!!!

On the brighter side :/ there are 2 shooters planned, plus I'm still holding out hope for:

1. DDPDFK US release
2. MUSHI FUtari Matsuri 1.4 Disc or GoD release
3. Ibara Kuro? (riiiiiight :/ )
4. FEVER! XBLA? WTF? No news? Cancelled?


Well..back to playing Raizing games....out! I'm not speaking to Cave right now....

[Deca]

Yeah what the hell is going on with Feveron anyway? Wasn't M2 handling the port as well? I don't care for the game but I'm excited any time M2 does anything.

I'm curious what the Japanese response to this news is, can anyone enlighten us?

[dan76]

The only reasons they even HAVE anything for 360 or iOS that anyone cares about is their previous arcade development.

The only reason anyone attends their festivals or buys any fanservice goods is their previous arcade development.

The only reason anyone gives half a shit about their new niche titles is their previous arcade development.

If they leave it behind they deserve to go the way of Irem.

This!

[Sumez]

The only reason anyone gives half a shit about their new niche titles is their previous arcade development.

OR!....

...maybe a horse racing game on Facebook isn't at niche as you'd have hoped it is.

[brentsg]

The only reason anyone gives half a shit about their new niche titles is their previous arcade development.

OR!....

...maybe a horse racing game on Facebook isn't at niche as you'd have hoped it is.

I don't hope anything. The only thing more annoying on the web besides Facebook is games on Facebook. If they go in that direction, I don't personally care all that much. I've only got so much disposable time and plenty of games to play.

I do feel for the developers though. I can't imagine that folks who were once rock stars in their own genre, with crazy fans and such.. could find satisfaction coding Facebook horse racing or dating sim titles. But hey, this is Japan. They don't have to be satisfied at work, they only need to avoid suicide.

[Aliquantic]

Do the lead STG programmers at Cave even work on their social games? I'm not going to get too close for comfort and look at the credits for their Facebook things, but Cave is a big company (150 employees or so) relative to their STG department, and it'd seem a bit inefficient to make PCB programmers work on social network things.

Actually, has anyone even heard anything about the Cave STG team recently? It seems it's only been Asada and Asada and Asada, aside from that Yagawa interview some months ago... can someone check they haven't been locked up in a closet by accident

[THE]

Cave: crates shmup for x360 sells 10.000 units
5pb: crates graphic novel game for x360 sells 300.000 units

-> Cave crates Instant Brain for x360 sells more than 100.000(?) units

The switch from iOS to WP7/ boggles my mind though


>Do the lead STG programmers at Cave even work on their social games?

Very unlikely, after programming 20 years 16 bit 2d games, they are not qualified to do work like this.
Isn't IKD a co founder of Cave and member of the board anyway? He probably just does what he wants todo...

[brentsg]

Do the lead STG programmers at Cave even work on their social games? I'm not going to get too close for comfort and look at the credits for their Facebook things, but Cave is a big company (150 employees or so) relative to their STG department, and it'd seem a bit inefficient to make PCB programmers work on social network things.

Actually, has anyone even heard anything about the Cave STG team recently? It seems it's only been Asada and Asada and Asada, aside from that Yagawa interview some months ago... can someone check they haven't been locked up in a closet by accident

Well one would think that if the prognosticators are correct and there will be no more arcade development, then they will repurpose those folks. I guess they could just lay them off.

[mrsmiley381]

Do the lead STG programmers at Cave even work on their social games? I'm not going to get too close for comfort and look at the credits for their Facebook things, but Cave is a big company (150 employees or so) relative to their STG department, and it'd seem a bit inefficient to make PCB programmers work on social network things.

Actually, has anyone even heard anything about the Cave STG team recently? It seems it's only been Asada and Asada and Asada, aside from that Yagawa interview some months ago... can someone check they haven't been locked up in a closet by accident

Well one would think that if the prognosticators are correct and there will be no more arcade development, then they will repurpose those folks. I guess they could just lay them off.

As someone who's gone from programming real-time collision detection to database entry manipulation, I can tell you that those talented folks with 10+ years of coding experience can probably adjust just fine to a different programming style and environment. Unless, of course, they are so entrenched in bullet patterns that they can't think any other way, but I doubt that.

Wasn't there another shooter company that was popular for a while and started making games for other markets, only to eventually go bankrupt? I looked up everyone I could but couldn't find anything.

Whatever. Everyone should calm down. This isn't an announcement claiming that CAVE is dying. It's just some numbers.

[Zeron]

Most people dont give a shit about CAVE as a brand name it is IKD,Ichimura,YGW and Joker Jun we care about.

[Elixir]

Novel games are very easy to create. It's literally just a background (even this is sometimes a heavily photoshopped picture from real life), character image, script and engine. There's also a possibility of huge profit too, if the novel becomes a hit. There's no hardware, hardware limitations to worry over, or port accuracy to worry about. But still very niche.

5pb's works typically sell under 20,000 units, but there's the case of Steins;Gate, which has sold over 200,000 copies. It's also one of the best novel games in recent years, and these don't come along too often.

Instant Brain sounds unique, but I'm honestly more interested in root double. I'm not interested in buying popular games, but rather titles that I'm interested in because of what they are.

I believe Cave are currently experimenting with the novel genre. The success of Instant Brain will probably influence their decision in releasing future novels, but with how these are written, you're looking at one every two years (possibly longer). You can't just create 60, 80 hours worth of text and keep it interesting overnight.

-> Cave crates

I'll take 200.

[Zeron]

Instant Brain sounds unique, but I'm honestly more interested in root double. I'm not interested in buying popular games, but rather titles that I'm interested in because of what they are.

Knowing how amazing CAVEs story telling and view on humanity is from the DonPachi series Instant Brain must be one gritty and horrifying novel with a bunch of conspiracies and secret organisations.

[Elixir]

gritty and horrifying novel with a bunch of conspiracies and secret organisations.

You hit the nail on the head, it's a murder mystery.

[Observer]

gritty and horrifying novel with a bunch of conspiracies and secret organisations.

You hit the nail on the head, it's a murder mystery.

mmm, so target audience will the similar to the ones that like chaos;head and steins;gate, that kind of visual novel seems to be the only one that works outside of H VNs nowadays? Unless Key visual novels stopped being H with Re:Write. I don't know much of the genre outside of what the japanese circle I'm helping with told me (and that is, that it's a very niche genre indeed and extremely hard to market).

The initial platform of choice seem rather unusual. Really, this kind of thing usually gets a PC release first (due to the pretty much nonexistent system requirements, as stated previousl), then it's ported to other platforms.

[Sumez]

Actually, has anyone even heard anything about the Cave STG team recently? It seems it's only been Asada and Asada and Asada, aside from that Yagawa interview some months ago... can someone check they haven't been locked up in a closet by accident

I just felt like quoting this.

[Elixir]

mmm, so target audience will the similar to the ones that like chaos;head and steins;gate, that kind of visual novel seems to be the only one that works outside of H VNs nowadays?

H stuff (eroge) doesn't work because it can't be released outside of PC without seriously gimping the original material, which is bad for sales. Some stuff (ie. Cross Channel) is actually better without it, and has been released on PS2, PS3, PSP, 360, and PC. Asada knows Chiyomaru (head of 5pb) directly, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're working together on Instant Brain.

Horror stuff to any extent works perfectly fine because at worst they'll get a CERO Z rating, which Microsoft is fine with.

Unless Key visual novels stopped being H with Re:Write. I don't know much of the genre outside of what the japanese circle I'm helping with told me (and that is, that it's a very niche genre indeed and extremely hard to market).

Rewrite's selling on the premise of Ryukishi (Umineko (sound novel), Higurashi) and Romeo Tanaka (Cross Channel, highly acclaimed) writing the scenarios together. There's no H, it's more about plot. I have no idea if it's any good, apparently not though.

The initial platform of choice seem rather unusual. Really, this kind of thing usually gets a PC release first (due to the pretty much nonexistent system requirements, as stated previousl), then it's ported to other platforms.

As above. The PS3 is basically awkward to deal with, and Sony are more restrictive with their games being CERO Z. The novels are 2D, so Sony America isn't going to allow that, maybe as DLC if some company that I can't name is going to bother looking into it further. Wii is SD and PC is usually an option, but much like shmups the novel fanbase opts for the 360 for similar reasons.

[Devil REI]

So basically everybody is misreading that report. As my wonderful Cave PR rep told me, the fears that Cave are pulling out of console/arcade dev are - his words - "complete bullshit." Essentially, it's just a restructuring. The two departments referred to on page 28 are Asada and Ikeda's consumer game departments, respectively. The teams doing smartphone games/apps are separate. So arcade and consumer dev are still moving ahead.

It also means Ikeda's moving back into a bigger game design position, which makes me happy.

JOURNLOLISM

[jepjepjep]

Most people dont give a shit about CAVE as a brand name it is IKD,Ichimura,YGW and Joker Jun we care about.

Although one has to wonder if after doing the same type of games for nearly 20 years, they may be a little burned out.

[hwl]

The genre is dying? Rly?

[iconoclast]

It also means Ikeda's moving back into a bigger game design position, which makes me happy.

I really hope this happens.

[Aisha]

Yeah what the hell is going on with Feveron anyway? Wasn't M2 handling the port as well? I don't care for the game but I'm excited any time M2 does anything.

I'm curious what the Japanese response to this news is, can anyone enlighten us?

I've only been able to find two secondary bits of information regarding the Dangun Feveron port--here and here. Essentially, it was going to be an XBLA title if they were satisfied with how Guwange did. Some time later, they said that it hasn't been released due to issues with marketing, and they seemed to no longer be sure of which platform to release it on. Asada mused about putting it on a smartphone.

[Icarus]

In this thread, people commit collective suicide prematurely.

[Vyxx]

The cries of a million goobers from the west will persuade them otherwise

We get it, you don't like games. So why are you here again?

[evil_ash_xero]

I almost started a thread the other day, wondering if they were ever going to make a tough game again. I mean, even Futari 1.5 level tough.
I had wondered a long time if they would stop with the lolis, and lo and behold, they made a game with none of the little freaks.

And now, I was hoping...make a tough game, with no lolis... And now they may slow down making shmups? Geez..they only put out, like, one a year, as is.

[kernow]

The cries of a million goobers from the west will persuade them otherwise

We get it, you don't like games. So why are you here again?

I'm just posting this while my game is paused, back to it I guess. Haven't you got a pcb you've owned for 24hrs to be selling?