Question How to get to talk with gaming companies about strategies to revive a franchise and, for them, to make money in the process?

[Mu The Guardian]

Hello fellow gamers!

Since years, I've been trying to communicate with Bandai Namco, Tencent, and Toei Animation to try to get to talk about Saint Seiya having currently no purchasable game for PC and console on the planet.

I've sent hundreds of communications (between general emails, online forms, direct business emails, direct Gmail/Hotmail/similar emails, general phone calls, tickets opened, direct phone calls, direct mobile phone calls, comments on social media posts, direct messages via social media, etc.). Nothing.

Can any of you help?

Also, if you'd like to see how excited ChatGPT got when I fed it a certain idea about a certain cross-media epic entertainment event, you can watch the video in which I explained it:

ChatGPT's reaction to an epic cross-media mega event

Any suggestion is welcome.

And if you wish to sign our petition, please, we'd be grateful!

Petition to get a Saint Seiya game

Thank you so much!

 

[Alm]

I think a petition is your best bet. I don't think companies would welcome direct contact like that.

 

[Brian Boru]

Welcome to the forum

I've sent hundreds of communications

That gets you on ignore, block and auto-delete lists pretty quickly.

I recommend you take the hint x 100—they're not interested. Sad, but it happens.

 

[Mu The Guardian]

I understand.

Thanks brothers.

What do you think about the idea?

 

[Alm]

I think having more games on PC is a good thing, especially for preservation of older games and giving people more options.

I don't think I've ever played a Saint Seiya game though to know much about it.

Edit: I see Saint Seiya is an anime. Sorry for the ignorance but I've only watched like Ghost in the Shell and Akira etc.

 

[Mu The Guardian]

I think having more games on PC is a good thing, especially for preservation of older games and giving people more options.

I don't think I've ever played a Saint Seiya game though to know much about it.

Edit: I see Saint Seiya is an anime. Sorry for the ignorance but I've only watched like Ghost in the Shell and Akira etc.

It's okay. I know Saint Seiya in North America is almost unknown. I'm not surprised you didn't know it.
It's a manga and anime (and live-action recently).
There's a digital remake (first season on Netflix, it sucks. 2nd season on Crunchyroll, it's much better. It's called "Knights of the Zodiac".

Examples from the last game that was made on PC and Console (Saint Seiya: Soldiers' Soul):

Epic battle between the great Shion of Aries and Dohko of Libra - funny ending

Some fast-paced fights

It's too bad they never updated the game. It has a lot of potential.

 

[Mu The Guardian]

Welcome to the forum


That gets you on ignore, block and auto-delete lists pretty quickly.

I recommend you take the hint x 100—they're not interested. Sad, but it happens.

I think a petition is your best bet. I don't think companies would welcome direct contact like that.

Guys, what about PC Gamer?

I managed to have Maximum PC talk about the game in the June 2022 issue, pages 40-42.

I guess Maximum PC isn't too deep in the gaming market and media.

But if PC Gamer were to make a special article, lots of pages, dedicated to Saint Seiya as a whole as manga, anime, and then covering its last video game and lack of a game currently on PC and Console, explaining the potential of the franchise... it might grab some attention from the big players.

What do you think? Could it help to move stagnating waters a little?

 

[Alm]

I think it's probably a very niche request. If most people in NA have never heard of it there will be little impetus to make the game for that market or for PC Gamer to cover it.

I think if a lot of people sign a petition, that may make them consider it but might be a long shot.

Edit: you could always write in to PC Gamer and see if they print your email in the magazine and maybe give their thoughts back.

 

[Mu The Guardian]

I was trying to reply but the system doesn't allow me, giving an error message stating that my message is "spam like". What's going on?

 

[Mu The Guardian]

I think it's probably a very niche request. If most people in NA have never heard of it there will be little impetus to make the game for that market or for PC Gamer to cover it.

I think if a lot of people sign a petition, that may make them consider it but might be a long shot.

Edit: you could always write in to PC Gamer and see if they print your email in the magazine and maybe give their thoughts back.

(Since I seem to have found the cause of the post-rejection, and it wasn't its length, for readers' convenience, I'm going to re-port it as a single message instead of splitting it into 3 parts, then I'll delete the 3 parts above)

Thanks Alm!

Yes I sent a few email to PC Gamer's staff a few weeks ago, I'm waiting for an answer.

About NA: But that's exactly the point!

See, Yoshi Ikezawa (Toei Animation) declared that the reason why Toei decided to produce (a) live-action adaptation(s) movies it so attract new fans among the general public and younger generations. He declared that, while the digital remake (Netflix and Crunchyroll) is for the pre-existing fans (millions, mostly located in Central and Southern America, Europe, and Japan/China), the live action movie is for new fans.
He explained that Toei invested $60 millions for the movie (initially, it was misunderstood as only for the 1st movie, released in the theaters a few months ago, which didn't sell well. But then it was understood that the investment also covered the 2nd movie). They planned 6 movies, and already contracted actors for the first 3.

The thing is, movies cost a lot! With 60 millions you can barely make a decent movie for theaters.
Compared to movies, video games (even top top top AAA games) cost nothing. With 'just' $1 million you can make a striking video game.

So, you said that if the franchise is not known in North America, there is little impetus to make the game. But, think about it: Toei Animation definitely wants to push the franchise in NA (as well as in the world), so much that they spent a lot to make movie(s).

Think about the most successful products that made the history of video games

https://imgur.com/a/Iqq9djX

Did they have a well-known franchise in North America before being released? Not at all, because they had no franchise at all. On the planet! They had no manga, no anime, no fandom before. They had no history. They didn't exist at all. Until they made them, and they rocked the market and still do! Well, some of these games even had it in reverse: they triggered the production of anime and movies based on the game!

So, if a game is great, it sells and it succeeds. It doesn't matter that North America (or even the world) doesn't know the franchise. Because the most successful games in the history didn't have a franchise at all!

If the game is good, it succeeds, pre-existing franchise or not.

But what would that mean for Toei Animation and for the Saint Seiya franchise?

Think about it. They spent 60 millions for a couple of movies.

With 1 million, even with 2 million dollars (I want to exaggerate) they can make an astonishing game. Unique!

Imagine an epic, unique, striking, remarkable, fantastic, rich, mythic, formidable Saint Seiya, 3D, multi-mission, multi-mode, open-world, single and multiplayer, rollback-netcoded, characters-rich, graphically breathtaking video game with astonishing animations. Tapping into the richness of Saint Seiya's mythology, stories, characters, emotions, armors, battles, mysteries... Covering all the anime/manca arcs, chapters, and characters...

With that kind of money you can do it!

Imagine the market they'd be tapping into: gamers! That's tens of millions, probably hundreds of millions of potential users. Worldwide, including North America. Forget the Saint Seiya franchise, relatively unknown in NA. You get the game! Everybody plays it and gets excited! Imagine if Toei Animation and the whatever gaming company they choose also manage to keep the gamers fully engaged, with events and official tournaments!

Well, wouldn't that be a fantastic promotion for the pre-existing Saint Seiya franchise? Wouldn't that be exactly what Toei Animation is trying to achieve with expensive and still unsuccessful movies?


PS: I'm curious. I finally isolated the piece of sentence that caused my post to be rejected as "spam-like or inappropriate". It was the sentence containing the names of the video games. I couldn't even attach it as a clear picture. I had to blur and distort it! Anybody knows why? Thanks.

 

[Alm]

(Since I seem to have found the cause of the post-rejection, and it wasn't its length, for readers' convenience, I'm going to re-port it as a single message instead of splitting it into 3 parts, then I'll delete the 3 parts above)

Thanks Alm!

Yes I sent a few email to PC Gamer's staff a few weeks ago, I'm waiting for an answer.

About NA: But that's exactly the point!

See, Yoshi Ikezawa (Toei Animation) declared that the reason why Toei decided to produce (a) live-action adaptation(s) movies it so attract new fans among the general public and younger generations. He declared that, while the digital remake (Netflix and Crunchyroll) is for the pre-existing fans (millions, mostly located in Central and Southern America, Europe, and Japan/China), the live action movie is for new fans.
He explained that Toei invested $60 millions for the movie (initially, it was misunderstood as only for the 1st movie, released in the theaters a few months ago, which didn't sell well. But then it was understood that the investment also covered the 2nd movie). They planned 6 movies, and already contracted actors for the first 3.

The thing is, movies cost a lot! With 60 millions you can barely make a decent movie for theaters.
Compared to movies, video games (even top top top AAA games) cost nothing. With 'just' $1 million you can make a striking video game.

So, you said that if the franchise is not known in North America, there is little impetus to make the game. But, think about it: Toei Animation definitely wants to push the franchise in NA (as well as in the world), so much that they spent a lot to make movie(s).

Think about the most successful products that made the history of video games

https://imgur.com/a/Iqq9djX

Did they have a well-known franchise in North America before being released? Not at all, because they had no franchise at all. On the planet! They had no manga, no anime, no fandom before. They had no history. They didn't exist at all. Until they made them, and they rocked the market and still do! Well, some of these games even had it in reverse: they triggered the production of anime and movies based on the game!

So, if a game is great, it sells and it succeeds. It doesn't matter that North America (or even the world) doesn't know the franchise. Because the most successful games in the history didn't have a franchise at all!

If the game is good, it succeeds, pre-existing franchise or not.

But what would that mean for Toei Animation and for the Saint Seiya franchise?

Think about it. They spent 60 millions for a couple of movies.

With 1 million, even with 2 million dollars (I want to exaggerate) they can make an astonishing game. Unique!

Imagine an epic, unique, striking, remarkable, fantastic, rich, mythic, formidable Saint Seiya, 3D, multi-mission, multi-mode, open-world, single and multiplayer, rollback-netcoded, characters-rich, graphically breathtaking video game with astonishing animations. Tapping into the richness of Saint Seiya's mythology, stories, characters, emotions, armors, battles, mysteries... Covering all the anime/manca arcs, chapters, and characters...

With that kind of money you can do it!

Imagine the market they'd be tapping into: gamers! That's tens of millions, probably hundreds of millions of potential users. Worldwide, including North America. Forget the Saint Seiya franchise, relatively unknown in NA. You get the game! Everybody plays it and gets excited! Imagine if Toei Animation and the whatever gaming company they choose also manage to keep the gamers fully engaged, with events and official tournaments!

Well, wouldn't that be a fantastic promotion for the pre-existing Saint Seiya franchise? Wouldn't that be exactly what Toei Animation is trying to achieve with expensive and still unsuccessful movies?


PS: I'm curious. I finally isolated the piece of sentence that caused my post to be rejected as "spam-like or inappropriate". It was the sentence containing the names of the video games. I couldn't even attach it as a clear picture. I had to blur and distort it! Anybody knows why? Thanks.

I think you underestimate the cost of AAA games. The latest top games cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make. This is the main reason for a lot of new games costing the consumer $70 and not $60. The only cheap way to make a game is to emulate a port and smooth out the experience for modern systems.

If they have spent $60 million unsuccessfully it may be that they can't afford another failure.

Also, with regards to the rejection based on the game names: I think mentioning PUBG and Minecraft is limited for new users as there are so many people trying to fill up the forum with YouTube links to those games which is undesired.

 

[Mu The Guardian]

oh I understand! Thanks brother.

Well, yes I must be underestimating the cost of games a lot! I was told the average cost of a top AAA game is in the range of several hundred thousands of dollars, not hundred 'millions'!

I had talks with an indie games executive at that time, and he quoted 120K to make a 3D fighting game.

But if you're right, this changes everything!

 

[Alm]

I think $120k would get you a decent indie game.

I quickly googled average aaa game production costs and got this:

https://imgur.com/a/8Z1ZsvE

View: https://imgur.com/a/8Z1ZsvE

 

[Mu The Guardian]

I think $120k would get you a decent indie game.

I quickly googled average aaa game production costs and got this:

https://imgur.com/a/8Z1ZsvE

View: https://imgur.com/a/8Z1ZsvE

Wow! My gosh!
Thanks brother!

Well, at this point, the only resource left is.... Where are you, uncle Elon? Wanna invest in games?

 

[Brian Boru]

Alm is right on both counts. We filter the titles we get flooded with all the time by drive-by posters, and here's a dev cost list:

List of most expensive video games to develop - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

…and…

Major Publishers Report AAA Franchises Can Cost Over a Billion to Make - IGN

A report released alongside the CMA's decision to block the Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition reveals the demanding costs behind modern AAA game development, which can surpass $1 billion over a franchise.

www.ign.com

 

[Mu The Guardian]

Alm is right on both counts. We filter the titles we get flooded with all the time by drive-by posters, and here's a dev cost list:

List of most expensive video games to develop - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

…and…

Major Publishers Report AAA Franchises Can Cost Over a Billion to Make - IGN

A report released alongside the CMA's decision to block the Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition reveals the demanding costs behind modern AAA game development, which can surpass $1 billion over a franchise.

www.ign.com

Oh my goodness! :O

 

[neogunhero]

I think at this point you might be better off learning Japanese so you can read and play the games via emulator. I’m not sure if you can easily find the Japanese copy online. I admire your efforts and passion for your hobby and I wish you the best when it comes to getting the games localized.

I have heard of some other obscure Japanese PC games having fan-translations, does Saint Seiya have any fan-translations?