where to sell your VNs?

[Chorvaqueen]

I'm curious.

What do you prefer?

Host the file on your own and set up your own shopping cart interface?
-Is it worth the effort and bandwidth cost?


Host it to sites like payloadz/dlsite/etc?
-Are the fees you incur worth it?
-is their service reliable?

[jack_norton]

Host the file on your own and set up your own shopping cart interface?
-Is it worth the effort and bandwidth cost?

You can just use a vendor service like BMT micro (most widely used) or Plimus. In a week you have everything setup, and as for bandwidth it's not really a problem nowadays if you want to run a business (but even a hobby, prices are very low now).

[HikkiPanda]

I also plan to host the site myself, but I'm also curious about how dlsite works. It will be nice if we can get some extra sales from them, though I'm also in doubt about dlsite, most of their games have low download count, but probably they have more download in their japanese site.

[Chorvaqueen]

I also plan to host the site myself, but I'm also curious about how dlsite works. It will be nice if we can get some extra sales from them, though I'm also in doubt about dlsite, most of their games have low download count, but probably they have more download in their japanese site.

There's also Sturgeon's Law.

[Chu-3]

I use DL site japan and DL Livret Japan (both are portals).
They take 30% from the game's price, and for DL site, they still cut again 10% of the price you get for tax.
If you sell in Japan, seems DLsite is the only one can sell well. Well, it's hard to sell online in Japan. Since there're too many great popular rivals (some pro writer that write for company also made their own games and sell around 500 yen at dl site) so well it's hard for beginner. I don't know about english DL site though...

[DaFool]

If you sell in Japan, seems DLsite is the only one can sell well. Well, it's hard to sell online in Japan. Since there're too many great popular rivals (some pro writer that write for company also made their own games and sell around 500 yen at dl site) so well it's hard for beginner. I don't know about english DL site though...

Can you send me example link since I want to download their demos and estimate their production value. Most of the dlsite I've seen have been 1000 yen, so 500 yen is a surprise to me. I didn't know the downward pricing trend has even reached Japan.

[YonYonYon]

I don't know about english DL site though...

dat english oAo http://www.dlsite.com/eng/

[sake-bento]

I use DL site japan and DL Livret Japan (both are portals).
They take 30% from the game's price, and for DL site, they still cut again 10% of the price you get for tax.
If you sell in Japan, seems DLsite is the only one can sell well. Well, it's hard to sell online in Japan. Since there're too many great popular rivals (some pro writer that write for company also made their own games and sell around 500 yen at dl site) so well it's hard for beginner. I don't know about english DL site though...

The profit cut for the English version is about the same, but sales aren't terribly high. Then again, I only have Jisei up, and most of the content on that site is galge, so it's probably also an issue of targeting the wrong audience.

[papillon]

As far as I can tell from looking sales for anything on the English side are extremely low. You'll get a few, but it's only a tiny tiny handful of the most dedicated who know of the existence of english dlsite and most of them are looking for cheap porn. I wouldn't recommend it. (Except when they're doing special offers to attract new authors and giving away free stuff!)

[HikkiPanda]

I use DL site japan and DL Livret Japan (both are portals).
They take 30% from the game's price, and for DL site, they still cut again 10% of the price you get for tax.
If you sell in Japan, seems DLsite is the only one can sell well. Well, it's hard to sell online in Japan. Since there're too many great popular rivals (some pro writer that write for company also made their own games and sell around 500 yen at dl site) so well it's hard for beginner. I don't know about english DL site though...

So DLSite English and DLSite Japan is separated? If you sell on one site, you don't automatically sell on the other?

I agree with everyone that the english site is kinda low on sales (unless you sell hentai ), so it will be bad if we can't have access on the japan counterpart ... though we will still have language barrier problem with the customer there (but I heard they offer localization to japanese language, i can be wrong though) ... plus those 500 yen pro writers T___T

[Chu-3]

Wow.. so many people quoted my message
Sorry I just saw this now. My internet connection is so bad lately.

@DaFool
I guess they do it for hobby mostly, than seek for revenue. The one I mentioned is otome game writer, like the one who wrote for Last Escort ~Club Katze~. I remembered she did it under the name of circle Wild Strawberry, and well R-18. .... Ugh I just checked but I can't find her game at dlsite, seems it's only at livret/melonbooks http://www.melonbooks.com/index.php?mai ... 0000005101 and 500yen is the price of hard copy. it's mostly 0. I just found other new circle that sell 2 GB doujin game, fully voiced and more than 100 CGs at 1000 yen~ (no... i can't beat this price.. definitely)

@YonYonYon
I know that site :3 I just don't know how the price rate at dl site english.

@sake&papillon
I can see that. Well mine is not sold good enough too though~ I found games with spec like mine at 945 yen... nearly half of my price @.@;;; but again I still too afraid to lower my price since it's quiet long @.@;;;

@Hikkipanda
You can choose when you add a game there, like if you want to include your game at dlsite english too or not.
Of course you also can add something in dlsite english only.

The other problem i got with dlsite is, I need to choose my game to be for woman (R-18section) or for man (R-18section) or for man (all ages section). They don't have option for game for everyone though seems if it's for woman and all ages, the game will be displayed in both of for woman (R-18sect) and for man (all ages sect)

[HikkiPanda]

@DaFool
it's mostly 0. I just found other new circle that sell 2 GB doujin game, fully voiced and more than 100 CGs at 1000 yen~ (no... i can't beat this price.. definitely)

If we want to think positively, hopefully those CGs are only consists of 10-20 unique ones and the rest are just variations. They can easily reach 2GB with full voice acting and badly compressed cg's and music/sound files ^^; ... . otherwise we're doomed lol

@Hikkipanda
You can choose when you add a game there, like if you want to include your game at dlsite english too or not.
Of course you also can add something in dlsite english only.

The other problem i got with dlsite is, I need to choose my game to be for woman (R-18section) or for man (R-18section) or for man (all ages section). They don't have option for game for everyone though seems if it's for woman and all ages, the game will be displayed in both of for woman (R-18sect) and for man (all ages sect)

Thanks a lot for the info, that's really helpful

[DaFool]

@DaFool
it's mostly 0. I just found other new circle that sell 2 GB doujin game, fully voiced and more than 100 CGs at 1000 yen~ (no... i can't beat this price.. definitely)

If we want to think positively, hopefully those CGs are only consists of 10-20 unique ones and the rest are just variations. They can easily reach 2GB with full voice acting and badly compressed cg's and music/sound files ^^; ... . otherwise we're doomed lol

Interesting. The last two full-length JVNs I've been playing had something like 72 CG slots (assuming 1 slot = 1 base + variations)

I think Cradle Song is also another big project that they mentioned they plan to sell for under 10 dollars. Crazy.

Man, remember when cartridge games cost $70 and regular computers cost $3,500. And shareware cost $35? And the dollar was also much stronger. And now Netflix ups their pricing by $8 and there's a massive exodus! I used to want to be a filmmaker but it's even harder to get return unless you get a theater showing since streaming pays peanuts.

People seem to be so confident that they'll get at least tens of thousands of customers. The reality is I recently talked to an extremely niche developer who has game on Steam and he confided he sold 3,500. This is Steam we're talking about where any minorly popular game should get 100,000 sales easy. 3,500 sales on Steam (probably less than 1000 sales outside of Steam): that is the benchmark I follow in terms of budgeting. (Also GGN's 3 hour playtime, 2 love interests, 11 CGs for 9.95 Euro... as long as you give >= value than that I shouldnt' worry).

[jack_norton]

This is Steam we're talking about where any minorly popular game should get 100,000 sales easy.

Not that easily!! Also, depends in how much time, and at which price? Steam already prices indie games $10 or lower (recent games were even lower like $5-7), and then does the sales where prices can go down even to $0.99. So even if you get 10.000 sales at $0.99 it's not such a great achievement honestly...
I keep getting comments from "experts" (lol) telling me that I should lower my game prices to $9.99 or even $4.99. I recently did promo sales for my games and the results just confirm what I always knew, that for niche product is totally crazy to put low prices. I might make one blog post about this soon with some graphs

[Kami-Kun]

Is the number of downloads the respective number of sales on dlsite? If so I just saw Jisei and I am shocked. If a game like this, that has good art, music and appealing plot doesn't sell...

Do they really provide japanese translation for the game? Or they just sell it as it is in the dlsite japanese part?