Проекты переводов и VN-release-related новости.

I would like to believe this is far from the end of Visual Novels in the west. In fact, I think this may simply be the chance for a key turning point that benefits us all.
Perhaps I'm just too old-fashioned, but I remember when anime fansubs were distributed by friends on copied VHS tapes, and poor Real-Time video clips sent via Kazaa on dial-up internet. Back then, the anime fandom was small, nothing had really taken off. Anime was liked more as 'another good cartoon' or 'a cartoon that's awesome' rather than as 'anime'. Back then the Japanese companies knew little about us, and probably didn't even realize there actually were anime fans in the west. During this time, fansubs were a god-send. They helped spread awareness of the genre, expand people's interest, and really helped it grow. However, the most important out-come of that fan-sub age was the emergence of people who thought to themselves, "We could do this legitimately, and actually make money off of it while also giving the Japanese companies the proper support they deserve." Leading to various localization companies like ADV, Funimation, Pioneer/Geneon, and many other companies, some of which still live on, and others which died as broadband became prolific and streaming video became normalized. The industry went from being fans sitting around copy-decks hoping for it to go faster and gathering to exchange tapes, to being well, an actual profitable industry that earned money for everyone involved and allowed us to have the current breadth of availability that exists now.
The Visual Novel scene, though about a decade or so behind, has followed a similar path. People like Haeleth and insani worked on fan-translations, promoting the genre, expanding it's interest, even creating a community such as this one where people could talk about it. It started growing into an industry worth delving into, and JAST group's various companies began localizing games for legal distribution. As it continued to grow, the Japanese developers have also begun to take notice, and are now trying to turn this into a legal, productive industry in it's own right. Nitro+ has signed with JAST to legally release their games; Circus, Overdrive, Nexton, and Navel worked together to create MangaGamer, hoping to create a legal venue for their games.
This is why I think the Visual Novel scene isn't ending; it's trying to evolve into a proper industry. Some Japanese companies are using an established vendor, others are taking a personal risk, and ones like minori are probably just doing what they can to leave the possibility for a legal, profitable venue open as a future possibility.
The problem is that at the same time the visual Novel industry is trying to evolve, other problems are complicating the issue: Rampant piracy is making legal distribution extremely difficult--even more so when the people pirating the game call themselves 'fans' and convince themselves that they're still doing something good; because it's quite the opposite, the media frenzy of Equality Now and other resulting legislation are sparking fear--companies want to legally release their games in the west, but they also don't want to be forced to stop making them because someone with a loud mouth gets a hold of them (as can be seen from Minori's stance, I would estimate), and as the response to some of MangaGamer's own polls have shown: fan-translation is now becoming a hindrance to legal releases. With the release of fan-translations and the resulting piracy that usually ensues, a lot of people become satisfied with their enjoyment of the game while never giving anything back to the original company or a company trying to localize the games. Not only that, but they completely lose interest in seeing them properly localized. (I offer some apology to those who actually imported the games--you have at least given something back to the original companies.)
But just as fan-subs are now hurting both the American and Japanese anime industry, I suspect, nay, I believe that fan-translations of Visual Novels are starting to do the same.
I can't blame the companies for their Cease and Desist orders. In fact, I think there's some hope behind them, since it suggest the Japanese companies are showing interest and concern in the western market. I suspect many of them are probably watching to see how JAST continues to fare and whether or not MangaGamer will be able to survive for the long-term.

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