Sol Press Discussion Thread
-
@jon-mitchell said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@terabyte said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
It might actually be a good sign? Before the domain was not resolving at all (ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED). But now it resolves and points to the hosting again.
I don't think so
Yeah, the domain resolves again but there's been no change for 2+ weeks. No hope left.
-
All of their public activity has stopped since August.
It would be best to start praying for their titles to be rescued rather than waiting for them to come back.
I feel sorry for the folks that are waiting for the new release of their titles.
-
Yeah even for Sol Press this level of incompetence seems terminal
-
This post is deleted! -
The website has now been offline for over two months, the last twitter post was 8-11.
The discord is still running but that's free and automatic I guess. There's still a volunteer mod but they don't know anything either. There were a couple of low-level staff around (contractors?) but they either know nothing or are under NDA.
It's dead, just staying quiet about it so they can keep selling existing titles on Amazon, Kobo, etc.
-
@harmlessdave said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
It's dead, just staying quiet about it so they can keep selling existing titles on Amazon, Kobo, etc.
RIP
I'd recommend against buying whatever on Amazon, Kobo wherever at this point (unless physical and in stock) who knows what you'll actually get and there isn't anyone to hold accountable if an ebook is wrong/messed up... and why reward them at this point anyway
-
I'd say buy up Detestable Demon Lord at least any way you can get it since it's finished.
-
@jon-mitchell said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@harmlessdave said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
It's dead, just staying quiet about it so they can keep selling existing titles on Amazon, Kobo, etc.
RIP
I'd recommend against buying whatever on Amazon, Kobo wherever at this point (unless physical and in stock) who knows what you'll actually get and there isn't anyone to hold accountable if an ebook is wrong/messed up... and why reward them at this point anyway
I mostly agree, but I gave in last month and bought volume 4 of Detestable Demon Lord (digital) since that completes the series and it isn't likely to get a license rescue.
I'm also glad I have the two volumes of Strongest Gamer since that was fun and also never coming back.
80,000 Gold will hopefully be rescued since it's FUNA and (in my opinion) better than the last 2-3 volumes of Potion Loli. So people should skip the Sol version.
-
@harmlessdave said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
80,000 Gold will hopefully be rescued since it's FUNA and (in my opinion) better than the last 2-3 volumes of Potion Loli. So people should skip the Sol version.
Book 1 is sold out on Amazon and book 2 doesn’t have a paperback according to Amazon. I checked.
-
So Sol press had to have gone out of business. I honestly can't think of anything else to explain everything just going dark for several months.
Still, I'm a little surprised. Most companies that actually have customers will atleast tell you they are going out of business. Maybe they ran into legal trouble?
Either way... Fingers crossed JNovel can save 80,000 Gold.
-
Actually, on their discord they have been very consistent in stating that they are not going bankrupt, have zero legal or money issues, and that they can't tell us a single thing due to nondescript NDAs other than all will be well at some point that they're still working on things for the future.
It's all incredibly frustrating and I have no idea what their management is thinking or how they expect anyone to be willing to do business with them in the future even if they do poof back into how they were before the website disappeared (which itself would hardly be something to celebrate as they have been incredibly slow and opaque over the past year or so). I feel really bad for both their employees who have to parrot this stuff and deal with us, and their really good IPs like Chivalry that feel basically abandoned at this point.
If J-Novel got the Chivalry license from them I'd lock myself into Membership here for at least a full year.
-
Yeah. Not sure what world they are in where an NDA prevents them from having their website etc. And not being able to say why it's all gone...
Clearly a bull party line they are being forced to spout...
-
@shipteaser said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
Yeah. Not sure what world they are in where an NDA prevents them from having their website etc. And not being able to say why it's all gone...
Clearly a bull party line they are being forced to spout...
Maybe they're being bought out by another company? Acquisitions can have a total gag order and it would potentially explain why they don't seem to be spending any money getting their web site back online. Otherwise yeah, it sounds like bull since no way a standard employment NDA would prohibit people from saying why they can't seem to get what should be standard IT operations in order.
-
@jpwong said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
Maybe they're being bought out by another company? Acquisitions can have a total gag order and it would potentially explain why they don't seem to be spending any money getting their web site back online.
This might be an out there of a guess, but, what if it's in the process of folding into Kadokawa?
Sol Press has had a partnership with Kadokawa Dwango since 2019, and with Kadokawa's recent foray into English light novel publishing it might entice them to incorporate Sol's catalogue of established titles to their own, never mind how malhandled and miniscule that catalogue may be...
That would be the best case scenario. No matter what I may think of BW's drm, the titles at least would be guaranteed into the future. -
@jpwong said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@shipteaser said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
Yeah. Not sure what world they are in where an NDA prevents them from having their website etc. And not being able to say why it's all gone...
Clearly a bull party line they are being forced to spout...
Maybe they're being bought out by another company? Acquisitions can have a total gag order and it would potentially explain why they don't seem to be spending any money getting their web site back online. Otherwise yeah, it sounds like bull since no way a standard employment NDA would prohibit people from saying why they can't seem to get what should be standard IT operations in order.
if that is the case (that they are being bought out) that is potentially good news. My frustration with the zero info and progress on production has led me to write them off. If another corp buys them out - things might actually make it to publication (presumably a buyout would be just to get the IP rights - what other assets do they have? I mean, if I recall correctly all the talent was contractors, and all the management lacked competence - the only thing that could be sold are the licenses/ revenue streams from already published works)
I won't miss them
-
@jpwong said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@shipteaser said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
Yeah. Not sure what world they are in where an NDA prevents them from having their website etc. And not being able to say why it's all gone...
Clearly a bull party line they are being forced to spout...
Maybe they're being bought out by another company? Acquisitions can have a total gag order and it would potentially explain why they don't seem to be spending any money getting their web site back online. Otherwise yeah, it sounds like bull since no way a standard employment NDA would prohibit people from saying why they can't seem to get what should be standard IT operations in order.
If its not Bankruptcy
If its not Legal Issues
If its not Employee's having jumped shipThen really, Aquisition is the only option available left that makes sense. I personally wrote it off because the company is clearly mismanaged and disliked. And the IP that they have isn't all that valuable that any potential buyers absolutely needs the IP immediately versus just waiting for them to fold and get things for bargain prices.
Well, I guess, unless they ran afoul of a contract on their licences and had a poison pill whereby they have to sell the company to apease private investors/licensors. But even thats a bit out there to consider. I also guess the Site issues could just be that their only Web Developer jumped ship and they can't afford to hire another one, and its not like their website really brings them money. But still a company would want to atleast broadcast that decision out instead of just letting things die with zero communications.
But still. Even though aquiring companies tend to put a Gag order on Aquisition related information. I've never heard of one being so broad as to demand they stop all public facing activity and not pretend as its business as usual... because, the aquiring company tends to not want to aquire something that implodes months before the deal settles at a locked in higher rate.
-
Let's not have this thread devolve into a "Let's guess what actually has happened to Sol Press" discussion.
Reasoned speculation has kind of reached its end here, without any new information there is nothing more that could be said.
Please try and keep it to discussing new information/statements, or about how their stopping affects the works involved that they publish.
-
@admin honestly i think the compony is done normally by now we would be expecting to here news of the December release's by now as they tend to release a fair few light novel volume then i think 4-5 last years
-
Them being silent for this long, If the company actually shuts down, is there any chance at getting the titles re-licensed again? After DMG shutdown, there was no Aria licensing again.
-
@amit34521 Licenses have been rescued from other failed publishers in the past, so if they are indeed gone it's possible. But they're very infrequent, often not hugely popular (aka they don't make a lot of money, and translation is unfortunately a business with limited resources) so it's improbable. Especially not anytime soon, since the other rescues I'm aware of all game after extended breaks in publishing.
