Sol Press Discussion Thread
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@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.
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@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
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@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.
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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.
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@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
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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.
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@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.
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Hello,
We seem to be going further down the same rabbit hole.
There really is nothing that can be said until a new statement comes from the company themselves.
So for now let us wait and see what the future holds for Sol Press.
Thank you
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It seems that Sol Press business status is now "FTB FORFEITED" in the State of California, rather than "ACTIVE", as it was previously. This new status can be verified on https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/ (Search Type: LP/LLC Name, Search Criteria: Sol Press, Search Filter: Keyword).
The definition for "FTB FORFEITED" is on https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/cbs-field-status-definitions, which states: "FTB Suspended or FTB Forfeited: The business entity was suspended or forfeited by the Franchise Tax Board for failure to meet tax requirements (e.g., failure to file a return, pay taxes, penalties, interest)."
The definitions site also seems to draw a distinction between "FTB FORFEITED" and "SOS FORFEITED", with the former about taxes, and the latter about the SOI form.
Best I can tell (please correct me if I got this wrong, IANAL), the distinction between "FORFEITED" and "SUSPENDED" is simply whether the business is foreign to California or not. Sol Press is marked Jurisdiction: DELAWARE, Entity Type: FOREIGN.
More information on what it means for a business to have been forfeited: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/help/business/my-business-is-suspended.html
Screenshot (I edited a few together):
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A 'slight' update on Sol
https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/ no longer returns 'ACTIVE' status, instead it gives 'FTB SUSPENDED' for Sol Press.
In business jargon it's described as (from https://www.sos.ca.gov);
Suspended (domestic entities) or Forfeited (foreign entities):
The business entity's powers, rights and privileges, which include the right to use the entity's name in California, were suspended or forfeited in California as described below:FTB Suspended or FTB Forfeited:
The business entity was suspended or forfeited by the Franchise Tax Board for failure to meet tax requirements (e.g., failure to file a return, pay taxes, penalties, interest).So, those in the know, how bad is it?
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@korppi That's the same thing that's in the post right above yours.
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@myskaros Oh, didn't see that. Thanks for heads-up.
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Sol Press just had one of their games removed from the Steam store, and KiriyaAoi on Twitter is claiming Sol hasn't paid a ton of important people they owe money to for the past two years. So... safe to say Sol is dead.
Please rescue their licenses from them J Novel Club! <3
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Yeah, between non-payments of taxes/staff/contractors, the legal status of their business, having lost their domains and items actively being pulled from stores... The situation looks pretty FUBAR.
I've got my fingers crossed that JNC can save some of these titles. Specifically 80,000 gold.
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@killerrin said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
I've got my fingers crossed that JNC can save some of these titles. Specifically 80,000 gold.
I promise to re-buy volume 1 and 2 as soon as JNC offers them.
(2 sales! Woo! Reason enough to rescue the license :) )
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Sigh. This gives me really motivation to read books 2-3 of Meta at VRMMO Academy. Where can I get the rest if it also ends with open questions.
And damn I like 80K gold. Even tough I must admit that the quality in my eyes go down the more volumes it has (kinda like many Funa written books.....).
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@harmlessdave said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@killerrin said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
I've got my fingers crossed that JNC can save some of these titles. Specifically 80,000 gold.
I promise to re-buy volume 1 and 2 as soon as JNC offers them.
(2 sales! Woo! Reason enough to rescue the license :) )
Seriously though, if JNC, YP, or 7S rescue 80,000 Gold I'd immediately pre-order all the digital volumes that they'll allow me to do so. I'm a big fan of the WN and it's been frustrating to no end how badly SOLPress treated it. Of course, I'd prefer if JNC got it, but at this point I'd take any reputable publisher.
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I am not a Lawyer: but, from what I understand, SOL would have to officially either declare bankruptcy (chapter 11 or 13) in the USA before someone could negotiate for the licenses to be rescued (unless the original license holders in Japan had a clause in the contract for this contingency) --those licenses are some of the few assets that Sol owns, and they have creditors (some of which are governments) it seems to me that JNC or anyone else can't get their hands on 80K or anything else until some debts are settled and/or Japanese IP owners get the licenses reverted to them (which can take years) Bottom line- it's a mess, don't get your hopes up, write off anything that SOL has touched and move on. Sometime in 2024 +/- if it seems that it might be profitable- someone will rescue ...
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If there are SOL hardcopy editions you are interested in owning, and you can locate copies available for purchase where fulfillment doesn't involve interfacing with SOL's fulfillment folks... grab them prior to the scalpers raising the prices.
Just a thought, anyway.
