Sol Press Discussion Thread
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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.
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@jon-mitchell said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
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 ...
If Sol hasn't been paying the agreed-on royalties then they've already broken the license agreement, but I'm no lawyer either and we have no idea if the agreement terminates for non-payment. It might require the publishers to take Sol to civil court which might not be worth their while.
Sadly, we know nothing unless some Sol insider spills the beans.
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@harmlessdave
I don't see mentioned anywhere that they failed to pay royalties, (it is possible, after all they they stiffed on paying taxes/contractors/staff) but not paid royalties? I'm guessing (if they paid anything at all) they paid royalties-then they could keep the grift going- get a license, sell, not pay workforce, repeat...but if they couldn't get material to translate it would fall apartI read banned books
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@jon-mitchell said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
I don't see mentioned anywhere that they failed to pay royalties
It was heavily implied in this tweet: https://twitter.com/Kiriya_Aoi9/status/1454870920322076674
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@jon-mitchell
Newton and the Apple Tree game got pulled from stores.
When asked "why", admin of JAST (VN distributor and publisher) discord server answered "Be good and pay your royalties, folks".
There's also this tweet from NekoNyan employee from few days before game got removed. -
there you go then- not paying royalties either.
well, then looks like they didn't pay anyone? (something tells me that someone at Sol's upper management got some $$, embezzled or otherwise) - so Sol is dead - maybe the Japanese IP owners can avoid probate etc. and relicense sooner this way? (as there was breach of contract, not just bankruptcy) -
@wellwisher said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@jon-mitchell
Newton and the Apple Tree game got pulled from stores.
When asked "why", admin of JAST (VN distributor and publisher) discord server answered "Be good and pay your royalties, folks".
There's also this tweet from NekoNyan employee from few days before game got removed.I'm glad I managed to catch news of NewRin being removed from steam, before they did the same at JAST. I bought it and I've been playing it for a while now and I really enjoy it so far. It is a real shame that it has been removed from stores...
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@amakaze said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@wellwisher said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@jon-mitchell
Newton and the Apple Tree game got pulled from stores.
When asked "why", admin of JAST (VN distributor and publisher) discord server answered "Be good and pay your royalties, folks".
There's also this tweet from NekoNyan employee from few days before game got removed.I'm glad I managed to catch news of NewRin being removed from steam, before they did the same at JAST. I bought it and I've been playing it for a while now and I really enjoy it so far. It is a real shame that it has been removed from stores...
If the allegation about non-payment is true, then sadly it is a pirate release :(
If true, it's a shame Sol didn't do something like a GoFundMe to at least pay their royalties and the translation teams.
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And the first thing I have heard on the company recently was an article about Rakudai entering its final arc.
But a recent update defined it's ambiguous status with a change from "is publishing" to "was publishing"
Still makes me a sad panda, I guess I will be back to struggling to translate the series in slow time. -
I had been wondering why 80k hadn't had more releases and just got into strongest gamer. Here is hoping stuff starts getting rescued D:
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@Ditimiss There's a chance that Strongest Gamer and Battle Divas will be pulled down from the stores very soon, so you'd have to hurry and buy what you want to while it is still avalialiable.
I did not recieve this message myself since I don't buy stuff on bookwalker, but several people mentioned that they got these notifications
[NOTICE] Strongest Gamer: Let's Play in Another World series to be removed from BOOK☆WALKER
Feb 07, 2022 (05:00 AM) PT
This is a notice for the take-down of the Strongest Gamer: Let's Play in Another World series on BOOK☆WALKER due to the Japanese publisher's request. Please make sure to purchase any missing eBooks of the series by 2/13 11:59 PM PT, as you won't be able to afterwards.※You will still be able to read these books once they are taken down from our store, but you can't purchase any missing volumes after 2/13 11:59 PM PT.
※This message is sent to all users who have at least purchased 1 volume of Strongest Gamer: Let's Play in Another World series.Get "Strongest Gamer: Let's Play in Another World" from here >>
[NOTICE] Battle Divas series to be removed from BOOK☆WALKER
Feb 07, 2022 (05:00 AM) PT
This is a notice for the take-down of the Battle Divas series on BOOK☆WALKER due to the Japanese publisher's request. Please make sure to purchase any missing eBooks of the series by 2/13 11:59 PM PT, as you won't be able to afterwards.※You will still be able to read these books once they are taken down from our store, but you can't purchase any missing volumes after 2/13 11:59 PM PT.
※This message is sent to all users who have at least purchased 1 volume of Battle Divas series. -
@ditimiss said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
I had been wondering why 80k hadn't had more releases and just got into strongest gamer. Here is hoping stuff starts getting rescued D:
Strongest Gamer volume 2 is good and reaches a decent pause point, if you liked volume 1 I'd recommend buying it while you can.
Sigh, license rescues of both titles would be very nice but it might take years and odds are against Strongest since it isn't a FUNA title.
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Not much point to rescuing Strongest Gamer considering it's axed and its only two volumes were already translated.
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@aruseus493 said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
Not much point to rescuing Strongest Gamer considering it's axed and its only two volumes were already translated.
That's only relevant if it's available for purchase.
So what if it's been translated if you can't obtain a copy?License rescues allow for sales of copies in excess of those already sold.
That becomes incredibly important if there was never a print edition of the translation, since so far there is no legal resale methodology for eBooks that I'm aware of (how do you insure that the seller doesn't retain a copy?); not the case here is my understanding, but that still means there's a cap on how many copies might show up used after all 'new' copies have been sold. -
@weasalopes It may be that way from a consumer perspective, but from a licensor perspective, there's no way you'll ever make your money back on that title and so there's practically zero chance anyone will touch it.
