Touhou fan games will appear on PlayStation 4 and Vita

[Colticide]

I guess since ZUN's relaxed his own stance on digital distribution, he's applying it to the restrictions he had placed on fan-groups doing likewise. I wonder if soon he'll be issuing a new version of his touhou derivative work guidelines to reflect this new avenue?

Am I right in thinking you can change your region on the console to access the japanese download shop? (Sorry, not a sony-ite, I don't know the terminology) Might be a nice way to get these games available in the west, as long as they aren't too text-heavy.

I would like to know this as well, if so then this might be the final push I need for a ps4.

[Sahgren]

Am I right in thinking you can change your region on the console to access the japanese download shop? (Sorry, not a sony-ite, I don't know the terminology) Might be a nice way to get these games available in the west, as long as they aren't too text-heavy.

You can access the Japanese PS3/4 online store by creating a new Playstation Network account and stating that you're from Japan. You can find a guide with pictures here.

[Maiden Synnae ミ☆]

If Genius of Sappheiros becomes a bit more popular because of this, maybe I'll finally be able to see good fanart of the game. I like the OC's on it~

[Hainiryuun]

Welp, finally got a reason to buy a PS4

[FLASH]

wow, things lots of new things as of late for the status of touhou franchise in general isn't it?
Zun's son
Digital platform
and now this?!

well i guess as of touhou 14 the theme of the new Arc seems to be "Revolutions and Unusual events in Gensokyo", or something like that, after all... 

[N-Forza]

I hope ZUN's still interested in the overseas market too because this could be a good way to bring all these games to English speakers, translation or no.

[Gpop]

This is a pretty interesting development, though I'm very sure this is ZUN mostly doing this for the doujin game creator's sake of getting themselves out there more, and not ZUN wanting Touhou itself to be more popular. If he did I'm sure he'd put his own games as well.

Good on him anyways. Good Guy ZUN.

[Colticide]

Speaking of overseas, if these games do end up available on the US PSN then do you think they would get translated or end up like some Wiiware games and stay in Japanese?

[teefa85]

Wow...now this was unexpected news.  But might convince me to get a PS4 mattering how things go forward.

[cuc]

Some additional notes:

- The most important compromise ZUN has made for this project, is that he's creating an opportunity for people to be introduced to Touhou from fan games that necessarily contain fanon cliches and high budget voice acting. Back at the time of the Musou Kakyou "Touhou Animation Project" controversy, one of his major points of contention was that by employing high-profile voice actresses, fan works run the risk of making people mistake them for official works and think those were the official voices of Touhou characters.


- Details in the trailer (please use the Mediascape site for reference):

1) At 19 seconds, it says 今後も東方や同人タイトルが続々参戦！

The particle や implies there will be more titles other than Touhou. Here the wording of the trailer differed from the text of their announcement. That's why I think they have plans for publishing non-Touhou doujin games.

2) The trailer on their site has a new segment at the end. It shows a mock dialog between Sony Computer Entertainment and ZUN where they exchanged some greetings, which ended with this:

SCEJA: ZUN-san, you should also release [your games]!
ZUN: If I have the free [time/energy/etc] (laughter)

Will the official games be ported? He gave a typical non-answer.

[Clarste]

Some additional notes:

- The most important compromise ZUN has made for this project, is that he's creating an opportunity for people to be introduced to Touhou from fan games that necessarily contain fanon cliches and high budget voice acting. Back at the time of the Musou Kakyou "Touhou Animation Project" controversy, one of his major points of contention was that by employing high-profile voice actresses, fan works run the risk of making people mistake them for official works and think those were the official voices of Touhou characters.

Voices are actually pretty rare in these fan games, aren't they? The only one I can think of is Koumajou Densetsu II, which made a pretty big deal of it. This is unlike animation, which just sounds weird without voices.

[Ryason55]

The particle や implies there will be more titles other than Touhou. Here the wording of the trailer differed from the text of their announcement. That's why I think they have plans for publishing non-Touhou doujin games.

One of the games that flashed by in the trailer was "冥宮惑星 desParaiso", which is one of Platine Dispositif's games. For the unaware, all of their games use original characters.

[cuc]

Voices are actually pretty rare in these fan games, aren't they? The only one I can think of is Koumajou Densetsu II, which made a pretty big deal of it. This is unlike animation, which just sounds weird without voices.

Both Sky Arena and Mysterious Gensokyo happen to have voice acting. Sky Arena uses cheap amateur seiyuu, which is the norm for doujin games. The Mysterious Gensokyo series has a pro seiyuu lineup that might be more expensive than Koumajou Densetsu.

One of the games that flashed by in the trailer was "冥宮惑星 desParaiso", which is one of Platine Dispositif's games. For the unaware, all of their games use original characters.

Good catch. It's the only non-Touhou game in the trailer, but its presence is telling enough.

(Whose idea is it to hide these things in the trailer?)

So the real story here is "ZUN launches a doujin game publisher on PlayStation".

[N-Forza]

Actually, the head of Platine Dispositif posted a tweet linking to the project page with something hinting that he would have some involvement.

[Ruka]

Some additional notes:

- The most important compromise ZUN has made for this project, is that he's creating an opportunity for people to be introduced to Touhou from fan games that necessarily contain fanon cliches and high budget voice acting. Back at the time of the Musou Kakyou "Touhou Animation Project" controversy, one of his major points of contention was that by employing high-profile voice actresses, fan works run the risk of making people mistake them for official works and think those were the official voices of Touhou characters.


- Details in the trailer (please use the Mediascape site for reference):

1) At 19 seconds, it says 今後も東方や同人タイトルが続々参戦！

The particle や implies there will be more titles other than Touhou. Here the wording of the trailer differed from the text of their announcement. That's why I think they have plans for publishing non-Touhou doujin games.

2) The trailer on their site has a new segment at the end. It shows a mock dialog between Sony Computer Entertainment and ZUN where they exchanged some greetings, which ended with this:

Will the official games be ported? He gave a typical non-answer.

So basically the same type of answer he gave us during the AWA panel when I asked him about the Steam rumor.

Well, this is a step in one direction. It's just a pain to make a JP PSN account.

Does anyone know if you can play the downloaded Japanese games on another region's account like US or EU?

[LeadPal]

I doubt ZUN will ever port his previous games--revising his work in such a way seems un-ZUN-like. But a PS4 port of the next game is a good bet.

[cuc]

A twitter update from Aqua Style (collected by Touhou Memory) indicates that they are also still weighing their options without a concrete plan on porting which game to which platform. The trailer only features Mysterious Gensokyo 3 because it's their current flagship title.

Aqua Style wasn't even the only involved developer to make such a statement. The project is still in a super early stage, eh? I hope they can make their moves before the hype die down.

[Hatateru]

The Mysterious Gensokyo series has a pro seiyuu lineup that might be more expensive than Koumajou Densetsu.

Cool, who'd they hire to do the voicework? I'm mighty interested :V

[cuc]

I looked it up. Some better known members of the Mysterious Gensokyo cast:

Satomi Satō (Reimu, Letty, Yuyuko)
Yōko Hisaka (Marisa, Mokou, Eiki)
Madoka Yonezawa (Sanae, Patchouli)
Yui Sakakibara (Yukari, Tenshi, Komachi)
Omi Minami (Suwako, Meiling, Youmu)
Yukana (Kanako, Cirno, Hijiri)
Kaoru Mizuhashi (Sakuya, Nitori, Kasen)
Mariya Ise (Flandre, Utsuko)

Source: a comprehensive list of voice actors in Touhou fan works

As far as I know, the seiyuu industry's rules are: young seiyuu are always poorly paid - if they become popular, it just means the industry can exploit more from them; the only seiyuu who are well paid are veterans who have stayed at the top of the industry for a long time. Not very different from Japanese showbiz in general.

The Koumajou Densetsu cast has some bigger names.  On the other hand, Mysterious Gensokyo has a larger cast. I don't know enough to say which is more expensive, but Aqua Style might be able to save more costs since they reuse their assets over the expansion packs and updated versions.

[cuc]

A report on the CEDEC 2014 panel attended by D.N.A.

For this panel, D.N.A. focused on the logistics of doujin games. Of particular note, he founded his own convention, Digital Game Expo, because there was a dearth of events dedicated to doujin games since the doujin software convention Pasoket was terminated in the early 2000s. While Comiket has the huge attendance number, its model is not suitable for games, which benefit from live demonstration and experience.

In terms of numbers, 97 circles and about 600 visitors attended last year's first Digi Game Expo; 11 circles and about 300 visitors attended this year's Retro Digi Game Expo. This November's event, hosting 150 circles, will be held on "AKIBA_SQUARE", which is the exhibition floor of the UDX building in Akihabara.

[Drake]

Woah, Digi Game Expo was founded by D.N.A.? Holy crap.

[cuc]

From more than a year ago (time flies, and I still haven't finished anything I promised):

First, ZUN retweeted D.N.A.'s tweet, about Digital Games Expo, a new doujin/indie game convention in Tokyo's Ota Ward that D.N.A. will host in November 17. He didn't directly say it, but ZUN is such good friends with D.N.A., he will absolutely attend this con.

[cuc]

Aquastyle did a video stream, and the lovely Touhou Memory captured it (1, 2),

According to Touhou Memory, the important points are:

They said they will be porting Mysterious Gensokyo 3 to PlayStation Vita. You'll be able to import your PC saves into the game.

They surveyed the viewers about their hardware, and got the following results:

Do you own a PS4? Yes: 7.5%; No: 92.5%
Do you own a PSVita? Yes: 39.8%; No: 60.2%
Do you own a 3DS? Yes: 62.5%; No: 37.5%

Note that this is an audience that care about Aquastyle's doujin games enough to watch a midnight stream. Yeah, that's pretty much where things are in Japan.

[Colticide]

Yes give me more reasons to play my vita! I've never been so happy to hear about this stuff.

[N-Forza]

This is promising news indeed.

[Suwako Moriya]

They surveyed the viewers about their hardware, and got the following results:

Do you own a PS4? Yes: 7.5%; No: 92.5%
Do you own a PSVita? Yes: 39.8%; No: 60.2%
Do you own a 3DS? Yes: 62.5%; No: 37.5%

get rekt sonyrds

[Phasm]

Will these and the upcoming fangames be translated? And by the way this could send Touhou in a fase of the series ( Pc98 , Windows now PS4 )

[Tengukami]

Will these and the upcoming fangames be translated?

It wont be translated, as far as we know. Only for Japan!

[Ghaleon]

desParaiso

Egads, I've been bugging rockin' android to localize that game for ages but no dice. Hopefully being on the psn will give em more incentive.
That said seeing Touhou on the psn, localized or not is awsome, Too bad labyrinth of Touhou isn't there too.  I wonder why Fushigi 3 only and not the series or the first game, I also wonder if making a fan translation will be easier for the psn version since it will be coded differently and HOPEFULLY less unhackable.

[Eilaris]

If anything, it'd be more unhackable, since you'd have to hack not only the game itself but also the Sony firmware.