Many employees at Sekai Project got some bad news recently: they were being let go.
According to one former employee, this included the entire marketing department. The head of Studio Élan, who worked at Sekai Project as a project manager, was also let go.
Sekai Project’s CEO put out an official statement that said they will “be going through a restructure so we can be more nimble, focused, proactive and more like the company we were when we first started”. The statement says they haven’t dismissed their translation, programming, editing, or QC (quality checking) departments, the critical sections for a visual novel company.
Updates for all projects were also posted, with some games and Kickstarters entering the final stages of fulfillment while others are still in the process of being translated or development. Others, like the second volume of the manga Gate, have run into problems.
The Current State of Sekai Project
For those who don’t know, “restructuring” is almost always a polite way of saying, “We are losing money and need to cut expenses, and switching to a cheaper brand of office supplies isn’t enough.” This comes after their batch of announcements at Anime Expo.
Again, although the actual visual novel production teams appear to still be intact, this does seem like quite a list considering Sekai Project’s current workload. This is their fifth anniversary, so I could understand wanting to do something big. But it still kind of feels like the marketing department’s salaries are going to licensing. That’s not really much of a leap considering most of the funds for their latest Kickstarter is going to the developer.
If Sekai Project is feeling the financial crunch, releasing more games and manga isn’t necessarily the answer. It just might make the company stretch out its resources more, affecting all their projects. And all their releases haven’t been stellar. Maitetsu is missing images, text, and lines.
Sekai translated Maitetsu together with Fakku, they promised it to be 18+ and with no censoring, but what came out was all-ages version with detached h-scenes slapped onto it. 2 months later there is still no offficial fix, only fanmade one.
— ShadoWolf (@nekonrvnqsr) August 14, 2018
They had to apologize for their subpar release of Hoshizora no Memoria, and fans are still waiting for news about the fandisk and physical versions. Muv Luv finally released on Vita two years after the Steam, and backers of the Grisaia Kickstarter are getting their rewards three and a half years after the end of the campaign.
So, sure, these new games may be released gradually over the course of a couple of years, but they have plenty of projects to finish and/or correct.
Sekai Project’s Future
Even without these issues, it’s no wonder Sekai Project is having problems. The 2010s brought the visual novel boom, but growth also brings competition and outside changes. Sony is trying to wean developers off of the Vita, mobile games are booming, visual novels originating outside Japan are growing, and, of course, there’s the fact that visual novels has TONS of text from branching paths. Even with the popularity of Steam (and PC gaming in general), some gamers are very loyal to consoles, and the Sony vs Nintendo rivalry is going to continue.
Companies lay off people all the time and continue to function. Sekai Project may rely on interns or current employees for the advertising and social media duties, and things may proceed just as they have been — for better or for worse. But if Sekai Project launches any new crowdfunding campaigns soon, you might want to be think twice. I’d be concerned that this could turn into a Digital Manga, Inc. situation where money raised is being used to fund other Kickstarters in hopes the finished projects raise money to complete other Kickstarters.
Right now, they should concentrate on completing their current titles and completing them well. If they’re not going to have a full marketing department, word-of-mouth is going to be more important than ever, and it needs to be positive if they’re going to stick around for another five years or longer.