) Based on what you've said earlier in this topic, and more significantly in the latter paragraph here, I'm making the "within five years" estimate on the basis that it'll take that long for the big bosses in Japan to actually cotton on to what they're doing to their overseas investments thanks to their current business practices... this goes especially for the bigger companies like Bandai, where sheer inertia keeps things going down the "business as usual" route until something drastic - especially a drastic change in the balance sheet - forces a response.foxpaws wrote:Given that this 'mark-to-market' was one of the reasons why Geneon USA closed shop, and that BEI is barely hanging by a thread, I'd say that the backfire is happening right now, not five years from now.
I don't think that improved relations between the Japanese companies and their overseas subsidiaries is likely anytime soon, given that the former frequently do not see the latter as equals. Beyond that, there's the tendency of departments within a company to look out for their own backsides for the short term, even if it harms the company as a whole in the long run.
And here lies the problem. This model actively defies one of the most basic economic principles: If you can't afford to compete, get out of the market. I do sympathise with these companies wanting to be able to pay their regular-salaryman staff, but if the only way to do that is to engage in short-term "grab it while we still can" profiteering, then those staff aren't going to have jobs for too much longer anyway...foxpaws wrote:In this particular case, it comes down to the animation studios wanting to cover their production budgets just to survive each quarter and not go under, even if some of the employees realize that doing so erodes their overseas revenue source in the long run.
No, the example works perfectly well. Lots of people use Photoshop, so it's a mistake to think it's only targeted at "graphic companies." Also, not to sound insulting or anything, but the idea that companies can't pirate things is pretty naive. It happens all the time. I worked for a company where every single computer had pirated copies of Windows and Office, and I've known of other companies where it's very common.Gundam Genki wrote:Isn't Adobe Photoshop a bad example? It's target group is graphic companies. As a company, you cannot pirate things, so you buy it. Adobe actually doesn't care about the pirating, it makes people familiar with the program, so they tell their boss to get it, there's the profit. People are skilled with the program from hobby, so companies get it to evade training costs (which make Adobe Photoshop itself seem cheap).
But this will not stop illgeal download. I've known people who will dowload as much as his hard disk could take. How do you listen to 20,000 songs that has been downloaded from Kazza or Limewire? And this could be the same in amine. I think the volume of download is a form of bragging right.foxpaws wrote:Granted, a niche market product is more likely to feel the effects of piracy than a product that enjoys a significantly larger market, but this makes it even more important to focus on quality over quantity. Sadly, the tendency of most entertainment companies is to think that releasing more products will result in more profit, regardless of how poor said products may be.
-- Keith
The one thing I gotta disagree with Griepp on is that I do feel that as the years goes by the fandom will erode. As anime fans grow older, graduate from college, start their careers, make large purchases like automobiles or homes, start families, etc... the interest will wane. Not for everyone, but it will for many. Certainly has happened to me. The key is finding the new fans to replace those people with, and I feel that in this much less friendly TV environment that we are in now compared to say 2000/2001 when I joined the fandom, it will be a lot tougher to find those people. I got into anime because I randomly saw Gundam Wing on TV one day by found it interesting enough to stick with it and eventually get into other things. Less anime and lesser quality anime on american TV will reduce the chances of such circumstances happening going forward.The biggest question that Griepp thinks is currently facing the industry has to do with whether the core of American anime fans will disappear. He does not think so, at least not in the short run, but nonetheless, the current business model of selling anime is being challenged, and will have to change.
It's something that one can't really answer without knowing the details of money flow, but my guess is that it comes from the very large inherent weakness in licensing - an anime gets released in Japan, and makes money according to its popularity in Japan, and then when that anime gets licensed out to American companies, the price is likely based on its Japanese popularity, despite the fact that there is a very low chance of that anime being as popular in America as it is in Japan, meaning that the licensors may decide that they probably won't be able to make a decent profit margin cramming as many episodes as can fit on each DVD and then selling each disc at prices we consider reasonable. They thusly decide to put less episodes on each DVD and price each disc higher, which in turn alienates customers who feel that they should not be paying that much for that few episodes, which hurts sales, and in the end the licensor comes away grumbling about how the whole thing turned out barely profitable, and the whole cycle repeats till the licensor folds or quits.V2Buster wrote:you would hope at some point companies like BVUSA would see that they present a very poor entertainment value with their cost per disc/episode per disc ratio compared with everything else you can find in the TV series aisle at the local big box.
But hey, obviously marketing a competitive product isn't a smart idea, what do I know, right?
