Japanese visual novel creator plans legal action after their latest game was streamed at launch
A Japanese visual novel creator has decided to take legal action after their latest game was streamed in its entirety on the day of release.
Game creator and novelist Takiya Iijima wrote a lengthy thread on X (as reported by Automaton) explaining that their latest visual novel was streamed on day one, despite requests that content creators refrain from streaming the game until a week after release.
Following the success of Iijima’s visual novel Apathy: Narugami Gakuen Nana Fushigi on Switch, a new visual novel called Apathy Murder Club was released on Steam at a reduced price of ¥990 ($6.39) to celebrate.
“But this is the result,” Iijima said. “Someone made a live stream of our newly released novel-style adventure game, playing it for several hours from the first day of release, through to several different endings.”
The streaming of visual novels has been the subject of debate for some time, given their linear nature. While most other game genres play out differently every time, the fact that most visual novels are driven mainly by linear dialogue means that – branching storylines aside – it’s generally a near-identical experience every time it’s played.
As such, many argue that the streaming of a visual novel often results in the entirety of the game’s content being revealed, making it similar in principle to streaming a copyrighted movie or music, or uploading a copyrighted book. As Iijima puts it, “spoilers can be fatal” for the success of the game, because the narrative is the entire point of it.
Visual novels in Japan often come with requests to delay streaming until the game has been out for some time, and the Steam page for Apathy Murder Club has a message informing players that live streams and YouTube gameplay videos are allowed after August 3.
However, the player in question seemingly ignored this rule and streamed the game and its endings on the day of release.
“I’m really sad that there are people who don’t follow the rules of gameplay,” Iijima said in their X
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