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The first domino fell years ago.
I loved it, too.
Shiranui Flare in Flare Nuinui Quest
More importantly, at least to me, hololive has the strongest gaming arm by far.
It’s not all commercial guff, either.
Responses edited for clarity and length.
Shiranui Flare in Flare Nuinui Quest
What are your goals or hopes for hololive in this space?
Motoaki Tanigo:We have to think of the gaming strategy.
One of them is the one you mentioned, holo Indie.
Shiranui Flare in Flare Nuinui Quest
Making our own indie games to reach the fans and to reach a new audience.
The other one will be licensing, using our IP with other games and gaming companies.
Instead of that, we are trying to figure out how to be support for theindie gamedevelopers.
Moona Hoshinova in HoloCure
What might future licensing deals look like?
Talents appearing in games as playable characters and things like that?
There will be two lines for the licensing business.
Inugami Korone in Idol Showdown
The other would be using the IP and the characters in their own games.
So you don’t see Cover ever producing games in-house, but rather working with external partners.
We don’t have an internal game development team.
hololive CouncilRys RPG
We want to work along with them.
Looking at holo Indie, I know there are ambassadors for that label, Ichijou Ririka and Kaela Kovalskia.
How were they selected and what will they be doing?
We snag the talent depending on their passion for indie games.
If they love indie games, they are selected.
What sort of gameplay are you envisioning there?
We plan to have the official launch for holo Earth in spring next year.
As you know, in the gaming industry that might change, but that’s the plan.
Like holo Indie, we want to work alongside creators.
Some companies have distanced themselves from metaverse projects.
But culturally or technologically, what do you think made Japan the perfect incubator and launchpad for vtubing?
Vtubing was the next step.
Let’s do the same thing but using a live stream and motion capture.
How do you appeal to people?
It’s using your skills to become a talent using that technology.
We actually don’t think in the span of five years.
We think in 10 years.
There’s a reason behind that.
I’ve seen vtubing compared to the theater of pro wrestling, and I kind of agree.
Does that make sense to you?
you might also have idols, you might have singers, you have actors and actresses.
That might be it, yeah.
The practice of business is quite different in the United States.
Well, in the West.
In Japan it’s more like the talent working for the agency.
In the States, the talents are more independent in that aspect.
So we have to adjust that business mindset when working with Western talents.
We need to adjust to that on both sides and double-check everybody is happy.
We talked about Hatsune Miku earlier.
What’s the advantage of that element?
Anyone can do live streaming on their own.
That’s added value we have for the talent.
How do you protect talents from that and confirm they and their audience stay happy and healthy?
We have several ways to protect the talents.
We have moderators for forums.
If the talent is tired from working we, of course, give them breaks.
That’s perfectly fine with us.
We actually don’t think in the span of five years.
We think in 10 years.
There’s a reason behind that.
Hatsune Miku became mainstream, a regular, in 10 years.
Are you familiar with the running gag in the overseas community about “Yagoo’s dream”?
Like the pure idol facade has fallen.
How is your dream doing?
One thing is that this is about idol agencies and the creator’s agency.
It’s not like we’re just looking for a pure ideal idol.
Regarding my dreams, they’re fine!
How do you respond to fans worried by the departures this year?
The talents are really important to us.
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