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NEWS: Bandai Profits Down


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megumi's guy



Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 67
Location: Murfreesboro, Tennessee
PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2005 7:57 pm Reply with quote
They'll probably blame on "evil" fansub like they did at their AWA panel last year. They used that excuse for the low sales of the "Gundam Seed" DVD. Of course, showing the series on Cartoon Network before releasing the DVD probably didn't help either.

Last edited by megumi's guy on Wed May 11, 2005 8:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Stueypark



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2005 8:04 pm Reply with quote
They just don't have any of their big merchandise shows like they used to... nothing like Power Rangers which could be merchandised out the wazoo.
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Nagisa
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2005 8:13 pm Reply with quote
megumi's guy wrote:
They'll probably blame on "evil" fansub like they did at their AWA panel last year.


AWA10? I don't recall Jerry Chu saying anything really about fansubs outside of "please don't watch Fantastic Children fansubbed before it comes out, okay?" and then making a few half-jabs on the whole thing.
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hikaru004



Joined: 15 Mar 2004
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2005 8:51 pm Reply with quote
Do you think that they will diversify more in the type of shows that they bring over as Region 1 titles? For example,Midori Days
had Bandai Visual listed, but BEI did not release it as a Region 1 . It just seems that BEI focuses more on mecha titles than the other genres.
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ANN_Bamboo
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2005 9:06 pm Reply with quote
megumi's guy wrote:
They'll probably blame on "evil" fansub like they did at their AWA panel last year. They used that excuse for the low sales of the "Gundam Seed" DVD. Of course, showing the series on Cartoon Network before releasing the DVD probably didn't help either.


Actually, showing shows on TV first before releasing DVDs actually *increases* sales. There's a lot of people who don't download fansubs, aren't hardcore fans that keep up to date on new anime, etc, that will watch a show on TV and then decide to buy the DVDs. If they hadn't shown the show on TV first, sales of Gundam Seed would probably be even lower.

And you know what, "evil" fansubs ARE a huge cause of poor sales. If you think that showing something on TV will cause bad sales, fansubs are even worse. Especially since there's a lot of unscrupulous people who would rather keep the fansubs than buy the DVDs for a long series. Most of the people who watch Gundam Seed are teens and college-aged people who do the classic, "Oh, I'll buy this series when I have more money; for now, I'll just hang on to my fansubs" bit.

If anything is causing a downturn in profits, it's licensing shows that typically have next to no market in the US. Stuff like Overman King Gainer, Kaze no Yojimbo... they're good shows, but people don't typically buy them because either no one knows about them, or there's other, better shows out there people would rather spend their money on. Oversaturation is really doing a number on the market.
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megumi's guy



Joined: 28 Jul 2003
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2005 9:08 pm Reply with quote
As I remember he said that the reason that the Gundam Seed DVD was number 3 in sales instead of number 1 was that everyone already had the fansubs and weren't buying the DVDs.
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Nagisa
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2005 9:16 pm Reply with quote
megumi's guy wrote:
As I remember he said that the reason that the Gundam Seed DVD was number 3 in sales instead of number 1 was that everyone already had the fansubs and weren't buying the DVDs.


I just recall him mentioning that the top three sellers were Witch Hunter Robin, Wolf's Rain, & Gundam SEED and stopping there (I think it was in reference to Gundam SEED's performance on Cartoon Network, but I'm not 100% sure on that). I don't remember anything about blaming fansubs beyond a joking hint at it followed by a rather serious "no comment" on a few separate occasions (one or two of which being in direct reference to Fantastic Children specifically).
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ANN_Bamboo
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2005 9:17 pm Reply with quote
megumi's guy wrote:
As I remember he said that the reason that the Gundam Seed DVD was number 3 in sales instead of number 1 was that everyone already had the fansubs and weren't buying the DVDs.


Valid complaint. Jerry is very anti-fansub, and it's understandable. When your job relies heavily on DVD sales, anything that's taking away from profits is bad. In Japan, Bandai can still be profitable because of their merchandise market, which is growing at a rapid rate, as opposed to the video market, which is declining.
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Tempest
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2005 9:27 pm Reply with quote
megumi's guy wrote:
They'll probably blame on "evil" fansub like they did at their AWA panel last year. They used that excuse for the low sales of the "Gundam Seed" DVD. Of course, showing the series on Cartoon Network before releasing the DVD probably didn't help either.


Umm, the article clearly states that Bandai Entertainment was not mentionned. It's BAI that lost money, how could fansubs be blmaed for decreasing profits at a game company?

Damnit do we really need to assume our readers are dumb when we write the news?

As for Cartoon Netowork, they CN pays them for the shows. No one pays them for the fansubs.

I'm not saying fansubs are bad, I'm just pointing out that your arguements hold as much water as a ripped sieve.

-t

Anyways, since the article has nothing to do with fansubs, and the link to fansubs is ridiculous, I don't want to hear about them any more in this thread.
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Colonel Wolfe



Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 370
PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2005 1:56 am Reply with quote
WHy is it that Bandai Entertainment can't take responsibility for their own drop in profits? Everytime they announce losses they always blame the loss on Bandai Entertainment in the US. Why don't they take the blame themselves instead of making excuses?
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Emerje



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2005 1:58 am Reply with quote
tempest wrote:
Umm, the article clearly states that Bandai Entertainment was not mentionned. It's BAI that lost money, how could fansubs be blmaed for decreasing profits at a game company?


Games and toys anyway. The games actually seem to be doing alright, but BAI is taking a major dive in toys right now. The currently have only two lines that appear to be meeting expectations (Power Rangers and Teen Titans) two lines they've been banking on, but haven't been catching on well with both retailers and consumers (Gundam and DICE), and then a whole bunch of lines that are no longer active because they never gathered interest.

Things are a real mess right now in the toy industry as a whole though. Big names like Hasbro and Mattel seem to be dropping lines left and right and reporting losses rather regularly. It would seem that the market only wants to see toy lines that have a history of stability, a walk down an toy line reflects this, just look at which are on clearance.

Funny thing is, the big name companies are having trouble keeping unique lines afloat while smaller companies (like Palisades, SOTA, Jazzwares, and Mezco) are growing in numbers by using familiar licenses (Muppets, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Predator and such) and they're doing it outside of mass retail. Those big guys could learn a few things from the little guys these days.

Emerje
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Emerje



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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2005 2:04 am Reply with quote
Colonel Wolfe wrote:
Everytime they announce losses they always blame the loss on Bandai Entertainment in the US.


Eh? They didn't even mention BEI, only BAI. While BEI is a part of BAI, they were apparently not the contributing factor, only BAI and their poor toy market performance.

Emerje
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Miaka chan



Joined: 08 Apr 2005
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Location: UK
PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2005 6:24 am Reply with quote
I might feel sorry for them if they were losing money but it's only profits that are down, meaning they are still making plenty of money!!
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Colonel Wolfe



Joined: 05 Aug 2004
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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2005 6:40 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Bandai blamed poor performance in America at Bandai America (BAI) as a significant contributor to its weaker profits.

No mention of Bandai Entertainment (BEI), which is a subsidiary of BAI, was made.

BAI is expected to release fewer properties and focus more on strong properties such as Power Rangers in 2005.


The fact that Bandai is blaming poor performance in America is untrue and biased. It seems everytime that their profits gone down I've read the news stories here at ANN and they've all read the same, that Bandai blames the profit loss of their company due to Bandai America.

It seems that Bandai is so intent on blaming the profit loss due to Bandai America. Maybe if they broaden their horizon on bringing over new anime that everyone likes and stop catering anime to children and focus more on bringing over those anime series that have more of a fan base among teenagers and young adults then they might see a better reaction among fans here in the U.S.
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Iniksbane



Joined: 22 Dec 2004
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Location: The great state of Mary
PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2005 7:06 am Reply with quote
No offense, but Americans are one of the largest (if not the largest) consumer groups in the world. So pretty much if it doesn't sell well in America, then they certainly would have a legitimate gripe.

So it's kind of like blaming movie goers for a movie not doing well. It really isn't surprising.
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