News: Visual novel developer/publisher KID goes bankrupt

January 13, 2007, 05:57 PM

by brandon, via KID -
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I didn't post about this for some time because it's rather depressing. Famed visual novel developer and publisher KID (stands for Kindle Imagine Develop) has filed for bankruptcy, having some 530 million yen ($4,452,648) in outstanding debt. KID was famous for its non-pornographic visual novels/dating sim series, such as Pia Carrot he Youkoso, Memories Off, Ever 17, and Ai Yori Aoshi, many of which later became successful anime. The changing climate seems to have favored the erotic visual novels in the end, and in spite of licensing deals for the west with Hirameki International, the company has been dissolved.

Gamefaqs has a good list of KID's work, and you can purchase english-language versions of two of their more popular games here (Ever 17), and here (Ai Yori Aoshi). Here are some notes from Hirameki on the subject (read here for the full entry...registration required): "This was an unforeseen and deeply shocking development - we at Hirameki were given no prior warning, and first learned about it through the newspapers. ... KID made its final appearance at last year's winter Comic Market, holding a liquidation sale at its industry booth. While I was there, I was able to speak with some of KID's former staff. According to them, the in-development game Memories OFF #5 Encore was almost completed - a master copy had been made two weeks before KID had announced bankruptcy. The people I spoke to regretted that KID had not waited a little longer, until the game came out."

It seems neither Memories Off #5 Encore, 12RIVEN the ΨCliminal of Integral (part of the Infinity series) will be released under the current KID brand. Hirameki couldn't confirm whether anyone will be able to pick up the rights and finish the games...it looks as though the closure took even the employees by surprise to a degree.

Now for the potential silver lining - according to the blurb on the official site (since I waited until after Comiket 71 to make this post), it seems as though there is some possibility of release for those near-finished games. After thanking everyone for supporting them at their Comiket liquidation sale, the text states (roughly) "Should the fans wish it, there may be a day when the resurrection of KID will come, if people haven't forgotten about us by then."

Brandon's note: My apologies for the time it took me to make this post - I got a number of emails and requests for clarification on this, and then I had the post 3/4 finished for about two weeks. Well...here it is now, and through waiting, new info was revealed, so it worked out in the end.