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 thread. “If we encounter people who are happy ignoring the wishes of game creators like this, we will have no choice but to raise the price of games or ban streaming indefinitely. If the game doesn’t sell, then there’s nothing we can do about it.

“I don’t create games so that people can create derivative works or play them live. We create games for other people to play. Is that wrong? I make a living by making games. I am supporting my family.”

Iijima noted that the player has since removed their videos, but hasn’t reached out to Iijima to apologise. Regardless, Iijima plans to take legal action against the streamer, saying they want to ensure that smaller, less experienced visual novel developers don’t have their livelihoods taken away from them by streamers revealing all their game’s narrative content.

“The reason why I am so thorough is because I want to protect future creators,” they wrote. “Even if this person never does this to me again, they will look for other smaller, weaker prey. Nascent creators who are powerless to fight back shouldn’t fall prey to the venom of these unscrupulous people. So I’m going to crush it completely.”

Initially, Iijima threatened to remove all existing gameplay videos for games they hold the copyright for, saying: “We will delete any posts, whether famous or not. If you add them all up, it’s likely they’ve been viewed tens of millions of times, and it will take an enormous amount of time to request their removal, but there’s nothing that can be done about it.”

However, the following day Iijima added to their thread, saying they regretted going so far, and that they wouldn’t request takedowns of all previous videos because they appreciated that content creation takes hard work too.

Despite this, they still plan to pursue legal action against the person who streamed Apathy Murder Club, saying: “I think that game commentators, not just those who play my games, should understand the rules set for each game and provide enjoyable game commentary.

“We will take the matter to court, so that other creators don’t get caught up in this situation. I don’t think it would be in the best interest of the gaming industry to forgive the people in question who have run away without even offering a single apology.”

One of Iijima’s followers replied to their thread, claiming: “Unfortunately, in recent years, the global mindset of not following the rules has spread to Japan, and it is unfortunate that more and more people have no qualms about infringing on others.”

Iijima replied: “Such people do not show any remorse and will continue to prey on other vulnerable people. I think most of them are the kind of people who would rather make excuses than apologise. I’ll give those who look down on the world a bitter candy to lick.”