Gematsu is reporting that Alchemist, who published the console versions of Higurashi and Umineko, has filed for bankruptcy.
Thank you @StarTurner for bringing this to our attention!
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This is really sad news. I had no idea that Alchemist were the ones behind Gal Gun, either.
Though I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen to their Higurashi and Umineko assets…
Yeah, it is pretty bad that my first thought was “This better not mess with my pre-order of GalGun” and the second was “I wonder if Mangagamer has a better chance at getting the assets?” and then finally I was realized - “Oh, this really sucks.”
I hope that another developer works with 07th Expansion future doujin titles on console.
Oh, no, that’s terrible! I suppose we should have already figured, what with the Higurash Sui port being made without Alchemists’ involvement… Didn’t they go under too, or something similar? Nevertheless, this is sad news indeed.
They have some explicit references to 07th expansion stuff in it, although some of them might be dlc or something
Hopefully 07th expansion reacquires them so they can license them out to MG. Would be nice to have voices as an official part of the releases.
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I think it would great if the voices were a part of the official release, I always thought the actors they cast for both games did the characters justice.
;-;7
I second this, I felt the game voice acting was really pretty good.
I’m just curious where the assets will go though,
Still, that’s too bad. I liked Alchemist ad their work.
Well remember, bankruptcy doesn’t mean the same thing as going out of business. They might recover and stick around or get bought out and exist as part of some larger entity. Only time will tell.
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Indeed! And I hope so!
I can’t say the same for Umineko, but I’d rather like it if MangaGamer’s Higurashi releases gave us an option to turn the voices on or off. I don’t think the voice acting in Higurashi is bad; it’s just that I kind of prefer reading Higurashi without voices. The atmosphere created through haunting music, sound effects or pure silence is part of the whole appeal of Higurashi to me. Adding voices to the mix dampens that feeling for me. (Just the sound of chirping higurashi makes me feel uneasy…) ._.
On the topic at hand, it is quite a shame that Alchemist is going under, even though I don’t think that it will have much impact on me as an importer. I can’t play any of their releases anyway…but it does leave the Japanese console publishing rights to Higurashi and Umineko up in the air. I wish the best of luck to the next publisher who tackles the next releases of these novels. 
@ctom42 has a great point. Bankruptcy is not the same as going out of business, it just typically means that a company is going to restructure somehow. Marvel declared bankruptcy in the last 15 years or so, and now look at them. It’s entirely possible to recover from it.
Still, I really hope that this results in a western release of the Alchemist Higurashi games. If a lot of people tell MangaGamer that they want those, then maybe they’ll actually act on them (I’ve already told them, so it’s up to everybody else at this point).
I always thought bankrupt = out of business… what’s the difference between the two?
I don’t know all the technical details, but filing for Bankruptcy basically means you are unable to pay off your debts. If nothing can be done to fix this then you go out of business. The company could also be bought out to save it, or the debts could be renegotiated. There are probably a bunch of other outcomes. I am by no means an expert.
My dream would be for them to release an uncensored console version of Higurashi, but for that, the voice actors would pretty much have to rerecord every line, and I’m sure they must be sick to death of voicing the same scenes over and over…