Peter Payne
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Hello, and thanks for purchasing Tokimeki Check in! by Crowd and Peach Princess. This excellent example of Japan's bishoujo (pretty girl) game genre took many thousands of hours of work on the part of Crowd's dedicated staff members, based in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and also many hundreds of hours on the part of the Peach Princess staff to port it to English. On behalf of all these people, I thank you for your kind support, and apologize if I am a little bit "preachy" with the comments below ^_^;;
Actually, I once heard an individual say once, by way of rationalizing his own decision to pirate the kinds of unique games we're dedicated to bringing to the English-speaking world, that "...there wasn't much to porting these games into English. Basically, you just move the game into English." Seeing comments like this, after we (as Peach Princess) and I personally (as Peter Payne) have spent so many thousands of hours of incredibly hard work to make these games a reality for you, really kind of punches me in the gut. I'm grateful that the people who enjoy thoughts like this (and who think it's acceptable to pirate our games) are a tiny minority, but knowing there are people who play these bishoujo by downloading them from warez sites, but who still consider themselves to be "fans" of the genre, makes me sad.
With the kind support of fans like you, and with the high quality of the bishoujo titles that we've been fortunate to procure for your enjoyment, we think we've got a fantastic chance at bringing the English-language bishoujo game market to an unprecedented new era. I believe, though, that this is really and truly the "last, best chance" for Japan's unique pretty girl games in the English-speaking market. We've been fortunate to receive amazing support from our principle partners, Will and Crowd, and will be able to bring out some really fantastic games for you. But if we do not receive support from fans, both casual and "pure," I don't believe that there will ever be a new entrant into the English gaming market by a Japanese company, ever -- no Elf, no Leaf, no Alice Soft. If Peach Princess's games are pirated and we cannot build a large enough support base, we will eventually go the way of the many that have gone before us: Megatech, Otaku Publishing, RCY America, and the rest.
I will get off my soapbox now. Thank you again for supporting us, and have fun with Tokimeki Check in!
Peter R. Payne
peter@peachprincess.com
July, 2001