Hol' up!
Can someone explain to me what this "losing Koikatsu" is?
Usually, just cause a software goes bankrupt doesn't mean all their software becomes unable to use. I mean, sure, you won't be able to buy new copies of the game anymore. And there will be no more updates, which means your existing copy will need to be run by an emulator after it becomes uncompatible with the mainstream computer system 50 years from now .
But assuming Selebus bought Koikatsu, couldn't he just keep on using it for the time being? Or even download it from F95zone, worse case scenerio?
And since Illusion is busted and no company's apparently going to be buying them, isn't the possiblility of someone suing Selebus for using Koikatsu still at virtually 0%
"losing Koikatsu" is a bit dramatic. Barring some absurd DRM lost media bullshit on Illusion's part that somehow breaks every copy of their games (highly unlikely) the toolset should continue to function.
When a company shuts down, it's very rare that they just turn out the lights, lock the doors, and shut down. There's usually a sell-off of assets to cover final debts, liabilities, and taxes. Nobody was interested in buying them outright, but individual assets may still have value.
It's just a question of "who buys what". If it's another eroge studio in Japan, odds are good nothing of value happens outside of Japan, because noen of those studios exist as legal entities outside of the country to my knowledge. If those rights are bought by an international hentai distributor like Fakku, however, all bets are off, because they're slimy litigious greaseballs.
In the short term, it will be business as usual. Depending on who acquires the rights, we might see some action down the line -- but I'll be perfectly honest, considering that Illusion is primarily shutting down because of what they considered excessive piracy, odds are good that the distribution rights aren't going to be considered to be worth much, which makes legal action a highly unlikely scenario.
The only real concern is copyright trolling. This is the exact kind of market that copyright trolls love, and if they get their hands on the rights, they'll go after pretty much everyone. Whether they're successful will depend largely on whether their targets can afford to fight back or not.
In an absolute worst case scenario, copyright trolls buy the rights, go after all the indie devs using KK/HS, most of them shut down, and the ones who aren't broken by the ordeal remake their game in a new engine using a different toolset. And given that Sel has already endured this nightmare once before with Patreon, he strikes me as being the kind of stubborn cuss who'd do exactly that. He's already said that whenever he starts his next project, it wasn't going to be using KK anyway.
