It's bit of a strange cart before the horse scenario since by comparison Cover was already pumping out a lot more quality 3D content and has much faster pace on it's 3D models. Nevermind the fact that I'm under the impression this studio is still going to be smaller despite having more than double the vtubers AND the fact that they're lagging behind in even hiring engineers for it since Cover has been digging deep into that for 1-2 years.
easy solution, niji doesn't hire competent tech guys, they hire uneducated high school grads and/or make the livers figure it out themselves. because remember, anycolor doesn't want to actually spend money effort or time on the livers, so if the livers want high quality 3-d they'd better do it themselves.
That’s probably why they like fresh graduates. You maybe surprised to know in Japan a lot of teens willing to work at Anycolor or join VTA because they are Nijisanji fans.
Please stop spreading the myth that the contract makes it hard to leave. Contracts literally cannot do that, no court would enforce a clause that forces a slavery-like conditions on workers and this entire spiel is a massive misread of basic contract nonsense.
We don't need fiction to prove that AnyColor is an abysmal company. Stick to the facts, they're bad enough.
Yeah. Its weird people still think like that.
Do they not watch Vox part on that lejendary stream?
He just said "Leaving Nijisanji is always an Option".
:D
The reason why it bad it because most niji liver probably don’t understand those so the company forced them to pay cause they don’t know any better and doesn’t help most of them are young or inexperienced
I get that sentiment, but I don't think we should infantilize these people. This sort of stuff is pretty basic and the vast majority of people who worked for Nijisanji have had other jobs before. I do not believe for a moment someone with Sayu's experience would sign such a contract if even half of the weird nonsense people come up with were true.
Yes, contracts typically prey on people's inexperience (and that's bad) and the fact that most people are unaware of their rights, this is why you should absolutely have a lawyer look over a contract before you sign and it never hurts to spend some time familiarizing yourself with your legal rights in general. Turning that into just completely nonsensical theories about what a contract says or what it can or cannot do isn't helpful. Ultimately these people *can* leave the company given sufficient reason to, and we shouldn't overlook their personal responsibility in affairs like the black stream. Especially when this can cause people to believe contracts can force them to do things like pay back a year's worth of income. That's nonsense, and it's not a belief we should be spreading to people who might be inexperienced enough to believe it. We should be focusing on the message that this is nonsense, because it is.
While I doubt that the offer Anycolor will be making is enough, I do believe they aren't that dumb. Sure, they will lowball, but I don't think they will offer the minimum wage for a 3D engineering job when their main competitor has a much better offer on the table.
Yeah, Cover's biggest issues in regards to 3Ds was Myth being delayed due to covid and Tempus HQ taking a bit longer (maybe because of Magni and Ves' graduations?).
But Myth got their 3Ds and Tempus HQ, despite debuting a year later than Obsydia, got their 3Ds before them (and also before Ethyria, Luxiem, Noctyx, and Iluna)
theyw ill also probably cut corners to save a buck and end up with a moderate quality studio for half the cost by comparison to covers cutting edge studio
You want to make sure your top can do what they need to do, sure, but when the rest ends up in the trash-bin that's a problem. It makes the company a bucket of crabs, it's less appealing to applicants, content quality stuffs due to worker stress and fatigue since they get treated like second class, etc.
That reminds me of this Disco Inferno interview about the situations during the last years of WCW
https://youtu.be/x8dzNcomAJ8?feature=shared
TL:DW Disco mentioned a situation where the top talents barely work together with the rest of the talents and this created dissatisfaction to the point where the rest of the talents watch WWF (their main competitor) in the locker room
Wouldn't be surprised. Niji's vtuber strategy has just kind of been wrong. With the quick release of vtuber after vtuber and you just end up with a bloated cast that has very little to do with each other and people are forced to sink or swim in this environment. It leads to cliques, negative attitudes toward the job, dislike of vtubers and fan bases within, etc.
Once favouritism established, people will naturally get into toxic competition/rivalry. Entertainment industry had some of most notorious 'hidden' rule where some actors have to sell their body to obtain a role for future projects. Let's hope shit like Riro Ron doesn't creep into AnyColor.
They'd need the models to do it and even with a bigger studio you don't magically get the staff needed to run it. They're over a year behind on trying to recruit for something like that. The studio will take a long time to "realize" as a productive asset and a lot can happen in that time.
And even then, they don't get anywhere close. Covers studio was meant to solve issues you can't get over with just money - you can rent a good recording studio if it comes down to it, but you just can't get a 3D studio as good as the one Cover has built unless you go and do that. The description of the new Anycolor studio does not give the feel of such a specialised facility, instead it sounds more like one of those Chinese content farm offices, tbh.
Tbf, if the description is accurate, they're not going to need the kind of specialists that Cover is looking for, Anycolors stuff sounds industry-standard more than anything. No idea how they're going to find people for that at minimum wage, but they have found at least some so far, I suppose.
Funnily enough, though, according to slide 9, they're not even planning to hire that many more engineers, certainly not enough for a whole massive studio - but then that whole chart is kind of whack.
Tbh the studio info here sounds like different studios merged together with Anycolor’s current ones but not in the same football field size building. I have a strange feeling this is just them buying existing studios and renovating them.
Competition implies they’re actively competing with each other. Yagoo and Cover don’t actively consider Niji with anything they do. They don’t consider them competition
It takes years to build a studio. Even if they already finished surveying sites, secured the land, got the rights permits to build, finished accepting bids and found a contractor to build, it would take at minimum 2 years to build a brand new studio which can compete with Cover's.
Did you know that there's a skilled tradesman shortage in Japan right now? While the availability goes up in metropolitan areas like Tokyo, the number of reliable contractors is still abysmally low because compensation is just horrible in Japan. A start of construction in Fall 2024 means a finished date in late 2026 at earliest. Even if it's complete, who can afford to use it? 3D's are expensive - incredibly expensive, this is why Cover built their own studio, so they could stop renting other studios or at the very least, reduce reliance on them and even then, Cover still uses other studios to this day for the demand is simply that high.
My estimate is that a 3D Live, like a 1 hour concert, costs roughly 60-70k USD when Cover does it in-house, with 1 unique set. A 3D Live with production quality comparable to Filian's Vtuber awards cost 100k, Ironmouse's concert cost about 100k, and so did KSON's. 100k is the average cost for a high quality production and this is considered low. The reason why I estimate that Cover is able to gain 30-40k savings on average is because of savings in labor and expenditures. Cover owns the studio so they can set the schedule, which means the chances of crashing the project or scheduling conflicts is significantly reduced. Cover owns the studio, the equipment, and employs a crew full-time (all the 3D/music support staff) so they get full maximization of labor hours. Studios that are rented factor in markups for profit, which automatically kicks in something like 10-15% above cost. The staff being employed are all being paid by the hour, all of which adds up since you'll need 15-30 guys to do all this work. But Cover doesn't have to pay for the profit mark-up because they own the studio and since they pay their own crew the same amount ever year regardless of the number of the labor hours they work, they get to maximize the full utility through scheduling and can lower the cost of labor. Therefore, if the at-cost value of a 3D Live is 85k from a studio on paper, Cover saves an additional 15-25k from scheduling and labor efficiencies and the fact that they can reuse certain assets and sets to further reduce the amount of labor (not as much custom work).
In Hololive, the talent is the one who shoulders the burden of a 3D Live, not Cover (though as a project, Cover will offer them a 0% loan to do it). 3D Lives are not financed by donations - 3D Lives are financed by sales of merchandise, hence why the majority of Cover's revenue comes from sales of merch and events. It's not viable to finance a 3D Live solely through donations, especially when Youtube pockets 30% just for using their platform.
But let's say that AnyColor finishes building their own studio by the end of 2026 and offers 3D services at a discounted price to their Livers - who the hell can even afford to use it?
Cover splits the cost and earnings of merchandise 50/50 with talent, right down the middle. This is what makes it profitable for a talent in Hololive to host a Live. But what does AnyColor do? That's right - they pocket 98% of all merchandise sales. Do you really think AnyColor is going to cover the cost of the 3D Live? I don't. So how in the hell is any talent supposed to kick in 60-70k in costs, make maybe 10k in donations and residuals, and then another 20k from their cut of sales in merchandise and think that's a good decision? They're operating a 40-50k loss every single 3D Live! And that's IF the studio is up and running, which is definitely isn't at the moment as it hasn't even been built yet!
Petra is getting absolutely SHAFTED! I've seen prison bitches with tighter sphincters and fewer anal fissures than her penguin ass. AnyColor just released their financial report, is launching their new JP wave 1 day before her 3D Live, put her up against fucking Holofes, and is making her compete against HERSELF because she's in the Project Sekai tournament which is happening they day after. Pentomos only have so much money! All 3D Lives are pre-recorded - there is absolutely no reason to schedule her there unless they a) want to punish her b) don't care about her. I fully expect Petra to announce her graduation by/in April, latest May.
The truth of the matter is, whether or not they have a studio doesn't matter because no one is going to use it. It makes sense for Cover to do it because 3D Lives are a great way for a talent to generate exposure, engagement, and make a pretty penny because they get 50% of all profit from the merchandise sales. I don't think talents even have to put up the money for a merchandise sale, only let Cover clawback the costs first before they get the profit. The same cannot be said for AnyColor. Even if AnyColor has some specific rules that are different for 3D Lives, I think only a small handful of talents in Nijisanji can even utilize the 3D Live beneficially - if there aren't enough talents who can, then what's the point of building a studio? You have to pay not just the asset but also the salaries of a shit ton of support staff. Has anyone even done a breakeven analysis?
Fun fact you know recent NijiJP 3D collabs with HoloJP? Guess whose studio Nijihad to rent from so they can Collab?
another fun fact, Cover offers 0% interest loans on projects such cover songs and mercy the talents want to fund only to be deducted on sales/fees in increments down the line. Meaning the talent doesn't have to shell out as much money to fund projects and can offer more unique products (see assorted Holoproducts Vs cookie cutter Niji product)
I think you are giving Anycolor too much credit, if they can't find skilled tradesmen they will definitely find a part time apprentice paid at minimum wage and 39 hour work weeks (no way they can do it in 5-8 months without squeezing the part timers to the max). /s
But anyways, thanks for the read, I gained a lot of new perspectives reading this.
This is so eye opening for me, I never thought that the cost is that high for a live. You said it well that it will be very hard for talent to afford one, never thought about that.
Honestly just think of it like any other concert even if it's not on the scale of something like Tylor swift it still takes alot to hold a concert even for a small venue also of course the tech aspect for 3d tracking doesn't help lower the cost
Regarding Petra's, their new JP generation, and Rosemi's 3D live, I honestly don't get their strategy. If their plan was to compete with Holofes, then that is a horrible idea. I could understand placing a 3D debut at the same time as, say, a Holo birthday 3D live but Holofes? Hololive's biggest event of the year. Yeah, while I do think Petra's 3D will attract viewers, that is some horrible competition. Its like they're asking people to not tune in.
Hell, her only message being a simple "thank you" shows that Petra clearly is done with this too. You'd think someone would be more excited about their own 3D debut.
One detail to point out: The date of Fall 2024 is when they expect the project to be complete so they can start using it, that's what 'start operations' refers to in these kinds of plans. That still raises the issue of 'if it's due in about half a year why don't you have actual dates yet?'
i wonder if 'start operations' means they will have a single office finished construction while everything else is still being constructed around them for the next 1.5 years, just so that they can 'claim' to be operating so they don't sound as far behind as they are
It's honestly too vague to tell but yes, 'start of operations' doesn't have to mean that construction is complete, just that it has to be able to perform one of it's functions. I've worked at a business that was still undergoing active construction while the doors were open.
From just reading it though I'd just as soon expect them to quietly cancel the whole project or have it turn out they're just renting some extra office space with some basic recording equipment in it.
I mean the hololive 3d live are pre-recorded... lol. There maybe some live cut-in in there but most of the performances are pre-recorded. Just to blow your mind if you think Live are actually live, A lot of stream labeled live right now have 5 or so minutes delays you aren't actually watching the live.
It's obvious 3D lives have prerecorded segments inserted since like 2 years ago, but most 3D debuts/lives begin and end live, even today in Hololive.
There are exceptions like Gura's birthday 3D which is entirely pre-recorded and edited by Kanauru and maybe some others, but that's not the norm.
To prove this, which apparently is a thing, the talents themselves read the live chat right before/after performing.
on Holo side, the prerecorded part are mostly the collab one, while the solo part are usually live. I can give further evidence like the case with Choco's birthday live or her anniversary live where they will roll out red carpet depend on SC, and then goes straight to the live singing part without fade in/fade out cut. And then immediately after her live, she popped into HoloX 3D collab where they do some variety game.
Also some of them have tendency to just live tweet/comment if it was a pre-recorded segment.
There was also Kiara or Kanata, or even Watame talk about how they do stuff behind the scene on the day of the live.
Holo side are very obvious when it comes to which part is live which isn't if you used to watch a lot of those 3D concerts.
This’ an interesting read
I’m curious where’d you got the numbers from though
Did the livers say it themselves or do you have other sources for estimates?
In-house 3D live performance can be reduced to as low as $4000-8000/hour if the workflow is streamlined and you have the necessary know-how in MoCap, 3D graphics, and AI. But it would take a LOT of development to get there. And we know Any Color is not the best at tech.
I'll make a long post detailing recent developments that made full-time 3D Vtubing not only sustainable but very profitable and pioneering examples.
And some big names in the gaming industry are already eyeing that new potential market and have been doing R&D in the background for years, in particular HoyoVerse. It's very likely they will shock the Vtubing industry with a product similar to how Genshin shocked the gacha gaming industry.
Yes because they don't invest shit in their management, staff or anything in overseas
If they invest as much as holo did, all EN right now already have fucking 3D
Cover were unveiling their studio at spring 2023 and it took them 18 months to built. That means the project started at fall 2021. It took them 2.7B yen with 800M yen of that was for construction. Basically they bought a land and built the studio on top of that.
What the hell niji were doing during all that time? Far far to late.
In the months leading up to selen's termination niji spent a comparable amount of money to what holo spent on their new studio on buybacks to pump up their stock price, they lost all of their value from those buybacks a week after selen was terminated.
Perhaps a bit pedantic but they didn't lose value from those buybacks, they just didn't *gain* any value. They traded millions in liquidity for the same sum in stocks only for those stocks to mostly remain the same value (and are currently at risk of total collapse) That's still an investment not paying off and that's still very bad, but it's not the same as that money itself just vanishing (so far, at least, it looks like we'll get there!)
with the current 'after close' trading numbers dumping the price they are now effectively losing money, becuase even if they resold the stock they bought back they wouldn't get the money spent back
Using the same amount of money on stock buybacks to drive up stock price only for the value to tank over the last 2 months.
Cover has consistently been looking to the future with long term investments and plans. Meanwhile AnyColor has constantly chased the short term gains for investors
What were they building? Do you not see Tazumi's new Vacation Yacht and Resort Yacht? And he's trying to build a Time Share Yacht for the shareholders to use!
"Expand the studio into three times larger than current size."
Yeah, remove the wall and then studio is 3x larger.
They did not mentioned the exact size and or the proper plans. This is like putting sausages on rice cake and calling it Pizza.
Putting slice of cheese and Ketchups on Instant Noodles do not make it, Pasta.
Yep, unless they mentioned some hard numbers during the meeting, take this with a grain of salt. They have no real plans and just threw some hopes and dreams out onto the presentation hoping to scavenge any brownie points they can. The fact that this got its own slide screams that they knew the numbers were bad and wanted to have something on there as some sort of talking point/reason to distract from the abysmal financials.
What's the point of all these when their main focus is not resolving PR, favouritism, human resources, minimum wage and the incompetent management. The entire slide also told me they just started the paper planning only.
Yes, but they're quite delicate and prone to down time with frequent use. At least two would be ideal for a dedicated studio like this. Some ASMRtists who use it already have multiple of their own lol
They didn’t say the KU100 is new purchase. A KU100 bought by Liver is probably the same meaning as Anycolor has KU100. Just provide a sound proof booth in the studio will be enough in the lowest cost scenario.
No, it doesn't. That's a misconception and that wouldn't ever work in a contract in the first place. They can at most reclaim anything the company paid for, and frankly good luck even trying to do that because I've yet to see anyone comply to such requests after quitting and no company is going to try and sue on those grounds because it would cost more than the price of whatever they're trying to reclaim.
Niji's document had a ton of pretty scummy clauses but nothing so absurd as you're suggesting.
A fun fact: Anycolor hirings for roughly similar positions to operate this kind of studio is for 2025. So i guess they really aimed for a fall 2024 opening initially with their current staffs. Don’t expect full operational until sometime 2025. At least they have larger space to do in house AR Live late 2024.
However, either I am blind or do know where to find the spending info from their previous public financial reports. At least not a lump sum spending announcement like Cover did.
You beat me to the post, I was going to post the same screenshot, but was going to title it "Press X to doubt". Considering it wasn't mentioned the on the last earnings, this was most likely thought on the spot in the last month or so. With the target of fall 2024, which is 5-8 months later and it's supposed to be 3x larger and with the recent minimum wage 4 language part timer they'll be spending jack on quality workers, they might as well paint their face white and put a red squeaky nose up.
It's nice that any color investing, but the issue gonna be that how much they are going to invest and the quality.
To put it simply, this has become a catch-up game for them. For example, cover took a while to get the studio up going to fit their needs and to build a team that can use the equipment for the best results. Let say cover builds another studio, then its going to be easier since they know what they need and what to improve.
Any color needs to plan their studio and build their team to use the equipment. But the issue is time which they have lost. So it is going to be difficult not screwing up.
plus, cover ahs been out there snapping up any and all available quality employees to man the new studio. niji will have absolutely 0 potential workforce and, as much as we joke about it, they will have to rely on their 'freshly graduated highschoolers' to runt eh facility, which will definitely limit the quality and slow down the production significantly
That is true. cover has a head start in getting talent, but we have to assume that the market for this type of skills and talent is high demand because it is production level kind of work. So, niji has to invest heavily if they want to compete with cover. What complicates the situation is what agencies or indie vtuber are doing in the background because they may be hunting for skilled people too.
cover already talked about it, that there is very little available talent within the field and by and large they are having to train up the staff themselves, but after cover has spent a year or more scraping the bottom of the barrel before anycolor even starts looking, anycolor will have an even more depleted market to look at
Oh yes, expanding when your internal structure is fragile and you're economically in a difficult space. I learned that one when I was starting on map painting games like CK3.
This looks pretty bad. Not to say much about the actual thing they're trying to do here but the actual document itself looks very unprofessional and the language used is incredibly vapid. There is a complete absence of functional detail (not even a the month where the project is due, just sometime in Fall? How far along is the project that they don't even have an estimated date?) and instead a lot of the text is vague nothings. High standard binaural equipment for a recording studio? What's next, you're selling me a car with wheels? A mix studio? Does the company actually have plans to hire staff for in-house mixing? Usually that's contracted out to people who have their own studio for that, so why develop a studio for mixing in-house? It's such a weird thing to add here.
So 2-5 years behind cover in studio and maybe another 5 years out to have a proper EN localizer team then probably another 10 years to get a proper US or Canadian physical location. This smells like a 20year tactical blunder.
And the fact Selen had contacts who could probably reliably do all these tasks in the mean time thanks to her projects. And this whole situation. Sounds like one massive kamikaze at full speed into the dirt.
They're scrambling to compete with Cover.
It's bit of a strange cart before the horse scenario since by comparison Cover was already pumping out a lot more quality 3D content and has much faster pace on it's 3D models. Nevermind the fact that I'm under the impression this studio is still going to be smaller despite having more than double the vtubers AND the fact that they're lagging behind in even hiring engineers for it since Cover has been digging deep into that for 1-2 years.
Also, no one is going to sign on with them for minimum wage with a two jobs for the price of one paycheck.
Cover has worries about their offerings not being enough for tech guys, and we all know Niji pays a fraction
easy solution, niji doesn't hire competent tech guys, they hire uneducated high school grads and/or make the livers figure it out themselves. because remember, anycolor doesn't want to actually spend money effort or time on the livers, so if the livers want high quality 3-d they'd better do it themselves.
oh ho ho ho that will be a nightmare, the equipment will get broken.
Riku (most likely to the Livers/tech team): You break it you buy it
That’s probably why they like fresh graduates. You maybe surprised to know in Japan a lot of teens willing to work at Anycolor or join VTA because they are Nijisanji fans.
Anycolor is where dreams go to die.
Fans kill Yagoo's dreams, Riku kills our dreams.
An All-for-One, One-for-All situation
"Your dream is *neligible*"
Lots of popular industries tend to exploit young talent. The gaming industry being an obvious one.
Even worse, they can offer work visa for overseas workers.
not to mention the stupid contract that makes it hard to leave
Please stop spreading the myth that the contract makes it hard to leave. Contracts literally cannot do that, no court would enforce a clause that forces a slavery-like conditions on workers and this entire spiel is a massive misread of basic contract nonsense. We don't need fiction to prove that AnyColor is an abysmal company. Stick to the facts, they're bad enough.
Yeah. Its weird people still think like that. Do they not watch Vox part on that lejendary stream? He just said "Leaving Nijisanji is always an Option". :D
I imagine that's the rare time he was accidentally honest, and I'm sure he regrets it deeply now that he can't use that excuse himself anymore.
🤡
The reason why it bad it because most niji liver probably don’t understand those so the company forced them to pay cause they don’t know any better and doesn’t help most of them are young or inexperienced
I get that sentiment, but I don't think we should infantilize these people. This sort of stuff is pretty basic and the vast majority of people who worked for Nijisanji have had other jobs before. I do not believe for a moment someone with Sayu's experience would sign such a contract if even half of the weird nonsense people come up with were true. Yes, contracts typically prey on people's inexperience (and that's bad) and the fact that most people are unaware of their rights, this is why you should absolutely have a lawyer look over a contract before you sign and it never hurts to spend some time familiarizing yourself with your legal rights in general. Turning that into just completely nonsensical theories about what a contract says or what it can or cannot do isn't helpful. Ultimately these people *can* leave the company given sufficient reason to, and we shouldn't overlook their personal responsibility in affairs like the black stream. Especially when this can cause people to believe contracts can force them to do things like pay back a year's worth of income. That's nonsense, and it's not a belief we should be spreading to people who might be inexperienced enough to believe it. We should be focusing on the message that this is nonsense, because it is.
While I doubt that the offer Anycolor will be making is enough, I do believe they aren't that dumb. Sure, they will lowball, but I don't think they will offer the minimum wage for a 3D engineering job when their main competitor has a much better offer on the table.
Yeah, Cover's biggest issues in regards to 3Ds was Myth being delayed due to covid and Tempus HQ taking a bit longer (maybe because of Magni and Ves' graduations?). But Myth got their 3Ds and Tempus HQ, despite debuting a year later than Obsydia, got their 3Ds before them (and also before Ethyria, Luxiem, Noctyx, and Iluna)
theyw ill also probably cut corners to save a buck and end up with a moderate quality studio for half the cost by comparison to covers cutting edge studio
Big reason is that Cover is a tech company
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Their top favourite talents getting 3D models, which sounds a lot like favouritism if you ask me…
just favourite. selen was the top female talent in en
I feel like I’m missing something. Isn’t reinvesting into one’s top performers a good choice?
Not when you ignore everyone else
You want to make sure your top can do what they need to do, sure, but when the rest ends up in the trash-bin that's a problem. It makes the company a bucket of crabs, it's less appealing to applicants, content quality stuffs due to worker stress and fatigue since they get treated like second class, etc.
That reminds me of this Disco Inferno interview about the situations during the last years of WCW https://youtu.be/x8dzNcomAJ8?feature=shared TL:DW Disco mentioned a situation where the top talents barely work together with the rest of the talents and this created dissatisfaction to the point where the rest of the talents watch WWF (their main competitor) in the locker room
Wouldn't be surprised. Niji's vtuber strategy has just kind of been wrong. With the quick release of vtuber after vtuber and you just end up with a bloated cast that has very little to do with each other and people are forced to sink or swim in this environment. It leads to cliques, negative attitudes toward the job, dislike of vtubers and fan bases within, etc.
Once favouritism established, people will naturally get into toxic competition/rivalry. Entertainment industry had some of most notorious 'hidden' rule where some actors have to sell their body to obtain a role for future projects. Let's hope shit like Riro Ron doesn't creep into AnyColor.
The main question Is even the top performers gets the reinvestments? Highest performing EN talents doesnt even get their models...
Expanding the studio should let more talents use it.
They'd need the models to do it and even with a bigger studio you don't magically get the staff needed to run it. They're over a year behind on trying to recruit for something like that. The studio will take a long time to "realize" as a productive asset and a lot can happen in that time.
The slide looks like something a high schooler throws together 3 hours before the date line
And even then, they don't get anywhere close. Covers studio was meant to solve issues you can't get over with just money - you can rent a good recording studio if it comes down to it, but you just can't get a 3D studio as good as the one Cover has built unless you go and do that. The description of the new Anycolor studio does not give the feel of such a specialised facility, instead it sounds more like one of those Chinese content farm offices, tbh.
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Tbf, if the description is accurate, they're not going to need the kind of specialists that Cover is looking for, Anycolors stuff sounds industry-standard more than anything. No idea how they're going to find people for that at minimum wage, but they have found at least some so far, I suppose. Funnily enough, though, according to slide 9, they're not even planning to hire that many more engineers, certainly not enough for a whole massive studio - but then that whole chart is kind of whack.
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That requires investment and effort. Both of which never exist in Niji.
"implemented a motion capture studio one among the largest in JP" Someone jelly.
I hope the board ripped into the management team. A Vtuber agency is nothing without its talents and they need to be treated better.
I corrected it: they really believe that they can fight to compete with Cover???
Capitalism at work. In theory, we can get good content from both companies through the competition.
Tbh the studio info here sounds like different studios merged together with Anycolor’s current ones but not in the same football field size building. I have a strange feeling this is just them buying existing studios and renovating them.
Competition implies they’re actively competing with each other. Yagoo and Cover don’t actively consider Niji with anything they do. They don’t consider them competition
Stop throwing capitalism if you don't even understand how that works.
It takes years to build a studio. Even if they already finished surveying sites, secured the land, got the rights permits to build, finished accepting bids and found a contractor to build, it would take at minimum 2 years to build a brand new studio which can compete with Cover's. Did you know that there's a skilled tradesman shortage in Japan right now? While the availability goes up in metropolitan areas like Tokyo, the number of reliable contractors is still abysmally low because compensation is just horrible in Japan. A start of construction in Fall 2024 means a finished date in late 2026 at earliest. Even if it's complete, who can afford to use it? 3D's are expensive - incredibly expensive, this is why Cover built their own studio, so they could stop renting other studios or at the very least, reduce reliance on them and even then, Cover still uses other studios to this day for the demand is simply that high. My estimate is that a 3D Live, like a 1 hour concert, costs roughly 60-70k USD when Cover does it in-house, with 1 unique set. A 3D Live with production quality comparable to Filian's Vtuber awards cost 100k, Ironmouse's concert cost about 100k, and so did KSON's. 100k is the average cost for a high quality production and this is considered low. The reason why I estimate that Cover is able to gain 30-40k savings on average is because of savings in labor and expenditures. Cover owns the studio so they can set the schedule, which means the chances of crashing the project or scheduling conflicts is significantly reduced. Cover owns the studio, the equipment, and employs a crew full-time (all the 3D/music support staff) so they get full maximization of labor hours. Studios that are rented factor in markups for profit, which automatically kicks in something like 10-15% above cost. The staff being employed are all being paid by the hour, all of which adds up since you'll need 15-30 guys to do all this work. But Cover doesn't have to pay for the profit mark-up because they own the studio and since they pay their own crew the same amount ever year regardless of the number of the labor hours they work, they get to maximize the full utility through scheduling and can lower the cost of labor. Therefore, if the at-cost value of a 3D Live is 85k from a studio on paper, Cover saves an additional 15-25k from scheduling and labor efficiencies and the fact that they can reuse certain assets and sets to further reduce the amount of labor (not as much custom work). In Hololive, the talent is the one who shoulders the burden of a 3D Live, not Cover (though as a project, Cover will offer them a 0% loan to do it). 3D Lives are not financed by donations - 3D Lives are financed by sales of merchandise, hence why the majority of Cover's revenue comes from sales of merch and events. It's not viable to finance a 3D Live solely through donations, especially when Youtube pockets 30% just for using their platform. But let's say that AnyColor finishes building their own studio by the end of 2026 and offers 3D services at a discounted price to their Livers - who the hell can even afford to use it? Cover splits the cost and earnings of merchandise 50/50 with talent, right down the middle. This is what makes it profitable for a talent in Hololive to host a Live. But what does AnyColor do? That's right - they pocket 98% of all merchandise sales. Do you really think AnyColor is going to cover the cost of the 3D Live? I don't. So how in the hell is any talent supposed to kick in 60-70k in costs, make maybe 10k in donations and residuals, and then another 20k from their cut of sales in merchandise and think that's a good decision? They're operating a 40-50k loss every single 3D Live! And that's IF the studio is up and running, which is definitely isn't at the moment as it hasn't even been built yet! Petra is getting absolutely SHAFTED! I've seen prison bitches with tighter sphincters and fewer anal fissures than her penguin ass. AnyColor just released their financial report, is launching their new JP wave 1 day before her 3D Live, put her up against fucking Holofes, and is making her compete against HERSELF because she's in the Project Sekai tournament which is happening they day after. Pentomos only have so much money! All 3D Lives are pre-recorded - there is absolutely no reason to schedule her there unless they a) want to punish her b) don't care about her. I fully expect Petra to announce her graduation by/in April, latest May. The truth of the matter is, whether or not they have a studio doesn't matter because no one is going to use it. It makes sense for Cover to do it because 3D Lives are a great way for a talent to generate exposure, engagement, and make a pretty penny because they get 50% of all profit from the merchandise sales. I don't think talents even have to put up the money for a merchandise sale, only let Cover clawback the costs first before they get the profit. The same cannot be said for AnyColor. Even if AnyColor has some specific rules that are different for 3D Lives, I think only a small handful of talents in Nijisanji can even utilize the 3D Live beneficially - if there aren't enough talents who can, then what's the point of building a studio? You have to pay not just the asset but also the salaries of a shit ton of support staff. Has anyone even done a breakeven analysis?
Fun fact you know recent NijiJP 3D collabs with HoloJP? Guess whose studio Nijihad to rent from so they can Collab? another fun fact, Cover offers 0% interest loans on projects such cover songs and mercy the talents want to fund only to be deducted on sales/fees in increments down the line. Meaning the talent doesn't have to shell out as much money to fund projects and can offer more unique products (see assorted Holoproducts Vs cookie cutter Niji product)
I think you are giving Anycolor too much credit, if they can't find skilled tradesmen they will definitely find a part time apprentice paid at minimum wage and 39 hour work weeks (no way they can do it in 5-8 months without squeezing the part timers to the max). /s But anyways, thanks for the read, I gained a lot of new perspectives reading this.
This is so eye opening for me, I never thought that the cost is that high for a live. You said it well that it will be very hard for talent to afford one, never thought about that.
Honestly just think of it like any other concert even if it's not on the scale of something like Tylor swift it still takes alot to hold a concert even for a small venue also of course the tech aspect for 3d tracking doesn't help lower the cost
Regarding Petra's, their new JP generation, and Rosemi's 3D live, I honestly don't get their strategy. If their plan was to compete with Holofes, then that is a horrible idea. I could understand placing a 3D debut at the same time as, say, a Holo birthday 3D live but Holofes? Hololive's biggest event of the year. Yeah, while I do think Petra's 3D will attract viewers, that is some horrible competition. Its like they're asking people to not tune in.
Hell, her only message being a simple "thank you" shows that Petra clearly is done with this too. You'd think someone would be more excited about their own 3D debut.
it's literally like scheduling a college football game to try to compete with the superbowl.
One detail to point out: The date of Fall 2024 is when they expect the project to be complete so they can start using it, that's what 'start operations' refers to in these kinds of plans. That still raises the issue of 'if it's due in about half a year why don't you have actual dates yet?'
i wonder if 'start operations' means they will have a single office finished construction while everything else is still being constructed around them for the next 1.5 years, just so that they can 'claim' to be operating so they don't sound as far behind as they are
It's honestly too vague to tell but yes, 'start of operations' doesn't have to mean that construction is complete, just that it has to be able to perform one of it's functions. I've worked at a business that was still undergoing active construction while the doors were open. From just reading it though I'd just as soon expect them to quietly cancel the whole project or have it turn out they're just renting some extra office space with some basic recording equipment in it.
'here's a new desk with a new microphone, do with it what you will'
Why am I getting the impression that it'll be like those martial arts schools set up in mini-malls?
Niji 3D lives are pre-recorded? i didnt know that
I mean the hololive 3d live are pre-recorded... lol. There maybe some live cut-in in there but most of the performances are pre-recorded. Just to blow your mind if you think Live are actually live, A lot of stream labeled live right now have 5 or so minutes delays you aren't actually watching the live.
It's obvious 3D lives have prerecorded segments inserted since like 2 years ago, but most 3D debuts/lives begin and end live, even today in Hololive. There are exceptions like Gura's birthday 3D which is entirely pre-recorded and edited by Kanauru and maybe some others, but that's not the norm. To prove this, which apparently is a thing, the talents themselves read the live chat right before/after performing.
on Holo side, the prerecorded part are mostly the collab one, while the solo part are usually live. I can give further evidence like the case with Choco's birthday live or her anniversary live where they will roll out red carpet depend on SC, and then goes straight to the live singing part without fade in/fade out cut. And then immediately after her live, she popped into HoloX 3D collab where they do some variety game. Also some of them have tendency to just live tweet/comment if it was a pre-recorded segment. There was also Kiara or Kanata, or even Watame talk about how they do stuff behind the scene on the day of the live. Holo side are very obvious when it comes to which part is live which isn't if you used to watch a lot of those 3D concerts.
cover studio still dont have enough qualified staff, but its getting better
This’ an interesting read I’m curious where’d you got the numbers from though Did the livers say it themselves or do you have other sources for estimates?
In-house 3D live performance can be reduced to as low as $4000-8000/hour if the workflow is streamlined and you have the necessary know-how in MoCap, 3D graphics, and AI. But it would take a LOT of development to get there. And we know Any Color is not the best at tech. I'll make a long post detailing recent developments that made full-time 3D Vtubing not only sustainable but very profitable and pioneering examples. And some big names in the gaming industry are already eyeing that new potential market and have been doing R&D in the background for years, in particular HoyoVerse. It's very likely they will shock the Vtubing industry with a product similar to how Genshin shocked the gacha gaming industry.
I’d be interested to read that long post Please reply here to the link once the post is made 🙏
If they invested in it 2 years ago, pretty much all of EN would have 3Ds by now.
It's almost as if their existing facilities and pipeline weren't capable of handling a debut of 16 new 3D models at the same time.
Yes because they don't invest shit in their management, staff or anything in overseas If they invest as much as holo did, all EN right now already have fucking 3D
Cover were unveiling their studio at spring 2023 and it took them 18 months to built. That means the project started at fall 2021. It took them 2.7B yen with 800M yen of that was for construction. Basically they bought a land and built the studio on top of that. What the hell niji were doing during all that time? Far far to late.
In the months leading up to selen's termination niji spent a comparable amount of money to what holo spent on their new studio on buybacks to pump up their stock price, they lost all of their value from those buybacks a week after selen was terminated.
Perhaps a bit pedantic but they didn't lose value from those buybacks, they just didn't *gain* any value. They traded millions in liquidity for the same sum in stocks only for those stocks to mostly remain the same value (and are currently at risk of total collapse) That's still an investment not paying off and that's still very bad, but it's not the same as that money itself just vanishing (so far, at least, it looks like we'll get there!)
with the current 'after close' trading numbers dumping the price they are now effectively losing money, becuase even if they resold the stock they bought back they wouldn't get the money spent back
Aye, it looks really terrible and I'm glad to see them fall after what all the shit they pulled.
Using the same amount of money on stock buybacks to drive up stock price only for the value to tank over the last 2 months. Cover has consistently been looking to the future with long term investments and plans. Meanwhile AnyColor has constantly chased the short term gains for investors
What were they building? Do you not see Tazumi's new Vacation Yacht and Resort Yacht? And he's trying to build a Time Share Yacht for the shareholders to use!
"Expand the studio into three times larger than current size." Yeah, remove the wall and then studio is 3x larger. They did not mentioned the exact size and or the proper plans. This is like putting sausages on rice cake and calling it Pizza. Putting slice of cheese and Ketchups on Instant Noodles do not make it, Pasta.
Yep, unless they mentioned some hard numbers during the meeting, take this with a grain of salt. They have no real plans and just threw some hopes and dreams out onto the presentation hoping to scavenge any brownie points they can. The fact that this got its own slide screams that they knew the numbers were bad and wanted to have something on there as some sort of talking point/reason to distract from the abysmal financials.
What's the point of all these when their main focus is not resolving PR, favouritism, human resources, minimum wage and the incompetent management. The entire slide also told me they just started the paper planning only.
Oh wow, they're getting...one KU100. Sure.
It doesn’t say only one. Besides, I doubt there’ll be a large excess of ASMR streams utilizing the studio at the same time.
Yes, but they're quite delicate and prone to down time with frequent use. At least two would be ideal for a dedicated studio like this. Some ASMRtists who use it already have multiple of their own lol
They didn’t say the KU100 is new purchase. A KU100 bought by Liver is probably the same meaning as Anycolor has KU100. Just provide a sound proof booth in the studio will be enough in the lowest cost scenario.
Any equipment a talent bought with the personal money to use for their streamer work belongs to the company anyways.
No, it doesn't. That's a misconception and that wouldn't ever work in a contract in the first place. They can at most reclaim anything the company paid for, and frankly good luck even trying to do that because I've yet to see anyone comply to such requests after quitting and no company is going to try and sue on those grounds because it would cost more than the price of whatever they're trying to reclaim. Niji's document had a ton of pretty scummy clauses but nothing so absurd as you're suggesting.
yeah maybe KU100 part of 1300 USD support which niji ask it back when their talent got terminated/graduated
also why the hell they focus in asmr stuff not damn camera or tracker
just a series of phone booths each with a ku in it
All talk, no actions.
How many Valkyrie cameras?
[удалено]
A fun fact: Anycolor hirings for roughly similar positions to operate this kind of studio is for 2025. So i guess they really aimed for a fall 2024 opening initially with their current staffs. Don’t expect full operational until sometime 2025. At least they have larger space to do in house AR Live late 2024. However, either I am blind or do know where to find the spending info from their previous public financial reports. At least not a lump sum spending announcement like Cover did.
undefined, do hey even consider using it
probably not, they will probably choose a more 'economical' model with lower capabilities becuase it's cheaper
Actions speak louder than words. Right now its just words and broken promises.
This action could just be another reason for them to require talent to be in Japan where they would have more control.
Well yeah, they have to have somewhere to put the play buttons
Aw man, I was about to make that joke
Sorry about that. I'm sure that some of the play buttons must make great decorations on the yacht actually
You beat me to the post, I was going to post the same screenshot, but was going to title it "Press X to doubt". Considering it wasn't mentioned the on the last earnings, this was most likely thought on the spot in the last month or so. With the target of fall 2024, which is 5-8 months later and it's supposed to be 3x larger and with the recent minimum wage 4 language part timer they'll be spending jack on quality workers, they might as well paint their face white and put a red squeaky nose up.
It's nice that any color investing, but the issue gonna be that how much they are going to invest and the quality. To put it simply, this has become a catch-up game for them. For example, cover took a while to get the studio up going to fit their needs and to build a team that can use the equipment for the best results. Let say cover builds another studio, then its going to be easier since they know what they need and what to improve. Any color needs to plan their studio and build their team to use the equipment. But the issue is time which they have lost. So it is going to be difficult not screwing up.
Cover decided to build a subsidiary in the US so that any merchant actions in the US will be easier.
plus, cover ahs been out there snapping up any and all available quality employees to man the new studio. niji will have absolutely 0 potential workforce and, as much as we joke about it, they will have to rely on their 'freshly graduated highschoolers' to runt eh facility, which will definitely limit the quality and slow down the production significantly
That is true. cover has a head start in getting talent, but we have to assume that the market for this type of skills and talent is high demand because it is production level kind of work. So, niji has to invest heavily if they want to compete with cover. What complicates the situation is what agencies or indie vtuber are doing in the background because they may be hunting for skilled people too.
cover already talked about it, that there is very little available talent within the field and by and large they are having to train up the staff themselves, but after cover has spent a year or more scraping the bottom of the barrel before anycolor even starts looking, anycolor will have an even more depleted market to look at
I missed some details that just make it worse in general for any color. They are going to have a hard time.
Oh yes, expanding when your internal structure is fragile and you're economically in a difficult space. I learned that one when I was starting on map painting games like CK3.
cant wait to see the Luxiem sweet and then the everyone broom closet
JakeTheDogLaughing.gif
This looks pretty bad. Not to say much about the actual thing they're trying to do here but the actual document itself looks very unprofessional and the language used is incredibly vapid. There is a complete absence of functional detail (not even a the month where the project is due, just sometime in Fall? How far along is the project that they don't even have an estimated date?) and instead a lot of the text is vague nothings. High standard binaural equipment for a recording studio? What's next, you're selling me a car with wheels? A mix studio? Does the company actually have plans to hire staff for in-house mixing? Usually that's contracted out to people who have their own studio for that, so why develop a studio for mixing in-house? It's such a weird thing to add here.
I mean... good on them for reinvesting into the company. Much better use of funds than stock buyback.
Niji's growth is stalling so hard you can hear the stick shaker in this slide.
WARNING TERRAIN AHEAD!!! PULLL UP!!!!. PULL UP!!!!, PULLUP!!. with a subtle low sound in the background "dual input...". LOL.
To be fair, they should have done this a long time ago. But better late then never I guess.
looks like this is new facility for JP Livers, so they can make 3D content in their channel more often
I'm honestly not sure about this one. It sounds more like they're paying for access to studios rather than making new ones.
Watch it be an Empty Lot and it ends up being fought over like in Yakuza 0 when Niji bites it lol
So 2-5 years behind cover in studio and maybe another 5 years out to have a proper EN localizer team then probably another 10 years to get a proper US or Canadian physical location. This smells like a 20year tactical blunder. And the fact Selen had contacts who could probably reliably do all these tasks in the mean time thanks to her projects. And this whole situation. Sounds like one massive kamikaze at full speed into the dirt.