Hirameki International no longer publishing Visual Novels @ Gaming Target

Written by Jason Young on January 08, 2008

News: Maker of Ever 17: Out of Infinity and Hourglass of Summer moves onto other things.

For the few thousand fans of Japanese "visual novels" in America, January 2, 2008 marked a sad day as Hirameki International Group has decided to stop publishing visual novels (Japanese adventure games similar to "interactive" fiction). Although the company was rather small and never acquired the popularity of J-List subsidiaries JASTUSA, G-Collections, and Peach Princess, it's unfortunate to see that one of the few Japanese companies that had any interest in expanding the reach of this niche market went out of business. Hirameki focused on releasing all-age appropriate visual novels for the PC and "interactive DVD." The company was best known for publishing Ever 17: Out of Infinity and Hourglass of Summer.

The message was delivered through the company's website, which read as follows:

Hirameki International Group, Inc. has decided to bow out of publishing Interactive Visual Novels as of January 2, 2008.

We would like to thank you for all the support you have given us over the years. We wish you all the best.

Best Regards,
Hirameki International Group, Inc.

Although the company has not shut their doors, they have currently decided to concentrate on other things. Aside from the message announcing their change of direction, they have also taken their whole website (including the community forums) offline.

We'll have more as it develops.