Sol Press was an American

publishing company Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

that focused on localizing Japanese

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

s, and manga. Located in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

, it was formed in 2017. In October 2021, it was prohibited from doing business in the state of California for non-payment of taxes. The company had licensed nine visual novels, nine light novels, and six manga for release on the Steam and

Kadokawa Kadokawa may refer to: *Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publis ...

's BookWalker platforms.

History

Sol Press was founded in February 2017 by Michael Valdez, who was unhappy with the slow translation processes and products of other

video game localization Video game localization (American English), or video game localisation (British English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of preparing a video game for a ...

companies. For the company's titles, Valdez emphasized the importance of not charging players for patches as he believed it was unnecessary and an unpopular business tactic. Although Sol Press-licensed visual novels are censored when released on Steam, free patches to receive adult content in the original games are downloadable on external websites. In September 2017, Sol Press created a Kickstarter fundraiser to support the localization of the Haikuo Soft visual novel/

eroge An ''eroge'' ( or , ''erogē''; ; a portmanteau of ''erotic game'' , ''erochikku gēmu'') is a Japanese genre of erotic video game. In 1982, Japan's Koei, founded by husband-and-wife team Yoichi and Keiko Erikawa (and later known for strate ...

Sakura Sakura , also known as "Sakura", is a traditional Japanese folk song depicting spring, the season of cherry blossoms. It is often sung in international settings as a song representative of Japan. Contrary to popular belief, the song did not originate ...

''. Despite ''Sakura Sakura'' age and obscurity, Sol Press elected to pick up the game following positive feedback from the staff. Funding for the Kickstarter was completed a month later. It was released on November 19, 2018, on Steam. A second Haikuo Soft visual novel, '' Yotsunoha'', saw a Western release on July 13, 2019, on Sol Press' website after it was denied publishing by Steam. Joined by MiKandi Japan, another campaign was launched on December 1, 2017, to fund the Laplacian VN '' Newton and the Apple Tree''. After just three days, it had already reached its goal of $31,200. It was released on August 15. Later in the year, '' DareSora: Tears for an Unknown Sky'' was localized and released on September 14. In April 2018, it began expansion into licensing light novels with the books ''Strongest Gamer – Let's Play in Another World'' and ''Battle Divas – The Incorruptible Battle Blossom Princess''. The two were digitally released on April 30. At Kumoricon 2018 in Oregon, Sol Press announced the creation of Project Hyourin, a

digital distribution Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content such as audio, video, e-books, video games, and other s ...

client for works licensed by the company. It also formed an alliance with Japanese game publisher

Entergram TGL, Inc. (Technical Group Laboratory, Inc.) (株式会社テイジイエル ''Kabushiki-gaisha Ti Ji Eru'') is a Japanese company dealing with developing, constructing and planning of various computer systems and software. This company supports t ...

to release visual novels on consoles in North America. On May 24, 2019, Sol Press announced a partnership with Kadokawa Corporation to release light novels and manga on Kadokawa's BookWalker platform. The company was forfeited by the California FTB for failure to pay taxes in late October 2021. Citing requests from the original Japanese publishers, BookWalker removed series licensed by Sol Press on February 21, 2022.

Licensed works

Visual novels

Light novels

Manga

Notes

References

External links

* * {{vndb, 7033, producer Companies based in Los Angeles Defunct comics and manga publishing companies Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game publishers 2017 establishments in California 2021 disestablishments in California