In a Statement to Anime News Network Crunchyroll has responded to criticism about the touch features being removed from DanMachi: Memoria Freese. They apologized for any miscommunication and say the feature was never meant to be included in the adverting material. The video showing off this feature on their YouTube has since been removed, after months of being live.
This is what they had to say on Twitter regarding this:
We wanted to make sure there was no further confusion. We’re sorry for any miscommunication around the DanMemo release. This was a unique decision specifically for the game made amongst partners with audience and distribution considerations in mind.
— Crunchyroll (@Crunchyroll) April 11, 2018
Their full statement to ANN reads as follows:
We recently launched Memoria Freese as our first Crunchyroll Game, to bring both anime and gaming enthusiasts a new experience to connect through the content they love. As this was our first official game and included several partners, we had many moving parts that led to the official launch on March 30, 2018. We apologize if there was any miscommunication around game features for the U.S. version of Memoria Freese — addressing the specific issue at hand, there was an interactive “communication mode” that was inadvertently included in some of our early promotional content. However, that feature was never intended to be released in the U.S. version of the game. It was not our intent to miscommunicate to any of our players.
Memoria Freese is a free-to-play mobile game for iOS and Android devices, and as part of the download process, users agree to a terms of service that acknowledges that we may update or make changes to both the Game or user accounts at any time without notification. Our Crunchyroll community is strong and passionate, and while we actively listen to their valuable feedback, we also must reserve the right to modify game features at any time. We plan to continue updating Memoria Freese and are working closely with partners to enhance this popular Japanese game for the U.S. market. While there are many similarities between the Japanese and U.S. releases, the markets and distribution partners are very different, so not all Japanese features are part of the U.S. release.
My take: this is quite possibly the most arrogant response I’ve ever seen from PR. It says not only did we change this cause we felt like it but we will change whatever we like in the future and you agree to it in the TOS. Best way to win this game, is simply not to play.
