Japanese game devs face font dilemma as license increases from $380 to $20k
8 days ago
- #monotype
- #japanese-gamedev
- #font-licensing
- Japanese game developers face a font licensing crisis as Fontworks LETS discontinued its game license plan, raising costs from $380 to $20,500 annually.
- The new plan by Monotype (Fontworks' parent company) lacks local pricing for Japanese developers and imposes a restrictive 25,000 user-cap.
- Securing affordable and accurate Kanji and Katakana fonts is a major challenge for Japanese studios.
- The issue is particularly problematic for live service games, requiring extensive re-testing and validation if fonts are changed.
- Some studios may need to rebrand entirely if their corporate identity relies on now-unaffordable commercial fonts.