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Square Enix to open Digital Manga store in the US and France

Started 5 years ago by Firetribe, currently has 10 posts - latest post is by Myballz

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Firetribe

For those living in the US and France, your prays for digital distribution have been answered:

Square Enix to Launch Digital Manga Store in North America and France
Jul 21st 2010
Online Distribution of Market-leading Series Including Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater Aims to Strengthen Manga Publication Business Overseas

LOS ANGELES, July 21 -- SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. (Square Enix®) today announced that it will launch a digital manga store serving customers in North America and France in the fall of 2010. Localized electronic editions of such popular Square Enix manga series as Fullmetal Alchemist® and Soul Eater® will be made available for the PC via the Square Enix group's North American and European websites.

Square Enix currently releases manga titles in 20 countries overseas through partnerships with local publishers. Series in circulation include Fullmetal Alchemist, with cumulative foreign shipments now surpassing 10 million units, as well as others that continue to garner worldwide acclaim, such as Soul Eater and Black Butler™.

Given the increasing popularity of electronic reading formats, Square Enix has decided to take advantage of the online distribution infrastructure originally developed for its games business, along with the company's existing payment system and online fan communities in order to establish a paid digital distribution channel to better serve the varied needs of its global customers. Square Enix will continue to work with its existing regional publishing licensees to promote both electronic and print versions of titles, while aiming to deter piracy by establishing an official web-based distribution source.

Square Enix will be demonstrating the new service on machines at Comic-Con International, which starts today through July 25, 2010 in San Diego, California. In addition, the first chapters of Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Black Butler and O-Parts Hunter™ are available for download free of charge on the Square Enix group's North American and European websites in advance of the paid service's launch, with other series planned to follow.

Square Enix is dedicated to creating new entertainment experiences via online communities
, shopping sites and other Internet-based business operations, and paid digital distribution of manga is one such endeavor toward that goal. The company plans to continue delivering a wide variety of content to an expanding global customer base through numerous outlets and multiple forms of media.

Details on the number and pricing of titles available at the store's launch will be announced at a later date.

North American and French Digital Manga Store Details

Service Launch
Fall 2010

Fees and Pricing
TBA
Note: Access to the digital manga store requires registration with the SQUARE ENIX
MEMBERS site (registration free of charge). Current membership: over 1,500,000 members
worldwide (as of July 14, 2010)

Access to the free downloads available on the preview site does not require SQUARE ENIX
MEMBERS registration.

System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems / Browsers
Windows XP / Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or above, Firefox 3.x, Safari 3.x
Windows Vista / Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or above, Firefox 3.x, Safari 3.x
Mac OS X v.10.4 or above / Firefox3.x, Safari 3.x
Note: The newest Adobe Flash Player
plug-in (version 10 or above) is required for all browsers.
Display
1024 x 768 resolution or higher
Internet Connection
ADSL or faster

Official URLs
North America: http://www.Square Enix.com/na/manga/
France: http://www.Square Enix.com/eu/fr/manga/

Titles with first chapters currently available for free download:

Fullmetal Alchemist
Author:Hiromu Arakawa
Local Publisher: (North America) Viz Media, LLC
(France) KUROKAWA
©Hiromu Arakawa/SQUARE ENIX

Soul Eater
Author: Atsushi Ohkubo
Local Publisher: (North America) Yen Press
(France) KUROKAWA
©Atsushi Ohkubo/SQUARE ENIX

Black Butler
Author: Yana Toboso
Local Publisher: (North America) Yen Press
(France) KANA
©Yana Toboso/SQUARE ENIX

O-Parts Hunter
Author: Seishi Kishimoto
Local Publisher: (North America) Viz Media, LLC
(France) KUROKAWA
©Seishi Kishimoto/SQUARE ENIX

Not really surprising since they went all lovey-dovey over the Ipad when it was released...but this does show that coalition wasn't just setup to fight scanlator sites but to work together with publishers to publish digital manga.

Hope it works out.

source

Posted 5 years ago # Quote
refill

The price is what will make or break this. No actual papers or ink means this better be cheap, especially since you have to be on the internet to buy and you can find it for free online. Personally I like having something physical to hold because then I can be in the middle of nowhere and still read it. Of course there's a chance that this will still fail even if it's cheap because people are angry the top manga scan sites being shut down.

Posted 5 years ago # Quote
Infinite

If its a little more or a little less than magazines (priced yearly) subscriptions I would be content.

Gangan monthly has a large library of manga too.

Posted 5 years ago # Quote
v

refill said:
Personally I like having something physical to hold because then I can be in the middle of nowhere and still read it.

I agree with this. The digital format takes away all the charm and "2GB manga" doesn't make a very pretty collection, as opposed to a shelf filled with volumes.

Posted 5 years ago # Quote
Firetribe

Well anything I get for free, I tend to value very little. I lean more anime than manga, and treasure my boxsets more than all the fansubs in the internet.

Posted 5 years ago # Quote
Infinite

vinzent said:

I agree with this. The digital format takes away all the charm and "2GB manga" doesn't make a very pretty collection, as opposed to a shelf filled with volumes.

They aren't going to stop selling print mangas first of all so that option is still available to you. Secondly there's is a load of portable devices where I can use the service on like the ipad, the psp, the iphone, the kindle, netbooks, etc so I don't have to chained to my PC to view them. I can use my ipad while I'm on the toilet lol.

Posted 5 years ago # Quote
tingle

already postede it.

Posted 5 years ago # Quote
Firetribe

Indeed~

http://www.sankakucomplex.com/forums/topic.php?id=8903\

Totally missed it~

But sincce yours didn't get much attention, I'll keep this open for new discussion.

Posted 5 years ago # Quote
kurainichi

Would be more interesting if it wasn't just English manga.

Posted 5 years ago # Quote
Myballz

Will this be on Iphone?

Posted 5 years ago # Quote

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