User blog:Angel Emfrbl/"I want a Piko Update"

Rather then keep repeating myself, I'm going to write this blog and link to this in future.

The initial Reaction
So the singer Piko was a decent enough singer to get a licensing deal for his vocal. For those who don't know, Piko had one of those male vocals that was fairly flexible and he could do female vocal ranges. These vocalists do loose this ability like most males, but they do so much later in life as the vocalist really mature.

So the expectation was for something along the lines of a male who could do male and female roles, or just a lot of different roles in general.

The reaction to the name was "meh" because "ne" was used as this was considered a "CFM thing". We were used to rip-off and copy cat UTAUs and OCs that used "ne" meaning "sound" and when the full name of the Vocaloid happened it read "sound of singer Piko". This was considered at the time one of the mot uncreative names.

When the avatar came it was considered "ugly" and a "rip off" of SF-A2 miki and had elements of CFM design. The greys and the dead expression on the face was off putting and even VO didn't seem interested when we had a lot of bright or vivid designs going on. The only thing the design came to give is the idea that maybe he was good with miki.

He was not, which leads to the voice.

People just were expecting better. At the time it was Piko or the Kagamines, with the 3 HQ Len vocals pitching themselves against the MQ Piko vocal and the Kagamines were much bigger vocals. Bare in mind most buy the Kagamines even now for Rin, so they were not ness. buying it for Len, but it came with her 3 vocals anyway. And the Kagamines did between them more successfully what everyone was expecting Piko to do. The demos were okay and there was a trial version put up.

What Sony did
So we'd had had a couple of trial versions before, such as Lily. But Piko's demo was 5 days, barely enough time to get used to the vocal. On top of that, Sony removed any song put on Nico Nico Douga at the time. Sony was a PR disaster, their page to advertise the vocal was considered inferior, it was difficult to get the vocal and they were ticking off the Japanese producers.

At the time the Vocaloid fandom was held up purely by the Japanese fandom and he, being a Japanese Vocaloid, was purely aimed at Japan. At the time VOCLAOID2 had a split market, the English vocals were aimed at the English speaking market and no foreigner was expected to go after any Japanese Vocaloid. They were aimed only at Japanese and built souly for Japanese. So to tick off the Japanese producers in any way was bad. And a number bailed.

Being male, well, males don't sell in Japan unless their Len or Kaito, this was very true at the time. They didn't even always buy into Gackpo.

He was download only at a time as well, when most had a hard version, thus limiting things further.

The first year
The most important years of a products life, the majority of products on a market (expect resources such as iron, steel, etc) is that precious first or second year. The majority of consumers only buy on those two years. Piko got among the least popular Vocaloids and didn't seem to do well.

It wasn't just he was releasing alongside the Kagamines, nor that the Japanese fans weren't into males. We had within months VY2 with us, the best male vocal V2 had to offer. At this point it was made clear that Len and Ryuto were not true male vocals, even though they were sold, and if you wanted a truly good male, you bought VY2. Bye-bye Piko in short.

And then came the ultimate kicker; VOCALOID3.

VOCALOID3 kinda impacted the sales of most V2's, unless their CFM ones we're talking about. Why buy this now LQ product when VOCALOID3 vocals were just better. And they all were. Even the English ones were an improvement at this stage over what came before. With a lot of new female vocaloids entering the scene, females being much more likely to sell, there was a scramble to release new Vocaloids. The price was they ate into each other's sales. But most of all they eat into V2 sales by far.

Vocaloid3 has a lot of promotion and there was actually an event related to it. So Piko just got forgotten and nobody seemed to care. There were very few fans and very little interest.

Conclusion
If we get a Piko update, we get a Piko update.

Until then, its too late to save Piko and nothing a bunch of foreigners can do will change that. The one thing that came of V3 was that there suddenly was a "idea" that there can be clear winners and loosers among Vocaloid. You see during V2, most Vocaloids were overall popular, getting a lot of sales and a lot of interest. During the late V3 era we got CeVIO enter the scene, and while UTAU died a death due to things ending in 2013, there was now a decent commercial product on the market to compete with Vocaloid in Japan. And its been with us since, eating slowly into the Japanese fanbase and there is nothing we can do.

Vocaloids no longer trending in Japan and while its popular its now just like the trolls - "oh you still are into Vocaloid?". Their over it. Thus Vocaloid is now growing globally much faster then Japan, which I said would happen. One good thing thats come out of this is that its a lot easier to get hold of all Vocaloids.

However, no one cared about Piko. Until the V2 retirement. Literally you can go over our comment section and see most interest is recent. And as I said to someone days before writing this, 500 foreigners will not get back Piko. 500 Japanese producers will not get back Piko. Piko is by all means "gone" and at this stage we're talking a big miracle/surprise if he gets an update.

Nobody cares about the 8 Engloids we're left behind, but lets put it this way... When V3 goes, there are a lot of Japanese Vocaloids going with it. They have never gotten an update, may never get one. Thats... Fine. It validates older engines and its nice to have vocals we'll never get in modern engines.

As I've also said before, we've also got a number of "young male" vocals to replace him; Yohioloid, Yuu and the other Zola boys, Arsloid, VY2, Len (who isn't a "male" vocal in truth), Fukase.

Male Vocaloids just don't do well anyway, so even an update wouldn't get a lot of sales. Which is why I don't see it happening readily. And don't... Really want it. The vocal for V2 disappointed and it would need more to the package, an update would need a extra vocal at least to warrant it. And given most modern Vocaloids have bigger vocals ranges, I don't also want to see more Rana and LUMi vocals, with aspects of the V2 era at a time when everyone else does more and can do more. Its as simple as that. Why buy Piko with his minute V2 range, when there is Fukase who, while also having a small range, has 2 vocals and a English one. He can do more.