Japanese game devs face font dilemma as license increases from $380 to $20k

Post by michaelbuck » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 5:24 AM UTC

conradev wrote: post #11

Aachen wrote: post #6

Are there no fonts that are open for anyone to use, like what does a Linux distribution ship? Surely those can render Japanese characters? Maybe it's because it's a dumb question but the article doesn't really set the stage for me why it's an issue that 1 font licensing company raised its prices. I guess they must have a monopoly or else this change isn't commercially viable (the article just says "one of the country…

Yep: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotype_Imaging#Consolidation... Fontworks’ team, type inventory, IP, technology, and services will join global type specialist Monotype–Monotype’s first acquisition in Japan. https://www.monotype.com/company/press-release/fontworks-pla...

Post by yborg » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 5:26 AM UTC

crooked-v wrote: post #15

The bigger issue here isn't the pricing, it's the 25,000 max users added to the licenses, which means that anyone who can genuinely afford these fonts isn't actually allowed to use them. Edit: This paragraph was incorrect: The fonts affected apparently include ones like the main Japanese language font used by the game Genshin Impact, which has 2.8 million daily users worldwide (no idea of the Japanese user count spec…

Post by riedel » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 5:29 AM UTC

Aachen wrote: post #6

Are there no fonts that are open for anyone to use, like what does a Linux distribution ship? Surely those can render Japanese characters? Maybe it's because it's a dumb question but the article doesn't really set the stage for me why it's an issue that 1 font licensing company raised its prices. I guess they must have a monopoly or else this change isn't commercially viable (the article just says "one of the country…

Post by venturecruelty » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 5:44 AM UTC

halapro wrote: post #20

internetter wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What do I feel like custom font generation is one thing AI could be really good at Probably because you're wrong. Anybody can make a font, making a good font is a highly under appreciated art form.

Have you seen the output of LLMs lately? It's not perfect, but I bet that with enough refinements they can create "art" just as well.

Post by w-ll » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 5:50 AM UTC

teraflop wrote: post #9

Aachen wrote: post #6

Are there no fonts that are open for anyone to use, like what does a Linux distribution ship? Surely those can render Japanese characters? Maybe it's because it's a dumb question but the article doesn't really set the stage for me why it's an issue that 1 font licensing company raised its prices. I guess they must have a monopoly or else this change isn't commercially viable (the article just says "one of the country…

When you're making a work of art (such as a game) you don't just want any old font, you want one that serves a particular aesthetic purpose. If you've picked a typeface, and designed other UI elements that look good in conjunction with it, but suddenly that typeface becomes unaffordable, then you have to do some work to find an alternative that's still acceptable. In particular, game UI tends to be designed around th…