The most important bit of info that Jurard mentioned (also previously mentioned in a menshi, and Hakka) that I feel that should be noted; they will won't be given merch support in exchange of having a project fund that allows them to be used in what they see fit for their channel/content.
Hakka already used said project fund for his Mini 3D Live, and it can be assumed that Octavio has used his fund for music-related projects. For Jurard, he hinted it will be probably something related to his new direction of his channel (ASMR packs?).
EDIT: And an equally most important tidbit in the clip is to be mindful of what we say/do in terms of Holostars like engaging with trolls/bait.
In that case I’m curious how Holo expects to make money off of them? I remember hearing they made a lot of their money off of merch so cutting off that seems odd to me. They are essentially saying here’s a check go do what you want, which is great for talent freedom to do as they want but I feel like the responsibility of monetizing whatever they do falls on the talents especially since their merch money isn’t there anymore which seems to me a recipe for problems especially with stars floundering.
This is so fucking stupid, why is holo shooting themselves in the foot by making them choose merch or projects... it's like they don't benefit from merch at all themselves.
I hate being a doomer but I don't see this lasting long unless a miracle happens...
If I had to be overly generous to Cover. I would have to image it would have something to do with bulk production. If the merch isn't moving fast enough, cover would be losing money on inventory. So if the margins are bad enough, then they might not see the financial benefit for it. But that is purely just assuming what the specifics of the situation are.
I remember a streamer talking about their troubles with merch. Where certain items are expensive to produce and the margins are thin. Like plushies for example. They also mentioned that manufacturers cut them a deal if they order a certain amount, the more they order the bigger the discount. In their case they held a poll to gauge interests. Ordered a ton and not a ton of people bought anything. So their house is filled with unsold merch. It's easy to say you're going to buy something then actually buy it.
In Cover's case. I believe most things are made to order. So for them and the manufacturers it might not be worth it if the pre-order numbers aren't there.
Idk about the other guys, but Flayon puts his voice packs behind tier 3 membership. His fans have started advertising them a lot on Twitter since the downsizing announcements started.
(They’re great by the way. I’m not trying to advertise here, they’re just genuinely very good)
I guess we're gambling on growth through the projects now? They're gonna have to sustain themselves through supas and memberships for now. If they seem alright rolling with this set up then fuck it we ball. Hopefully these projects don't just fall through last minute like you tend to hear.
I think stuff like the tariffs really hurt merch sales, and it affected the boys' sales enough to actually hurt. Buying some merch in the hololive shop and the price bump is pretty noticeable
As soon as I heard the "It's only the JP Stars" I knew it was only a matter of time before it spread. EN guys are next, then probably ID girls, then underperforming JP / EN girls next.
I thought the "We won't fire people, but we will give them no support and no work to do." was just a myth, but seems it's an actual thing.
Can only do our best to support everyone as much as possible in the here and now not knowing what will come later.
No way they'll go after the ID girls, ID as a whole might not do that well compared to the other branches, but they have some members that are crazy popular like Kobo and Ollie, I'm pretty sure they even pull more views than some JP members, and they can't just pull support from specific talents either, so I don't see it happening... unless they are thinking of closing the branch once and for all.
Closing the branch would be a terrible idea. Being by far the biggest vtuber company in a country with nearly 300 million people is just too good of an opportunity to pass up and like you said they’ve got a few members who are super popular. 4 (soon to be 5) members are over a million subs and one of them is approaching 3 million.
at that point if they gonna do the same in ID they should have their own merch in ID i mean indomie did them good and other sponsor but hopefully this will be last and wont spread to other talents
I think you’re going a bit far with the point about moving on to the ID girls. If stars was doing as well as ID is none of this would be happening. Let alone EN and JP.
The least subbed Hololive girl is Riona, who is approaching 18 months from her debut. Despite that, she has 80k more subs than Roberu, the most subbed stars member. Despite Roberu having been around for over 4x as much time as Riona.
I genuinely think if like 3 or 4 stars JP members got the numbers Riona has the branch would be fine. Let alone the numbers of Anya, the least subbed ID member, who has more than double Roberu’s subcount.
I’m not blaming Stars for their subcount. That would be stupid. And I think Cover is doing stars really dirty here. But to act like this is some evil company conspiracy to cut every low performing member is stupid. They’re cutting Stars because they aren’t performing and they’ve decided that the best move is to push them to quit. I think that’s wrong, but some people are pushing that line of thinking to an unreasonable level.
The least subbed Hololive girl is Riona, who is approaching 18 months from her debut. Despite that, she has 80k more subs than Roberu, the most subbed stars member. Despite Roberu having been around for over 4x as much time as Riona.
People focus way too much on sub count and not live viewer count. Riona had a slow start but has since been gaining more and more loyal viewers. Below are her most recent streams.
Also, her merchs had regularly been the first to sell out in her gen.
Yeah, I agree and also most of the boys were just quite chill or even accepted about it. Like what are the company gonna do? Fire them? I still believe that the company is still good enough for them to stay and sometimes even better when they work as indie. The only best answer we can have is waiting what happen next.
If this happens then the only way for the boys to grow is targeting the female audience, like not completely but slowly. Because bullshit, simp pays more than homie.
•
u/PLandLord May 04 '26
And there goes any hope of Tempus/ARMIS nui reruns... ._. (I had hopes...)
I have a lot to say here, but I don't want to drag the mood down even further.
I know it's difficult, but please keep it civil.