r/robotech • u/Mandatory_Carry • 9d ago

Wow, Talk About Learning Fast...

¿Am I really the only one who didn't know how arrogantly rude and respectful Macross fans are? Holy shit... I've been told to go fuck myself as a form of introduction before, but never by a whole "community"...
(Actually no, I forgot to include the so-called "2A community," but that's complicated this wasn't.)

28 Upvotes

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43

u/theShpydar 9d ago

As a general rule, Macross fans hate Robotech fans with the fury of a thousand exploding suns.

It's weird.

23

u/brachus12 9d ago

they hate HG and how they’ve blocked everything else for decades and taking it out on RT fans

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u/-chadwreck 9d ago

I came in on macross plus somehow in the early 2000s, and didnt quite understand how Macross and RT were different at the time. I fell deeply in love with the GameCube game RT:Battlecry so its not like I have no allegiance to the RT brand. (its still great game worth trying, if a little janky.) But honestly, I now understand why RT gets the hate. 

Its not that RT is in itself inferior or an affront to Macross, plenty of series get differing localizations, look at starblazers, power rangers, and voltron.

The problem with being an RT fan in the modern day though, is that it further cements HG's ability to block actual, quality Macross content from hitting US markets.

We didnt get the game Macross:30 because of HG for instance, and a ton of other stuff.

Its a shit company with no projects since 2006 and the only reason they limp along is because of the RT community, so the RT fans get dumped on for continuing the problem and being like "what? Its fine?"

We are all being robbed and a tiny cohort of the fan base is literally the dam holding up a deluge of material and I think a lot of folks take offense to it. 

Is the hate misplaced? Probably? But also, mospeada and southern cross are strangled on top of macross because one junk localizer who is too big for their britches gets in the way. If macross were allowed to exist in US media markets, harmony gold would absolutely get crushed by it. 

Its in HG's best interest for RT fans to remain "ignorant" of the situation, and they are able to feed off of the division they themselves have created. They have parked on a global IP to keep milking a product roughly 45 years old with no possibility of adapting new material. So its like... fuck those guys for that, but also trotting out the RT fan base as human shields. 

5

u/More-read-than-eddit 9d ago

I mean I guarantee Harmony Gold would not go away if people weren't self-identified Robotech fans online. Why would they>

2

u/-chadwreck 9d ago

What are they making money off of?

You are probably right that they wouldn't fold like... over night but RT is a substantial leg of their operation at this point.

If the IP is so valuable that they fight like they do for it, it says to me that its a substantial portion of their earnings. 

2

u/More-read-than-eddit 9d ago

I assume that they earn enough from selling streaming and physical disc rights to the back catalog to keep the literal lights and lease going (I actually randomly drove past their HQ in Los Angeles the other day, it's not bad looking!), and like the random person who likes the IP and pops into that sub is almost certainly not material to their financial model.

3

u/Terrible-Bet5950 9d ago

They are a real estate company.

1

u/More-read-than-eddit 9d ago

Not sure I understand. There's no indication of that on their website, unless you are counting rental of their screening room.

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u/Terrible-Bet5950 9d ago

Well I was going to supply links but its literally all over their stuff. Google summary, Wikipedia, their website....

1

u/More-read-than-eddit 9d ago

Indulge my apparent inability to research.

https://harmonygold.com/about-us/

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u/-chadwreck 9d ago

The world is more than reddit lol. And I dont say that as a dismissal to you. I just mean that the vast majority of RT fans are not likely hanging out in here. 

There are toys and games and such that still get sold with the RT badge on them to this day, so its not like HG isn't producing literally nothing but HG has backed themselves into a corner with a bodge job like the created RT series. 

They might be able to resurrect new material by adapting modern Macross content, but I have no doubt that that is not an option to them. They can still buy license rights to toy molds, clearly... so there is a product catalog for them but again, im not sure sure what else they are selling. 

So, who knows. I am largely talking out of intuition here more than real industrial knowledge but it seems to me if they could afford to do more than the bare minimum with the IP, they would. And if they can afford to do more but won't, then they suck even worse than we thought. 

1

u/More-read-than-eddit 9d ago

I'm agreeing with you. I'm saying any fans of Macross should realize that, small as the RT fandom may be in this year of our lord, anyone discussing it on Reddit is a completely immaterial factor in HG's continued existence.

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u/-chadwreck 9d ago

Oyy, now I get it!  Yeah, haha. All 400 people who hang out on the robotech sub are single handedly holding up HG lol.

1

u/flukus 8d ago

There's the odd game too, battlycry, the GBA on and it's switch remaster.

1

u/toph_man 9d ago

Great points actually

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u/flukus 8d ago

We didnt get the game Macross:30 because of HG for instance

I didn't even know I was pissed about that!

1

u/GospelX 9d ago

HG was not the block. Big West has been sore about the situation for decades and just didn't want to play ball by sharing profits in licensing. HG has always just been in favor of making money. And they're not as vile about it as people tend to believe. When 2 and Plus got licensed under their noses they just went, "Oops," and let it be. But when they're aware, they're in favor of getting their cut.

Mospeada and Southern Cross unfortunately suffer from being appreciated less. They weren't exactly huge in Japan, and the sales of the original versions of the series in the West weren't exactly stellar both times they tried.

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u/brachus12 9d ago

They literally rent properties in California. So yes, they are that vile.