NightWolve, what you say would apply in any other community... here in PCE land, people give a damn. Hell, my team's game was ripped and pirated only a few months after its release and we still sold the thing out because the people in this scene are so supportive. Having a ROM image out in the open isn't going to change anything; the people in this scene will still support Aetherbyte because they give a damn about homebrew and the people who make it. Can't say the same about other communities... this is one of the many things that makes this community so special.
Well, you had the disadvantage of the CD format with Mysterious Song, so guaranteed pirating by ANY customer as soon as it arrived. In this case, it takes a customer with a HuCard reader/dumper. When it comes to SNES and Genesis, I've seen those things for sale, but, I've never seen one for NEC products... They exist obviously, but I think pretty damn rare and certainly rare relative to SNES/Genesis. Point is, you have a temporary anti-piracy situation with a HuCard and if it was me, I'd take full advantage of it. Yeah, it could get dumped eventually, but odds are much in favor that it'd take a lot longer than a new fan SNES or Genesis cart.
I know peeps here are very generous and supportive, but yeah, all it takes is one guy... At the same time, we still get sharks, backstabbers, reselling profiteers, etc. floating around here all the same (
e.g. the guy that took Bonknuts' Megaman work and made a CD out of it without any permission), so it's not a 100% thing.
Anyway, from what Arkhan says, he will be sold out of the physical versions by the time it's all said and done based on the demand he's gauging and what they're going to produce, so I guess it's kinda moot. Still, I would've just gotten the full production run out of the way, sold it all off, and then did some digital option, etc.
