The Touhou Project and its future

[yankop]

I recently saw a Touhou iceberg that claimed "Touhou 20 will be the last game". Of course, the chance that this is actually true is very unlikely but it got me thinking: For how long with we be getting new official content?
First, let's get this out of the way. I strongly believe that even if Zun stops making games, music and manga, the community can continue to supply new content indefinitely. From games and manga to original characters and stories, I think that this community can create anything to keep itself going.

But let's get back to the original question. If I remember correctly, Zun has stated in an interview that he's going to work on Touhou for as long as he feels like, which is good. I'd say that Touhou still has a lot of potential to evolve even more and further explore the lore of already existing characters while introduting new ones. But let's say you had to guess for how long will we be getting new official content from Zun, what would your answer be? I personally think that it's going to be for around 8 to 10 years, but that's just a speculation based on nothing but random thoughts I've had.

Now let's talk about the official content itself. New games are releasing just fine, thought Touhou 19 sparked a lot of controversy as you might know. A new chapter of Foul Detective Satori is being released every month, same with Lotus Eaters. The only complaint I have is that we haven't gotten a new "proper" CD in over 7 years since the latest one only has 3 tracks, but I don't mind it that much. So, for how long do you think we're going to be getting new content? How do you think the Touhou Project is changing and how much do think these changes are going to affect its longevity?

[Art_0r]

 

I can't say much about it because I'm relatively new to this world compared to others, but I'm sure that the life of the franchise will extend for many years even after the "end" of official releases. The community always comes up with something new and interesting for Touhou, but I still hope Zun continues to do the great work as long as he enjoys doing it.
I would like to say that Touhou will live forever.

[Guest]

When ZUN's beer will be gone, ZUN will stop creating new games..

Save beer for new Touhou games! :)

Edited May 15, 2024 by Marshatza

[Sahek Seven]

Look at Half Life 1 fanbase. Sure, Valve hasn't abandoned Half Life francise as a whole, but content for the first Half Life game is still being made every day and gets massive attention, although it was 25 since it's release. It feels like this game is immortal, as long as fans alive, they won't abandon it.

Same thing is happening with Portal games and many other francises. Talking about indie games, think about Undertale or Five Nights at Freddy's, original creators doesn't work on them for a long time already, but fangames has basically replaced any need of official content.

Even if ZUN stop working on Touhou, there still be new game releases on Steam from publishers like Phoenixx Inc. who independently makes Touhou games with their last last game called Touhou Genso Wanderer -FORESIGHT-

[Jaz:3]

On 1/10/2024 at 12:57 PM, yankop said:

If I remember correctly, Zun has stated in an interview that he's going to work on Touhou for as long as he feels like, which is good.

 

yeah, and recently in a livestream, that has not changed at all. There are some translated questions from twitter which I'll post here.

This is a whole thread about some funny and interesting questions:  

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819357845030416687

You can follow this person (Icefairy) as well if you want, they make a lot of post surrounding Touhou (kinda like Touhou news? lol) 

 

Here's some link that confirmed ZUN's statement still standing and some other questions about what happens after he... pass away, etc...:

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819357868061266012 (about making other games)

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819357909953745365 (I forgot ZUN has a family)

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819357914517459089 (ZUN probably said this before, as mentioned in the thread about how t2h2 is still standing by Koifishy, he wanted to make game music but BeatMARIO kinda doubts him?)

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819357950244540452 (how long is ZUN going to make t2h2)

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819362213238657161 (what happens to t2h2 once ZUN is gone)

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819362217311326480 (a... successor to making Touhou?)

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819362228434522120 (holy shit, threats to ZUN??)

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819362232503095745 (death threats?!!??)

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819362247690670335 (ZUN still talks to Toby Fox)

https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1819362254913249533 (damn... Touhou 7 isn't going to be on Steam, probably older titles too imo)