Well, why not do that for the US too? Why not (just a thought) make everyone wait and get it to everyone at the same time?

I still can't fathom how movies can achieve localisation within a few months of being finished and yet games can take 2 years (or never) from when they're finished!

It just appears that game companies' priority is not on localisation and i'd bet that they have relatively limited resources towards that end. They just don't care about money - they care about easy money, regardless of whether the hard money might be equal to the easy money totals because in those markets companies charge more for the games.

This totally makes sense for Australia/New Zealand, etc, eh?

Maybe it's because I've worked for European developers but we always had a translator on staff and the various language versions were just a case of supplying the compiler with the right language file. Creating the Dutch version of a game was simply a case of pointing the code at the Dutch language file. Obviously it's harder these days in that you need the all the native voice recordings done ahead of time, but at least with all the disc space available these days you don't need to consider shipping separate products to different regions based on language.

About the only game that's even localised into Dutch is FIFA. Many publishers don't even bother translating their manuals.

Which is fine, because most Dutch people speak English better than the English.

And the "Anglo-centric" excuse doesn't really hold water. I think most people understand that localisation takes time, and PAL gamers have always complained about game releases being "NTSC-centric" anyway.

I'm sure that anything that reduced the shafting of PAL gamers, even if only for certain countries, would be welcomed.

Soo rather than giving it to people who it's available for (UK) they choose to make us wait because that way the other people won't feel bad? Then why wouldn't they make Japan and America wait for Europe too? It never makes sense when they say crap like this. If it's in english already (from the american release) they don't need to localise it and it could easily be gotten to england in no time.

I second Marlor. Most of the games aren't even localized in dutch, so his point is a bit lost on me.

If he would have said that it was difficult because of regional laws, then I'd be a bit more understanding. But with the years I hope the european union will lessen this.

Reeves is right.I've said it time and time again to folks in the SCEE reigon and it doesn't sink in. Now,if he will put up why you can't just slap PS1 games on the PSN,maybe it'll please a few more people.
You do have some exceptions like he said..One company I know even setup a office in London due to the releases in Europe always being so far behind.

Well, if they make movies localizations in the various European languages, I don't see the reason to not do it for games too.

Anyway, Sony & EA localize the games for most European countries. Last week I played Uncharted Drakes Fortune, and the game had voices in Portuguese, and it was a very well done job. I loved it.

Xbox 360 & Wii, are in disadvantage in this particular point because of disc space restraints or simply because they don't care.

@Marlor:

And the "Anglo-centric" excuse doesn't really hold water. I think most people understand that localisation takes time, and PAL gamers have always complained about game releases being "NTSC-centric" anyway.

Exactly, it's not as if they change the US english to UK english in games.

In the famous words of Skwisgaar Skwigelf...

"Pffft. The Dutch."

@Aprocalypse: The downside of using PAL unfortunately. Now if more US games had offered PAL/NTSC switching we'd be sweet.

Davey, do you know what the French and the Germans (and the Italians, and the Spanish, and the rest of bloody Europe) are already saying all over your official PlayStation forums? "Give us the PS Store content in English, we couldn't give half a turd about translation."

But giving the latest Final Fantasy to the US a full six months before Britain, or the rest of Europe, gets it? He thinks that's totally cool? If this was the real argument then they wouldn't release stuff in Japan and the US before us. I mean that might have worked a decade ago, but today, any chump can get online and read comments from thousands of Americans who have whatever new game we won't be getting for ages.

@Marlor: I think EA actually got the official swedish sport commenters to do voiceovers for a lot of their sport games... (haven't touched a single one of them since like NHL96, so I'm not sure) and a lot of kids' games are also fully translated to Swedish, but otherwise, like the Dutch and most other languages in Europe, we do not get localization past possibly a manual or quick-start guide in games. It's usually only German, French, Spanish and possibly Italian. Balkan gets the shaft, Former russia laughed at, Scandinavia pissed on and the Flemings ignored.

Which for most of us is ok... since we start learning English early, and I think most of our countrymen actually improve the average english on the internet over the american and english kids that 4r3 t00 c00l f0r t3h 4lph4B37 ;)

There's only two things I can't stand in this world. Those who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch.

In fact, we preety much all speak english over here. Its mandatory at school to take English as 1st foreign languange, more so after Portugal entered the CEE in 1986. English can be considered the "common ground" languange between us Europeans. It's still a good thing they translate games, tough, since most of them are for children who are still learning the first steps of english.

Still... there is no excuse for the delay between US and PAL release of Super Smash Bros Brawl...

Uh huh. Now, let's see... For Scandinavia, there's generally no translation at all in the game, though the manual is a triple-language Norwegian/Danish/Swedish deal. Now, the manual, that's a day or two of working for one or two translator dudes. Same thing goes for the Netherlands, and all those countries where the games are released in English anyway, since, well, that's not just the UK. It's actually a LOT of Europe.

Trouble is, then you'd have the French and Germans and (I suppose) Spanish buying games from other countries, because they got there earlier. Play.com and Amazon.co.uk would make an absolute killing off of English-proficient Germans, French and Spaniards. THAT is the issue, not "oh we don't want to offend anyone by releasing games earlier in some countries".

See, as we all know, they're already doing that with the US and Japan. The difference is that it's a smidgen harder to import from the other side of the world, than it is to import from across the English Channel. To keep people buying games in the country they're released in, to maintain control, they'd have to try to bully huge online retailers into refusing to sell games to other countries, much like Sony's already done with, say, Play-Asia. And that's harder than just sucking up the complaints from European gamers, who buy PAL editions anyway.

Yeah, stupid Sony. This quote, saying they care about getting entire games localized to multiple languages per region and the troubles therein...its absolutely preposterous! Totally nailed 'em! (double thumbs up)
I'm guessing it was a boring interview.

I have been employed in the game localization industry since 1996 (yeah I'm Euro and not English!). 90% of game developers prefer to handle localization via third party localization-focused agencies and freelancers, and I think they'll keep doing it for quite some time.
I wouldn't mind though if they started doing things in-house. Imagine if all the Japanese industries started to have localization teams in-house (heck, even Squaresoft Japan doesn't do that) - This means that we could virtually travel country to country, which isn't half bad.
But it won't happen anytime soon. It's totally handy (and cheap) to have everything handled via internet.
Now, translators sometimes aren't all that good... but that's another matter. This market is still relatively unknown and cheap jobs can be found everywhere.

A lousy excuse and I couldn't care less if he gets called biased.
Europeans have always been shafted on release dates, and it's especially annoying for the English speaking ones as there is no reasonable excuse.

I don't think it makes the non-english speaking pal regions feel any better just to know that their neighbours are being shafted as well as them.
The NTSC2PAL conversion can't even be used as an excuse anymore either.

what the fuck, ive never met anyone Ducth, who doesnt speak English

"There are only two things I can't stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch."
--Nigel Powers

Sony has always made excuses and used spin, they suck at living in reality.

@JediMaster:
Not all EU countries use dubbed movies many of them use subtitles.

From a QA/testing point of view, they need to treat each different language version of the game as a separate entity. So I can understand things taking a bit longer. But still, it's sometimes ridiculous. When did Rock Band come out in the US? It's still not out in Europe yet.

@Llost: ...sigh

@Marlor: Hear...hear dude...

So... how long does it take to translate "Dualshock 3" and "80GB with bc"?

(Shamelessly stolen from the eurogamer comments)

@MrPerson: Not to mention, blocking imports from the UK to Gremany or France would be illegal under EU law.

@Darkmoss: So... how long does it take to translate "Dualshock 3" and "80GB with bc"?

Apparently not quite as fast as it takes translating one dollar to one euro ;)

Yeah!!! I feel offended by this! seeing how I'm Dutch and all...

Just give those whiny french/german pussies their translated versions later, but we dutch know enough english!
My little brother is 12 and his english is pretty good. he plays most english games without difficulty. (if not all)

@Garo: ...sigh. Add something to the conversation if you have anything, I have an opinion and if you can't refute it then just stay with your own.

Sony, how many times have i told you: WE DON'T EVEN LIKE LOCALIZED VERSIONS!

Listening to dutch voices in a game is just awful. The voice actors are useually just plain horrible.

And i don't even read manuals so you don't have to translate those.

Right, talking about localisation and bringing up "dutch".
How dumb can you get?

Being dutch, I think it's safe when I say(*grabs megaphone*):
WE DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT LOCALISATION!

Honestly, if it's an english game, leave it in english.
If it's a japanese game, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, leave the audio in japanese, put in english subtitles.

The rest of europe can go suck it, and learn english, imho. Either that or Mandarin of course.

@Llost:
All companies spin things..MS and Nintendo do it quite a bit too.But,on this he is telling the truth.
There are some rather lengthy delays for some PSN games that don't add up though like HVB.That title should have come out a while ago.

Thanks Captain Obvious!

I'm German and I say: Fuck German versions!

Sorry for yelling, but the localisations usually are so terrible that you don't want to have to deal with them, anyway.

There were only two exceptions to the terribleness in more recent years: Mafia and Mass Effect.

EA does a pretty good job but some publishers only release games in the native language without english and that sucks. I have Beyond Good & Evil in dutch, yeah that's all the way and not just subtitled.

I couldn't care less about translations. Why not make 2 euro versions? 1 with just english and one with translations. That way, we don't have to wait before Nintendo can be bothered to release something here and people who want a native version can get one too.

I still can't believe the way Europe gets treated. We make up the biggest part of the market and we're also the most profitable. Almost 50 million PS2s sold here, that's almost half of them! Wii sells here for the same price an American pays for a 360! Start treating us with the respect we deserve for a change.

Sorry for the rant and I know, Sony's not a big offender. They do pretty well in europe.

@enewtabie: I know he's correct in what he says, he's wrong in not delivering a solution. If he recognizes the problem that the UK (which doesn't even need localisation of American copies) and other countries in europe are being delayed because they don't do anything then I expect this to be solved. The problem is I don't expect them to solve it becuase Sony is slow at everything and negligant towards europe. We don't even have Sixaxis yet. We were excluded from the launch and they strip our parts before any other country (negligant part).

I'm just lucky I speak english, cause I'd hate to have to wait for games. Other country seem to be more acceptable of the english language, heck a lot of other country have english as a second language. So it's not too bad if they play english games. Now those that don't speak english is just screwed. But to tell you the truth, I prefer to play games in their original language anyway. Like Genji, I just leave it on Japanese and turn on subtitle. When they are localising games, they're talking about audio right, not just subtitle, that would be a lot easier. I can probably handle a french game, but not japanese games at all. I'd be lost.

It's complete bullshit. I've friends across europe and they much prefer to buy the english versions of games rather than the localised ones in the native tongue. Reason? The localisation done on most games is piss-poor.

I just had this absolutely phenomenal idea...
Why not release the English version everywhere at the same time?! I'm sure that there's fairly large proportions of gamers in non-English speaking countries that would rather play the game now (in English), than have to wait 6 months for a translation.

@MattB: Most TVs can handle the NTSC, anyways. I know all of mine can, and they're hardly at all new. I think any TV from this century in Aus will basically run using NTSC. (Well, I can play NTSC PS2 games, so it should work.)

@TrekVogel: This is always the part that made NO SENSE AT ALL TO ME. The biggest market for Sony...is.... Europe/Other. More PS3s than Japan/America. Slightly less PSPs than US. Slightly less PS2s than the US. We pay more for absolutely everything, however, so there's more money involved.

Howerver, there have been millions of different reasons given for not releasing games even remotely on time, or at all, even though the sheer profits are there. Not one of these has stood the test of time, and it all makes absolutely no sense to me.

Anyways, this is an issue that just pisses me off beyond belief, so I've got to stop myself reading articles on it, until it's something saying "All region encoding has been dropped on all consoles, and every game is being released at the same time worldwide [for same language editions]". ._.

Put the UK in the American region please! Everyone has a 60Hz TV nowadays so thats not really an issue and funnily enough people in England speak English, so why should we have to wait for games to be translated into other languages when they are ready to go when the US version is translated.

Obviously if the English version of the game is ready, then just release in the UK. Isn't that simple enough? The other European countries can wait until localisation of their version is finalised. I don't see why gamers in the UK should suffer just because of their EU counterparts.

@Malidictus:

Make that US, UK and Australia! Of course those pesky other countries near the UK and Australia would be able to cheaply and easily import games with no problems. So i don't think it will happen.

:)

We get the US versions of games anyway in the UK. Why make us wait?

@Ricksterlau:

I don't think we need to exclude any country from release. Okay, a company might not release a game in every language out there but at least in the major ones (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian - not sure what's best for the northern-most countries) so that a large portion of people can play the games in every country.

The delay on Rock Band is a completely different matter. For a start you have multiple peripherals to manufacture and ship, including one which ran into production problems. Second, you have major licensing headaches across dozens of jurisdictions, and Harmonix have said that the PAL release will have all the same DLC as the US version at launch. I can understand the PAL holdup, if not the pricing.

But for most other stuff outside dialogue and text heavy RPGs, there's really no excuse. And in fact, Sony and MS are usually pretty good at localisation times. There's no way MGS 4 would get a simultaneous worldwide release it were published by Nintendo. That said, Reeves's excuse is obviously bullshit. Why should continental Europeans be any more annoyed at the UK getting a game before them than the US? It's not like holding up the UK version makes the French version arrive any faster. It's all about the importing.

@cdammers: Most people probably wouldn't be annoyed at all. Importing from the UK is insanely easy and you don't have to pay customs like you have to when you import from really-overseas.

It doesn't make a difference at all wether you buy at amazon.de or co.uk. And I think that's what Sony might be afraid of. The continental branches losing the money from all the people that would import from the UK.

@Duoae: Make that the US, UK, Australia, NZ and all of Europe besides Germany, France and Spain... since those are usually the only ones to get separate voice tracks. Better yet release it as an "english edition" everywhere and let the "big three" wait for their language specific version. It's 42 countries vs. 3 in Europe that doesn't get more localisation besides possibly the manual anyway.

@The Whaleman: I second that, i'm Portuguese and i could care less about other languages besides English in games. I actually still didn´t learn Japanese because theres nobody to actually teach it around here.

And to be honest, i wold bet a kidney that 80% of the European gamers play the games in English even when given the choice for their natural language.
So releasing a Japanese version in Japan and a English version for US and Europe wold be the ideal. The others could wait for their respective languages, since they are to lazy to actually learn foreign ones.
Its not fair that majority have to wait almost 1 year for some games because of something like this.

If there's a Dutch person who doesn't speak English, I haven't met them.

there have been some games that were released in Dutch only. For me that's a reason not to buy it (unless it's a Brain Training like game,I could understand that). And besides, every effing cartoon gets dubbed lately, instead of subbed, so kids can hardly understand english here anyway. Translating games will only make that worse. And they don't even translate US games into British english, or proper English as I like to call it,...

I Norway, everything is in English. We don't need to dub every TV-show, movie or game. We just subtitle it.

Why is everything in English you ask? Because we can speak English. Why can be speak English you ask? Because everything is in English.

Did that make sense?

@Pinhead:
Norway is rad.

As others already said, I (as a Dutchman) don't care about localization. First of all the voice acting fails in comparison. And translating scenes/manuals is not really necessary since most people who play games, the younger generation, are from what I know quite familiar with the english language.