You know that part in Final Fantasy X where Tidus tries to force himself to laugh in an attempt to cheer up Yuna? You know how it’s become sort of a running joke in video game localization? Turns out it came from an acting class.
Check out this detailed blog post by the team behind Shovel Knight digging into how they localized the game for Japan. So many rad little details. Sleep bubbles!
Nintendo employee Alison Rapp, who’s been a target of harassment over censorship controversies in recent months, said on Twitter that she has been fired. “Today, the decision was made,” she wrote. “I am no longer a good, safe representative of Nintendo, and my employment has been terminated.”
The team behind a nine-month-old fan translation of Fire Emblem Fates disbanded yesterday, appearing to cancel their project in the process. That decision prompted disappointment and anger, but there are reports a new team has picked up the project.
When Fire Emblem Fates was released for 3DS in Japan early last summer, it didn’t have a US release date. Within 24 hours, fans were hacking the game and translating it on their own. What started as an experiment became a race to translate the game before Nintendo of America.
Cassandra Lee Morris voiced Lin Xenoblade Chronicles X, one of the game’s main characters—and a source of controversy. In the US and Europe, the character couldn’t wear certain bikini costumes. On YouTube, she released a video about the process of making the game and weighed in on the “censorship” discussion.
Neko Atsume, the super cute Japanese mobile cat game, now has an English version courtesy of its latest update. You can grab it here for Android, and here for iOS once Apple approves the update.
The Yokai Watch games are hugely popular in Japan. For good reason, they’re a lot of fun. The third numeric entry in the series was recently announced, and it’s got me thinking. And worried.
Why pay 30 bucks to download a game from Steam when you could shell out ¥179,450 (Roughly US$1,760.76) for the Japanese package version?
An image that's been circulating since early last month when Square Enix's Bravely Default came out for European 3DS demonstrates how Japan's nearly naked 15-year-olds become Europe's slightly more sensibly dressed 18-year-olds.
Every time I visit Hong Kong or Taipei, I notice that more and more console games are being translated for the Chinese market. Be it English to Chinese or Japanese to Chinese, it seems much of the focus is now on creating games that the Chinese can play. On the flip side, Chinese game companies have been trying, and…
Crytek's near-future military shooter for the PC, Warface, is currently live in Russia, with a closed beta in China. But the game plays differently in both regions.
As English-speakers, we take for granted a lot of things: One, that every game will either be originally published in our language or localized for it (and woe betide those that aren't...) Two: That the voice acting, if incompetent, will at least sound poorly acted and not read off a page.
"Gnhhh!" ... "Whhhhaaaah!" ... "Bah….ah...gahhhhhh"... "Hmmmf!"... "Ehiehhh" ... "Mhaemm!".. These grunts, sighs, squeals and miscellaneous other vocalizations compose roughly 1/4 of the dialogues in the early hours of Final Fantasy XIII.
Nazi imagery is a big nein-nein in Germany, and the localized version of Wolfenstein was supposed to have removed all of it. A small swastika slipped through, and Activision is said to be recalling the game from shelves there.
After a two month hiatus, World of Warcraft has resumed full operations in China, where a switchover in local operators had been held up by government regulators and content changes.
UK Scribblenauts buyers won't have to fuss with our quaint colonial terms, with developer 5th Cell going out of their way to make sure that no one confuses football with football.
Times have sure changed from when I was a kid. Back when I was growing up, Russia was an evil empire hell bent on my country's destruction, but now I've grown up, and the rest of the world has grown up, and Russia is just another big area filled with potential gamers. Gamers Codemasters is planning on catering to as…
One of the coolest things about the Official PlayStation Blog is when they let the people who worked on the games post their thoughts on the process. Take today's posting by Stephanie Fernandez, the localization producer on Namco Bandai's Eternal Sonata for the PlayStation 3, which upon release this week will be the…
With a quickly expanding domestic games market, and more companies thinking of making the leap to Western markets, Asian companies are facing some serious issues in the next few years: competition to become gaming 'hubs' for foreign companies, how to localize for foreign markets (something Japanese companies have…
