Yukito

MattB

nmlss

Fulgurator

Then companies could just release dlc add on packs of the other languages for those who really really want it.

Also subtitles are great. The stupid American voices were the only shit thing about Shenmue, thankfully sorted out in the sequel.

Finally, how long could it really take to translate the text in a game? Books are translated into tens of languages before they are released, so there are obviosly people out there who can translate pretty quickly. Maybe games studios should work with worldwide book distributers to get translations done, because aftert Brawl, if I have to wait six months for another game I want to be translated from the second most spoken language in the world into languages I can't speak I'm just gonna boycott that shit. To be perfectly honest, I don't know if I'm even going to bother with Brawl any more, the buzz has worn off.

MrLister

RexGildo

I actually got a kick out of those...

fuchikoma

Zeouterlimits

RonJeremy4Pres

Just a quick note: I bought the orange box when it was released. Played it in english (subtitled in my language) and loved it. Months later, Valve released an optional download with the euro voices for the orange box. Played it again. Loved it, and Valve, too.

That's one hell of a way to keep people from piracy.

Fulgurator

The big issue here is that they're localizing for the US...and then 3 years later Europe might get a copy if they're lucky. If not well my friends in Finland and I all have paypal accounts...and the stores WILL sell to me here in the US. The localization times haven't gotten quicker with the increase in size of the video game industry. They KNOW they're releasing a game in the US and Europe also...they need to start in on translation and localization BEFORE the game is released in Japan.

Ajh

ez054098

It's the same as manga--it's not something you read that provokes any thought, it's fodder to scan over while you take in the visuals. Granted, understatement is part of the culture, but at a certain point ending every other sentence with ellipses is just poor writing.

I'm not off flaming on some ethnocentric rant, I'm just telling you that modern day moe-kei Japanese games are nowhere near as deep as Kurosawa films. Kurosawa films could stand on their own with a direct translation, but this crap needs to be thoroughly locali(s/z)ed to be at all intellectually stimulating.

...said the man writing in the comments section.

illiterati

And yes, this is coming from a European who's first language is NOT English. Heck, even my second language isn't English and guess how many problems I ever had with an English written/spoken game? Right, none whatsoever.

Hassun

enemy

RetroBob

The companies are honestly being lazy...Cause there's no reason Final Fantasy 4 DS should be released this summer for Europe and US when it was out last fall in Japan. Then they complain that the market sucks after doing everything they can to make gamers unhappy.

Ajh

A lot of comments about translation from industry insiders seem to be along the lines of 'we do it this way in the industry'. Well... do it differently. EA does it. Ubisoft does it. You telling me Capcom or Square-Enix doesn't have the resources to do what Ubisoft does? Times have changed, adapt or loose money.

Lov3

Yamster

Which is why I have said TIME AND AGAIN that it's about time the UK and Australia were lumped in with the USA release dates. We speak the same language, it makes SENSE!

Overlord44

SNDK

Brian Ashcraft

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

Badmofo

phicaluk

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.

Krumm

The Whaleman

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.

FranUnFine

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

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.

Duoae

Woylez

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.

:)

Duoae

Ricksterlau

Malidictus

@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]". ._.

Aprocalypse

Riotpoll

TheCrimsonGhost

MSUSteve

karateka

Llost

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.

TrekVogel

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.

FranUnFine

KM91

enewtabie

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.

Iceman B.

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.

Cchrist

Llost

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)

zyberteq

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

The Whaleman

(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

RodmanSan

Garo

WalkOnWater

Garo

Llost

Does Not Equal

Raikkenon

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.

Geckosan

Vidunder

jasoncourt

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.

MrPerson

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

Shiryu

Berd

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 ;)

The Whaleman

Mister Adequate

Antiterra

MattB

"Pffft. The Dutch."

Aex

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.

Duoae

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.

JediMaster

enewtabie

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.

marlblank

Llost

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.

Marlor

photoboy

Aprocalypse

I think it's pretty fair to make those countries wait a bit longer and not make the rest of Europe suffer because of them.

Redlum1

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.

Duoae

Espiox