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Sony blames developers for late European releases, cites lack of incentive photo

SCEE boss David Reeves claims that developers don't want to translate their games for Europe because they don't think it's worth the effort. There's not enough incentive for them to translate the games during development, so that's why we're left waiting up to six months for something like Brawl -- the developers just don't care. That's right, Europe -- according to Reeves, developers actually cannot be f*cked with you.

Reeves said he would "love" to have worldwide release dates for everything, but states he could only do that with the UK, and fears that if he excluded the rest of Europe, he'd upset everyone else.

"Well some developers would say they can do [translations during initial development]. Talk to Ted Price at Insomniac and he builds it in at the beginning," stated Reeves. "We're trying to educate all our developers to do that but it's something that's going to take a while."

"But even if you talk to Guerrilla, Namco, Square Enix, they all do it in English to begin with and then think about localization later. You're absolutely right, we should do it at the beginning. But they look at it like, 'How much can I get for a Dutch version of the game?'

So, developers don't care because they don't think our money is worth it. Fair enough I suppose, but are they seriously trying to claim that the time/cost of translating a game is not more than covered by the sales of that game in an entire union of countries? With the ridiculous expense of games in the UK alone, I find it hard to swallow that our money really isn't worth the effort. Do the Dutch really not buy videogames? If that's the case, why are they bothering at all? It seems like a rather short-sighted excuse from developers to me. 

"With PlayStation Store we could probably go in the UK almost day and date. But then what are the Germans and the French going to say to me? That I'm Anglo-centric," added Reeves. I can at least partially understand that -- the last thing you need is to be called a pro-Britain fanboy.


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26 comments | showing # 1 to 26

Blackhat's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:27
Blackhat
I worked on Localization for an EA game (of NFS 'fame') and I can tell you, it's hell.

Picture every single piece of english text in a game: billboards, road signs, car dashboards, computer screens, kmh versus mph, centimetres vs. inches, etc.

Then you have to make sure every single piece is translated, and every single measurement is correct. If you get a single thing wrong? MASSIVE fine - we're talking tens of thousands of dollars for EACH COPY of the game sold like that.

I'd love every country to have games at the same time - but until less draconian methods are put in place, it simply won't happen.
RaiRed's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:28
RaiRed
Thankfully Sony, and to some extent Microsoft are pushing towards region free. And most of the time it's cheaper to import as well.
Holyetheline's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:29
Holyetheline
Wow that's terrible. Maybe their games would sell better in that area if they didn't have 6 month delays.
ParaParaKing's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:32
ParaParaKing
Sony is lying. Sony's games are as late as all the others. And most games released on the US store already have german text.
king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:36
king3vbo
Damn... I guess I can understand sort of... localization is not easy. But still, theyre fishing for excuses
Xbudz's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:37
Xbudz
Those lazy bitches.
mix's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:41
mix
Sort of makes sense from the info posted and what Blackhat said.
Maybe just push the engrish language on everyone, oh and the bible and everything will be hoky doky.
loki d20's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:51
loki d20
Kind of a no-brainer if you ask me. Diversity of people/languages in Europe hasn't caused just issues with video game releases, so *shrugs*.
Psykocyber's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:52
Psykocyber
That is the nice thing about living in a small country (Denmark). Only kids games gets translated. We don't need to have someone translate the game, only the cover gets a translate.

Unfortunately it doesn't change the release date...
English in games rock!
Anus Mcphanus's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:57
Anus Mcphanus
So this is why we have no echochrome and everyday shooter came out 4 months after the US.... makes sense now.... no one likes us and we have no moneys :-(
Char Aznable's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 15:05
Char Aznable
@ Blackhat

Just out of curiosity, where do these massive fines come down from? And who is ultimately responsible for paying them?
DrXym's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 15:33
DrXym
Some people are afraid of localization. They hardcode all their strings and dialogue in US English and then act all surprised when it turns out to be a huge effort to port to another language. I would not be surprised if Everyday Shooter took so damned long because of localization.

The payoff for doing properly though should be more than enough to justify it. French, German, Italian and Spanish gamers do appreciate games in their own language. If you want to reach them you localize.
Blackhat's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 15:33
Blackhat
I was merely a grunt, and this was explained fairly quickly; I believe it was either the European Unions.. some kind of gaming affiliate organization, or Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo, whichever system it went out on.

I believe the production company takes the innitial blame (and fine), but they <i>may</i> be able to pass it on to whoever actually created the game.

I remember that one game had had it happen, and shipments had to be <i>halted</i> because of what it cost the company.
PaperBowser0's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 15:37
PaperBowser0
Yeah, lack of incentive.....
KamikazeTutor's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 16:14
KamikazeTutor
I believe them. It can be definitely lack of incentive, from Sony.
Dexter345's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 16:23
Dexter345
It seems like a case of diminishing marginal returns. Yeah, they'll probably turn more profit if they translate it all, but I can only imagine the nightmare of translating text (or voice!) heavy games into however many different languages they need.
3r0t1c n3rd's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 16:39
3r0t1c n3rd
Frankly I don't give a shit about the translations into german. Even if the translation is good, the voice actors (if you want to call them that) will butcher the thing anyway. My 360 is set so English and that's not going to change.

But for some reason more and more games only have the german dub on the disk. Makes no sense. It's like they want to say: "We paid for this crappy dub, now you WILL listen to it!"
mistic's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 17:05
mistic
LAME FRIGGING EXCUSE!
Projectexodus's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 17:31
Projectexodus
Fuck translating! English is enough! As a Norwegian I had to deal with English translated games my entire life! So why cant France, Germany, Spain and Italy do the same?
It would help them learn speaking English in fact, just like it did to me! I could actually comunicate with people online in Starcraft when I was 10 years old! I'm not kidding here.
Mikescool's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 17:55
Mikescool
yeah screw translating, it'll help you learn english!
Azeron's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 19:40
Azeron
The example is a load of nonsense. Ony kids games get translated into Dutch, Holland, just like most of Scandinavia is perfectly fine with playing the english versions of games.

I can't even remember the last time I played a Dutch language game, in fact having a game translated would be more likely to convince me not to buy it.
thisissami's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 21:30
thisissami
@ParaParaKing

how is sony lying? they never said that they didn't do this... but if you do look at the games that they publish, it does seem that they release less games in the US/japan first. at least not the ones that i care about... basically uncharted/motorstorm/R&C/heavenly storm/gran turismo... but yeah, they definitely are culprits... but your point that they lied is wrong. :)
Bizznet's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 21:38
Bizznet
"With PlayStation Store we could probably go in the UK almost day and date. But then what are the Germans and the French going to say to me? That I'm Anglo-centric,"

My bullshit detector went off.
Emrah's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 23:43
Emrah
Languages could come in patches, after whatever time required to make the those translations. Anyone who bitches about why their native language is not supported in a *world-wide* release should be beaten senseless, and should be woken up when their language patch comes out. And then the world is a better place.
BlackSunEmpire's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/09/2008 00:14
BlackSunEmpire
Who cares if videogames are Anglo-centric (besides the French)??

I would assume more than 80% (conservatively) of the games are played in English anyway.
_dom_'s Avatar - Comment posted on 05/09/2008 05:03
_dom_
Who cares if the games are not localized?! I'm from Germany and I love the idea that everything could be released in the UK and the US at the same time. Open browser, amazon.co.uk, order, import, done!! Often cheaper than amazon.de including shipping! We wouldn't have had the whole Rock Band debacle if it was done that way from the start (which I ordered in the UK because it's fucking 50 Euros cheaper that in Germany!)

When will these people understand that everybody and their european mother speak english by now. Especially the gaming crowd! Especially the dutch gaming crowd!

So they have this huge market in front of them and the only problem to solve is the pal/ntsc thingy for those old tv sets. Wow...these people really must hate money...
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