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So that's how they localize a game...
If you thought localization was just a developer running everything through an auto-translator and shoving the game out the door, you're pretty far off according to Atlus U.S.A. The team over at the company that produces some of the best game localizations in the business have written a very insightful post into why game localization takes so long.Atlus doesn't just take a game and throw it through a quick translation process. There's the weeks of the translators playing the original game to get a feel for it, then the weeks of the actual translation, the weeks of re-programming to make the new text, voice-overs, and graphics line up. Then you have the weeks of testing to remove bugs and finally the packaging and shipping process. On a good game release, you're looking at around three and a half months for the localization. For MMOs, you're looking at something much more intensive thanks to the amount of text involved.Interested in the full process? Check out Atlus's production diary number 12 for the full rundown.
Atlus explains why it takes so long to localize a game
Atlus, publisher of fine niche games, has laid out a concise explanation of localization, answering the question: "Why does it take so long?" Atlus Editor Nich Maragos covers all the major steps, with timetables and explanations of each stop in the process. Our refined version goes like this: Step 1: Familiarization (1-3 weeks) -- Play the game and understand context of written material. Step 2: Localization (1-8 weeks) -- Depends on amount of text and if voice acting is required. Step 3: Programming (4-6 weeks) -- All implemented by original developers. Step 4: Quality Assurance (5-8 weeks) -- Bugs are natural side effect of localization, along with "test issues." Step 5: Manufacturer Approval (3-8 weeks) -- "Internal testers go over the submitted master candidate." Step 6: Manufacturing (3-5 weeks) -- Print, box and ship. Even taking the most optimistic approach, it appears that localization takes a minimum of four and a half months. Hopefully that'll clear up the process for those who think it's as simple as switching a Word document with translated text.
XSEED bringing The Sky Crawlers to North American Wiis
If you have a comprehensive knowledge of Japanese literature or flight combat games that never saw an American release, you probably already know about The Sky Crawlers. We fell in love with Namco-Bandai's book-to-game adaptation when we were teased with tons of gameplay footage last year -- sadly, the game was never visited by the localization fairy, and never made it to the States. Since then, we've been sad all over.Fortunately, a recent XSEED press release has turned our melancholy into melan-jolly (ugh) -- the capitalized company has purchased the North American publishing rights for The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, due out this holiday season on the Wii. The game, which was developed by Ace Combat veterans Project Aces, will have players using the Wiimote and Nunchuck to simulate actual flight controls. It's a bit overdue, but we're thrilled about the Americanization of this aeronautical gem nonetheless.%Gallery-67448%
NCsoft aims to bridge the East-West divide with Aion
Stereotypes and ingrained perceptions can be frustrating to deal with, but let's face it -- some stereotypes do exist for a reason, and this can certainly apply to games as much as to anything else. There have been no small amount of Asian import MMOs that have been localized poorly for the western market, and this has certainly left a bad taste in gamers' mouths. Localization is a major challenge for any developer, and there's a rather wide chasm between what makes a game popular in an Asian market like Korea and what players embrace in the west. The westward-bound MMO that many people are focusing on right now is Aion, from NCsoft. The westernization of Aion is the subject of another solid interview at The MMO Gamer by Steven Crews, who sat down with Aion producer Brian "Xaen" Knox, the person largely responsible for NC West's localization of this title. Knox talks about what he sees as being the best aspects of both East and West in terms of game development, and how some western influences on Aion's design have actually proven to be successful in Korea. It's a fairly in-depth interview and hits on a number of Knox's ideas about how a game can begin to bridge the game culture divide between East and West, seen in the context of Aion. Check it out over at The MMO Gamer.
Free to play MMO Cronous to launch in India
Lizard Interactive, the makers of free-to-play MMOs Cronous and Sho Online, has made an agreement with Servex of India to bring Cronous over to the Indian MMO audience.The Indian MMO scene is very much like the Asian MMO scene, where internet and gaming cafes dominate the market while at-home users only make up a small percent. To combat this, Lizard and Servex have also teamed up with Sify and Zapak -- two of the largest internet cafe chains in India. These chains will be offering special promotions and incentives for players who choose Cronous, as well as simply promoting the game in their stores.The Indian MMO scene is one of the best marketing choices right now, as the market is uncrowded and quickly gathering steam. This move is very similar to Rappelz's choice to move into the Middle Eastern market, choosing to take the costs of localization in order to tap an untapped player base.Cronous will be launching their Indian website later this month, with game service targeted for the same timeframe as well.
Update: Is Blizzard prepping Polish and Italian versions of WoW?
Blizzard Europe recently updated their jobs site with a host of new positions which strongly suggest more EU expansion, this time in Italy and Poland. The last major EU release was a localised Russian version of the game which came out last year.According to the site, Blizzard Europe is looking for Customer Support Representatives in Italian and Polish, along with Customer and Billing Support and Customer and Technical Support. Under their Web Team, they are looking to fill Web Editor positions in both languages, while under Community they are looking for Online Community Representatives. All these positions are based in either Paris, France or Cork, Ireland.Update: We asked Blizzard about these positions and have been told simply: "no comment".
Square Enix fast-tracking Final Fantasy XIII localization
Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase spoke to VideoGamer.com about the localization plans for the game, indicating that the company would like to get the European version out "sooner than a year later than the Japanese release."According to Kitase, "Traditionally the Final Fantasy numbered series, it takes about half a year between the release in Japan and the release in North America, and another half a year before it's released in Europe. But we would like to minimise this, this time." Steps taken to minimize the wait include recording English voices during the development of the Japanese game, not after. English text localization is also in progress concurrent with work on the Japanese version.Square Enix must have finally realized that the sooner it gets North American and European versions out, the sooner it can sell the game in Japan again as the "International" version.%Gallery-41346%
The birth of the Middle Eastern MMO scene
Much of our coverage of the MMO industry at Massively is clearly focused on North America and Europe, with the occasional article about what's happening in Asia, but we rarely have the opportunity to point out what's happening in MMOs in the Middle East. Truth be told, we weren't aware that MMOs are operating in this region of the world until an article we came across today. Sanya Weathers recently got in touch with Fadi Mujahid, general manager of a Dubai-based company called Game Power 7 which has localized the free-to-play MMO Rappelz for the Middle East/North African (MENA) market. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, Game Power 7 is the first company to focus on the MMO industry in the Middle East and North Africa to date.Mujahid explains to Weathers how Game Power 7 made these first inroads to the MENA market, from market research to localization efforts (adding 'Middle Eastern touches' to the characters and other changes to make the game less offensive to the market's cultures), to getting the word out about the Arabic version of Rappelz.
Lord of the Rings Online launches in Korea and Russia
Turbine has issued an announcement regarding the regional availability of their number one title. Just ahead of Lord of the Rings Online's second birthday, the folks over in Russia and Korea are now able to join in the Tolkien-inspired fun with new localized versions of the game. Pictured above are the logos for the two new regions, Korean on top and Russian underneath. Noticeably, the Korean logo is in the Mines of Moria format that we've all become used to now, whereas the Russian logo takes after the original logo from vanilla LotRO (Shadows of Angmar). We aren't sure whether this means that Korea's LotRO is Moria enabled and Russia's is not. Perhaps a couple of our readers could translate the sub-headings and shed some light on the issue (and yes, they did! See the comments for info).Korean company NHN is handling their region's version following a deal from December of 2007, and IT Territory made a similar agreement to bring the game to Russia in January of 2008. Both of these companies made statements emphasizing their high expectations for the success of LotRO in their respective markets, but the real test of that begins now. .
QuickArmory offers localization, boss tallying
Our friends over at QuickArmory, which is a site with a whole slew of extras for parsing and checking out Armory information, have sent along a list of updates to what they've done lately. The site itself is still pretty barebones (it focuses on getting information together fast rather than flashy graphics or layouts), but they've added new details to what you can see on a character view. In addition to the usual achievements, you can mouse over the title of each instance, and it will tell you how many times the character has killed each boss that's tracked in the game.And they've also added localization support -- next to the box where you put the character's name in, you can choose to see the site in English, German, French, Spanish, or Russian. Some of the achievements, we're told, aren't fully translated, but that's quite a feature on an "Armory lite" site.QuickArmory isn't necessarily the most robust Armory site out there, but it's still really good at getting you lots of information on one character quickly. If you do a lot of Armory searching for PuGs or just like learning about the various characters on your server, it's definitely worth a bookmark.
Quebec law outlaws English-only titles if French versions exist [update]
[Update: We've clarified the exact implications of the law -- English-only titles are affected if there is a French version available, which is now given preference. We apologize for any confusion caused.]Beginning today, if you live in Quebec and want to buy a game that doesn't contain any French text or voice-over while alternate (read: French) versions exist -- you can't. You'll have to wait until the existing French version becomes available in store, which, in many cases, can take weeks or months.The Toronto Star reports that the new law is meant to "promote and protect the French language." The paper spoke with one retailer who says that goal carries a high price. "I'm afraid it's going to cost me my business," said Ronnie Rondeau, who owns eight Game Buzz stores in Montreal. "If it really was going to make a difference, I'd be for it, but only a small number of people want to play in French."Quebec's government threatened legal action against Nintendo and Sony in 1999 if the companies did not begin including a French language option in games (and game manuals) they published in the territory. The companies complied, and many third-parties produce French localizations of their games -- but work often isn't started until after the English version ships. Even the head of the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, Danielle Parr, admitted to the paper that French-language games -- designed for release in France -- may never make it to Quebec due to the province's relatively small market. It seems that if you want to play those English-only games on time, you'll have to hope that there isn't a French version available at all.[Via GamePolitics]
GDC09: Tinkering around with Neo Steam and Atlus Online
The World of Gatheryn isn't the only steampunk MMO on the block this year at GDC09. While Gatheryn certainly appeals to the Victorian steampunk crowd, Atlus Online's upcoming MMO Neo Steam will be bringing in those who like more fantasy mixed in with their brass and gear-driven inventions.Atlus may be a newcomer to the world of MMOs, but they're proving that they're no newbies with their initial offering. Our look into Neo Steam was quite informative and surprising, especially considering that this will be the second time Neo Steam will be releasing in North America. Atlus is putting a large amount of effort into making Neo Steam resonate with North American audiences, and not just putting out a rehash of the same game you've already seen.
EVE Online extending reach into Russia and Japan
The sci-fi massively multiplayer online title EVE Online is very much a game of galactic conquest. In that spirit of world domination, CCP Games has been working on establishing the title's presence in both Russia and Japan. EVE developer CCP Caedmon is part of the company's localization team, and has written a dev blog titled "Machine Translation's Bad, M'kay?", dealing with CCP's efforts to reach out to Russian and Japanese gamers. Both Japanese and Russian localizations of the EVE client are now up on the Singularity test server. By all indications, the Russian client's localization is further along, as CCP Games opened up the client for public testing in 2008. However, they're interested in pushing ahead with Japanese localization as well. CCP Caedmon writes, "We know there is a highly dedicated community of Japanese players out there who have been with EVE since the early days and we are excited to hear your feedback." For more on the status of EVE Online as it applies to other markets, see CCP Caedmon's "Machine Translation's Bad, M'kay?".
The new Jake Hunter game may not be terrible
We were ridiculously excited about the North American debut of Workjam's Tantei Jinguuji Saburo detective adventure series -- until Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles actually came out, and turned out to be a mess of poor localization and incomplete content. Whoops.North American publisher Aksys Games is taking the rare step of correcting its mistake in the followup, Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past. In addition to three new cases (judging by the art, they are the cases from the DS game Tantei Jinguuji Saburo Detective Story: Kienai Kokoro) and six new adorably drawn "comedic" adventures, Memories of the Past also includes all three cases from the first game, with a new localization! "Like a Phoenix, Jake Hunter has been reborn as a game infused with personality and a brand new localization that will keep you coming back for seconds," Frank deWindt II, project lead for the game, said in the press release. We see what he did there and wonder if it signals an intentionally quirkier re-Wright for the cases.In other Aksys news, the company announced a very cute multi-instrument music game called Rockin' Pretty.%Gallery-46073%
Aion's release date expected for fall 2009
Localization is big, time consuming business, and NCsoft wants to make sure that they get it just right with the release of Aion: The Tower of Eternity. The US community manager, Liv, has just confirmed that NCsoft is seeking a fall 2009 launch date for the Western copy of the game that has already seen success in Korea.The game is undergoing a significant re-write of all of the narrative content instead of being simply translated and pushed out the door. What this should produce is a game without the standard awkward mistranslated phrases, incomplete sentences, and dialogue that doesn't word wrap properly.This style of localization is common amongst recent games that have crossed over into Western culture, such as the Megami Tensei Series and Odin Sphere from Atlus Games. It's more extensive and time consuming, but produces much better results in the long term.For all of the questions and insights Liv has provided to the Aion audience, check out her full letter and note from the producer at the European Aion website.
WiiWare manga service quietly launches
As promised, Sunsoft's WiiWare manga reader has just debuted on Japan's WiiWare service with Princess Ai, and Siliconera has posted a brief walkthrough to, well, reading Princess Ai on your Wii.It sounds straightforward, if a little unwieldy. Turning English subtitles (all translation work has been done by Tokyopop) on is easily done via the options menu, though this does mean you'll have to center on each speech bubble to make the subtitles appear (by pressing the A button), as opposed to smoothly scrolling through the manga.Meanwhile, the + and - buttons allow for zooming in and out, and accessing the next page is done by pressing left on the D-pad. There's also an option to listen to background music, five tracks from the newly released Princess Ai soundtrack, though how you people read and listen to music simultaneously we'll never know. Madness, we say.%Gallery-38561%
Wii Warm Up: Will Sega tap out?
An OFLC rating appeared last week for Sega/Prope's Let's Tap, indicating that Sega submitted the game to the Australian ratings board in preparation for a release in that region. This, of course, suggests that they're planning a worldwide release for Yuji Naka's innovative hands-off game.We suspect, however, that the game was submitted for rating before the disastrous Japanese launch. Will Sega follow through on their plan to localize Let's Tap for other territories, now that it's already proven itself to be a bomb once? Or will they cut their losses? And would it be a terrible decision for Sega to try their luck outside of Japan?%Gallery-33707%
Let's Tap down under
A rating for Yuji Naka's latest project, Let's Tap, has popped up on the OLFC and would appear to indicate the title is destined for an Aussie release. Seeing as how we haven't heard anything on a North American or European release, this is likely going to be good news to folks outside of Australia. If Sega plans to localize the game down under, there's a very good chance that those of us who are looking forward to tapping away with the quirky title will get a chance to. %Gallery-33707%
DS Daily: Phantasy Starting too late?
Sega has finally announced Phantasy Star Zero for North American and European release (press release at the "source" link, new screens in the gallery), putting to an end our (mild) fears that the multiplayer action RPG would never leave Japan. But the press release specifies "Winter 2009" -- with a promise of more info in "the coming months" that suggests that they don't mean the winter 2009 we're currently in the middle of, but the next one. As in, almost a whole year away.Our immediate reaction was "nooooooo," but then we realized that there are just way too many DS games coming out in 2009 -- especially in the first half -- and maybe it's a good thing that we don't have to try to crowd Phantasy Star Zero in with all that stuff. It'll probably get crowded with a lot of future stuff, but we don't know that right now.What's your take? Too far away or helpful for your monthly time/money budgeting? Does PS0 say "holiday lineup" to you?%Gallery-31775%
Klonoa to North America in spring
Yay! The latest Nintendo Power has confirmed a North American localization of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (under the abbreviated moniker of Klonoa), and the good news doesn't stop there. For example:
