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WiiWare manga releases next month, has English text
Remember Sunsoft's plans to start releasing manga over WiiWare? After several months of hearing diddly-squat, we've finally got confirmation that Princess Ai will be the first title delivered through the service. On January 6, Japanese Wii owners will have access to the first three chapters for 500 Wii points. Subsequent chapters will be released in pairs for 200 points a time. At fifteen chapters long, that means Princess Ai will set you back 1700 points, a pretty competitive price when compared to the paper-based version.Better still, one of the comic panels released by Sunsoft reveals subtitles in English -- Siliconera speculates that this could mean Sunsoft plans to localize its WiiWare manga viewer in the west. If that goes well, who knows what else could come our way?%Gallery-38561%[Via Siliconera]
Echoes of Time gets spring release in North America
Square Enix has announced plans to release Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time in North America next spring. The cross-platform ARPG will let players of the DS and Wii editions fight, level up, and build junk together, regardless of which console they're playing on. Both versions will come out on the same day, because that's kind of the point. Worryingly, GameStop has the Wii game priced at $10 more than its DS cousin -- in Japan, both cost the same.Lumping DS and Wii players together means both games are pretty much identical (minus some on-screen furniture), but also allows us to pass the DS gallery off as a Wii gallery. Handy! [Via press release]
Disaster back on the train to Rumorsville
We've been pessimistic about Disaster: Day of Crisis getting localized for North America, and with (what we believe to be) good reason. Now, the will-it-won't-it saga has taken another twist, after Go Nintendo reader Silver Lunar received an email from Nintendo customer support saying the game would be released in the region.Okay, we know. Some guy saying he got an email from Nintendo customer support is exactly the kind of anecdote we'd usually snort derisively at, and you're right: we should all treat this with a degree of suspicion. That said, Go Nintendo's RMC received screencaps of Silver Lunar's email exchange with the big N, and reckons it's the real thing. If you'll excuse us, we'll shamelessly grasp at any straws tossed our way. Pleeeeease be true, lovely Disaster rumor.%Gallery-30942%
Age of Conan expands its bloody conquest to Korea
It looks like Age of Conan is headed for South Korea thanks to a distribution deal between Funcom and well-known Korean publisher Neowiz. You thought you were safe from King Conan's wrath just 'cause you live 7,700 kilometers from Funcom? We could've told you that was a false assumption -- this particular blogger is almost 6,500km away and he's still knee-deep in the barbarism!We won't predict that it'll be more well-received there than StarCraft, but Korea is a bastion of online gaming, and Neowiz plans to offer full localization and support, as well as all the same content updates the US and EU players get, to the Korean audience. The release date "has not yet been finalized," though -- not even a hint was provided in the press release, so, uhh, we guess we'll just wait and see. Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
Valkyrie Profile: Localization of the Game [update]
Valkyrie Profile: The Accused One shipped in Japan just a few days ago, racking up 80,000 sales in its first week and finishing in second place in the charts (to, um, Grand Theft Auto IV).With a triumphant Japanese launch under its belt, Square Enix is now turning its attention to us, and has opened an understated teaser site to announce the localization and release date of the game in the U.S. As previous evidence has hinted, it'll be known as Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume in North America, and will release on March 17th. Is the DS the greatest system for RPGs since the SNES or what? That's rhetorical, because it clearly is.Also, the beautiful Japanese boxart would be welcome here, if anybody from Square Enix is reading![Update: A Square Enix press release informs us Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride will reach the States on February 17th! Too. Much. RPG. Goodness.]%Gallery-33399%[Via Siliconera]
Suikoden Tierkreis getting localized with a quickness
Konami is wasting no time in bringing us grateful westerners Genso Suikoden Tierkreis. Siliconera's Spencer was informed by a representative of Konami's North American arm that localization was already underway, and that the U.S. would see the difficult-to-pronounce RPG in "early 2009,″ which Spencer took to mean Q1 2009. We should have all wrapped up Chrono Trigger by then, right?What we probably won't get are the incredibly expensive two special editions of the game, which will be available from Konami's Japanese online store. For ¥10,550 ($104), the Konami Style special edition (as seen here) will include the game, an artbook, the original soundtrack, a book cover, a bookmark, and a drama CD. The second bundle will throw in all of that and Genso Suikoden Volume 1 and Volume 2 drama CDs, a 2009 calendar, and a set of four cards, and will set you back ¥19,200 ($190!). Two for the fans, we think.%Gallery-33395%
EU battlegroups experiencing language problems after mergers
Tipster Nimm writes in to let us know that several EU battlegroups have been having serious issues after mergers that occurred post-patch 3.02. The mergers have seen a number of battlegroups acquiring servers with other language-dominant populations, which has resulted in a number of French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian-dominant servers (among others) all in the same battlegroups. While this is probably necessary to a certain degree to guarantee equal Alliance/Horde populations for quick queue times, it's become something of a communication nightmare in battleground matches, particularly those with lots of players using Cyrillic characters. As the player Thoughtless from the Karazhan realm asks, "Can you imagine how hard it is to organise any sort of teamplay in AB with player ???????? from <????????> guild cha(t)ting "?????? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????" in BG chat?" Nimm also notes that differentiating between ??????? enemy players is a nightmare.We knew that Blizzard was closing four EU realms (Stonemaul, Molten Core, Shadowmoon, and Warsong) and transferring remaining players to other realms in response to Russian player migration to Russian realms opened late summer 2008, and the problem's partially the result of that (which has already resulted in the inevitable "In Soviet Russia, battlegroups merge you" joke). A few amused people are rising to the occasion by translating such phrases as inc 5 schmiede (inc 5 blacksmith in German) or proposing a revival of Esperanto, but the Russian language pack would be the only possible solution for the ???? problem. There's been mention made that this is only a temporary fix on Blizzard's part to faction imbalances on battlegroups, but if you're on an EU realm that's seen a recent battlegroup merge, just be aware that Babelfish might be a useful tool in the near future.
TGS08: Rising Star reveals four for Europe
Rising Star Games just unfurled an official list of Marvelous games that it plans to localize for Europe, including Luminous Arc 2, Avalon Code, Rune Factory 2, and a fourth game that is yet to be announced for North America: Steal Princess. We expected most (if not all) of these to reach us at some point, mainly because Rising Star Games is totally awesome and we love them.Previous evidence has suggested that Steal Princess and Luminous Arc 2 won't be appearing before the end of March 2009, but we can't be mad at Marvelous. The company has had an action-packed Tokyo Game Show, and this is the cherry on top of a whole pile of other excellent announcements for Nintendo fans. Make the jump for screens, screens, and more screens! %Gallery-34394%
Verdict delivered on Phoenix Wright 3 European release
Nintendo has confirmed a super official European release date for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, and it's soon: October 3rd. With any luck, the game will arrive before we're all sucked into the Swiss countryside (if there's anything that really gets our goat, it's our Trials and Tribulations play time being interrupted by the cessation of the universe as we know it).This announcement comes after months of fretting over whether the third Phoenix Wright game would ever come out in Europe. At one point, we had serious reasons to doubt it would, but recent ratings and a confirmation from series producer Minae Matsukawa have since prevented us from egging Capcom Europe's windows. Even if the series is now out of order, we'll take October 3rd.%Gallery-3478%
Conan will start speaking Russian later this year
Funcom today announced a partnership with huge Russian developer/publisher 1C Company to localize Age of Conan for the Russian-speaking market. All text and voices in the game will be translated to Russian, and 1C will provide customer support and community services to the Russian community. There will also be a Russian server. This is all due in Q4 of this year.The English language version of the game has already been released in Eastern Europe, and it's done pretty well. All the marketing hype quotes in the press release stress that the game will be a massive success when available in the native tongue of the region. We're not going to make any predictions about that, but this is probably good news either way if your native language is Russian and you're already playing the game.
Russian WoW to debut August 6th
Here's a heads up for all our Russian speaking readers: Starting on August 6th, WoW Europe will begin selling the fully localized Russian version of World of Warcraft and Burning Crusade, complete with a Russian-speaking support team. The game will be sold in DVD and CD versions and will include 1 month and 14 days of free play time respectively. There will also be a special Russian pricing plan starting at 399 rubles per a month for a 1-month subscription. In addition, current European account holders will have the option of playing on the new Russian servers after downloading the localization pack. There will also be free transfers to the Russian servers for a limited time, and the opportunity to convert a European account to a Russian account. For more information, you can check out the official Russian site.
Start beating the drum for Taiko localization
Against all odds, Namco decided to release a localized version of Taiko no Tatsujin on the PS2 in 2004. We don't have solid sales data, but judging by Taiko Drum Master's quick drop in price at retail (and the fact that Guitar Hero hadn't happened yet, so music games were still for scary nerds), the American public was less than enthused with the idea of paying $60 to play a miniature Japanese drum. According to a Cubed3 interview with Bandai Namco's Ken Nakadate, the company may just be willing to give the series another chance in the U.S. on a system that doesn't require any specialized hardware: the DS. In response to C3's inquiry about localization, Nakadate gave an answer that is one step above the normal "we haven't announced anything" response:"We want the customers in Europe and US to enjoy the Japanese Taiko drum. The schedule for US or European releases is undecided but we would release them if we receive a lot of requests from US and European customers!"Enjoy the Japanese Taiko drum! Enjoy it with all of your heart!
World of Warcraft en espaol hits retail July 25th
The Latin American-localized version of World of Warcraft, which was first announced in March, will finally reach store shelves on the 25th of this month. Initially, it will be available in México, Argentina, and Chile; no word yet on when other countries will get it too. Both the original game and its expansion, The Burning Crusade, will be on sale, along with 60-day prepaid gametime cards.Spanish language servers will be provided for new Latin America subscribers, but those already playing on the North American servers can download a Latin American Spanish "language pack," and even transfer to the new servers if they want to. Check out the FAQ for more info.Oh, and Blizzard will be hosting a midnight launch party on the 25th at the Blockbuster at Av. Universidad #697 en México, D.F., followed by another event at Plaza Satelite in Estado de México. ¡Diviértase!
Horror, survival, and ... incest? Theresia localization announced
Aksys has announced that it will be localizing Theresia, a title jointly developed by Workjam and Arc System Works, for a U.S. release in October. Not to blow our own trumpet or anything, but we prophetic DS Fanboy blogger JC Fletcher totally called this move almost five months ago.The game will join a small but growing group of DS survival horror titles played from the first-person perspective, and incorporates many staple features of the genre: corridor exploration, the collecting of clues, and deadly traps.It also appears to have a fairly dark storyline, including ... unusual family relationships. Aksys Associate Marketing Manager Harry Chang notes that the female protagonist "loves her mom... a lot". Could this be a reference to something incestuous? We've consulted resident psychic JC for another prediction, and used our "incest" tag, just in case.
Nintendo 'localizes' DS systems for Asia
We may not be getting a redesigned DS in the near future (if you believe the company line), but there will be some "localized" DS systems flooding the markets in the near future. We're not sure what the differences are between a "localized" handheld and a good old-fashioned DS Lite, as Nintendo hasn't offered any specifics. What we do know is this: They'll be releasing in Taiwan, possibly South Korea, and (eventually) China They'll be sold in mobile phone stores They'll be available by the end of the month We wonder if the fact that these redesigned localized DSes are being sold in phone stores is an indication of cell phone support (or, at the very least, connectivity). We think guessing "yes" is a pretty safe bet, but in any case, we're waiting to hear more details from Nintendo itself before going crazy with speculation. This is certainly an interesting move on the Big N's part, though, in the company's attempt to revive sales and fight the popular PC beast in Asia. Being the analyst wannabes that we are, we can't wait to see if this has any impact on the hardware market.
Izuna 2 QA causes a lot of pink hair pulling
Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns is about more than mini-posters and sexy ninjas -- a lot of work goes into getting a game like this localized. Not only does a good localization team have to focus on the translation, but they also need to fix any bugs or problems that gamers found in the Japanese release. Apparently, fixing bugs for a roguelike is especially hard and frustrating, as you might have guessed.Here's the Quality Assurance stat breakdown, according to Atlus: Number of testers on Izuna 2: 6 Number of DS systems almost thrown against the wall: 6 Number of system-type bugs our testers reported: 104 Number of text bugs our testers reported: 259 Number of times the testers nearly gave the project lead a heart attack with a fake system bug: 3 Number of bugs our testers reported to which we responded: "That's not a bug, that's the way this game works:" 17 Number of monkeys we could have hired to do their job: 0 The production diary is actually a really interesting read that not only Izuna fans, but also people interested in the localization process should give a look. Besides, we always appreciate more insight on how the other side of the gaming industry works. Gallery: Izuna 2
WoW's global conquest continues: Russian version imminent
Blizzard will begin testing a Russian version of World of Warcraft next week. The first phase will be called the technical alpha, and will focus on "the technical aspects of the game." Never would have guessed! After that, the localization beta will commence. Blizzard has invited all its Russian-speaking subscribers (of the European version of WoW, presumably) to participate. A Russian-language forum will launch next week as well. There's a fancy flash-powered Russian teaser page already.Even though the Massively staff includes folks of several nationalities, we unfortunately don't have any Russians on the team to analyze this. We're talking about the country of the great novels The Brothers Karamazov and The Master and the Margarita, the films of ultra-weighty director Andrei Tarkovsky, and the experimental, unforgiving, plague-themed video game drama Pathologic. Is Russia going to be receptive to the lightness that is World of Warcraft? Oh, hell, probably so![Via WoW Insider]
Marvelous/XSeed deal means more Wii, DS games
According to Marvelous director Yasuhiro Wada, the deal with XSeed to publish the company's titles in the U.S. is the result of success in Europe. Unlike most companies, Marvelous focused on Europe first (through Rising Star Games) before expanding into the U.S.The agreement with XSeed is more than a simple deal to publish Marvelous games. In fact, Marvelous plans to do their own publishing, with XSeed distributing. They intend to localize other companies' games, as well, and the current plan is to focus primarily on the development and publishing of Wii and DS games. We suspect that their announced European releases -- Lux-Pain and Flower, Sun, and Rain -- are high on the list of potential American releases under the new announcement, along with Avalon Code.
Work on Mines of Moria continues as Codemasters and Partnertrans team-up
It's a done deal for the European markets. Codemasters Online, the European distributor and operator of The Lord of the Rings Online and Partnertrans, one of the leading interactive entertainment localization agencies are partnering together again. Partnertrans will provide localization, audio recordings, and additional linguistic support on the new expansion and has been providing localization support for Lord of the Rings Online since August 2006. Lord of the Rings Online has one last book before a new volume, Mines of Moria, is opened. Turbine and Codemasters Online are keeping the beta secrets locked away, but in the meantime to tide you over there's fun web-games and teasers to unlock the Mines of Moria website. Hands down these interactive web-games are better and much more fun than what Blizzard is doing with their one-a-day screenshot to fuel the speculative hype-machine on their unannounced game to be unveiled very soon. Although, it is working!
LotRO's Korean launch may alter western business model
Turbine is busy gearing up for its Korean launch of Lord of the Rings Online. The title is currently in closed beta in Korea and moving toward limited open beta. Fantasy titles are hugely popular in the country, but the enthusiasm with which beta testers are greeting LotRO has likely been spurred on by the popularity of the films directed by Peter Jackson. MMORPG's Jon Wood recently caught up with LotRO Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel to discuss Turbine's plans in the east. They discussed some of the details about LotRO's forthcoming Korean launch, which revealed how this might impact North American and European subscribers.
