Gaming Why Games Dont Get Localizations?

[Retloc]

I have been doing some research on how much it costs to make a 3ds game and why we don't get great games like SD Gundam G Generation 3D, New Love Plus, Etc...
So I found that most places say that the top end of production cost $1,200,00 USD maximum to produce a game and its initial quantities to be sold with a minimal price going up as extra units need to be made. So with a game being sold for $39.99 USD it takes 30,000 units to break even, with most games going on to sell over a 100 thousand units in there first year. Take Kid Icarus Uprising, It has sold 288 thousand units and it hasn't even been a year since release and globally close to 800 thousand units. So how much did the localization of kid icarus add to the cost of production or was it part of that original overhead, But not that it matters cause the game in most countries made 10x its cost to produce so why can we localize more games if even games that don't do well as in the case of SD Gundam G Generation 3D where it sold only 150 thousand units in japan were it have very tough competition with a heavy 3DS line up and 2 games for the PSP in the same series, even tho it still made 5x its cost and here in the US a triple a series like the SD Gundam game would probably out sell its japan counterpart due to the weak 3DS line up.

please tell me your thoughts and maybe shed some light on why we don't have the flood of games that japan gets yearly.

 

[Rydian]

Kid Icarus was not your standard unknown Japanese RPG. It was in the same sort of line as a loved old game in the US, and the character/IP had recently gotten a lot of attention via prominent inclusion in a smash bros game, so people became aware of it.

Your average unknown japanese RPG will not sell nearly as much without some real marketing help, which usually costs a lot more money on top.

 

[emigre]

The West don't give a shit about Gundem and Love Plus. And with good reason.

 

[Retloc]

Yes but a series like gundam is well know or zoids or even digimon are all still alive and well in japan and they are well enough known that someone would pick them up before a game like fossil fighters

ps : the Dynasty worriors gundam series has sold well for every release while its not a mega hit its better than 75% of the game that they do bring over or even release like cooking mama

 

[Janthran]

Yes but a series like gundam is well know or zoids or even digimon are all still alive and well in japan and they are well enough known that someone would pick them up before a game like fossil fighters

You answered your own question.

 

[Retloc]

Yes but they are series that is known to enough people in other countries to make a profit off just fan base alone not to mention people new to the series.

 

[porkiewpyne]

You have to remember that fans of the series =/= fans of the said game. I am a fan of Gundam. I like the show. I like Gunpla. But will I get that game? Nope. Not my kinda of game.

And if you are able to calculate costs and profits and all, I am sure they can too. And as such, if they decide not to localise it, chances are that they do not see enough returns.

I would like to see a lot of games get localised as well. Medabots 7. PLvsAA. And the list goes on and on.

 

[The Milkman]

Yes but they is series that are known to enough people in other countries to make a profit off just fan base alone not to mention people new to the series.

Thats not how it works, Gundam is widely known as the equivalent of anime like Zatch Bell over here, cool while it was out, but long forgotten. Just because you cant find a good 5 or 6 thousand on the internet who watch it and keep up, doesnt mean the fanbase is big enough to fuel a localization. They also pour MORE money into localizations thanks to translatioin and distribution contracts. Why do you think a series like Monster Hunter, which is like Japanease Halo-levefame,barely sees US shores once every gen? Plus, even though its Halo for the japanease, its got fairly sized comunities over here. Mostly because its not the kind of game you often see americans playing. Same case with Love Plus, you dont see it over here because of a few reasons which I dont care to go into in fear of offending any JPs lurking around.

And in all honesty, if you think the 3DS library is apparently "sorry", do you really think a fucking JRPG and Dating sim with boost sales?

 

[JulietStMoon]

Kinda on topic, but I feel Atlus (or whoever it is in charge of US localization) dropped the ball with the original limited print of Radiant Historia in the US, along with almost no marketing. it's not that it was a stellar "hidden niche gem," but it truly did feel like a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger, just on a massively larger scale. They could easily have marketed and hyped it up that way (in a clever way so as to not attract the legal eagles at Square, of course) and possibly have a real US blockbuster.

I guess all I'm trying to say is that a lot of foreign games just don't get a proper chance. I'm not saying that it's not understandable why some games don't get localized ("oh, yet ANOTHER niche JRPG"), but so many games outside of that description don't get a chance, either. Heck, take a look at how long Fire Emblem took to get localized, and it's doing just fine in the USA (though I suppose it could very well be argued that Marth and Roy's inclusion in SSBM helped with that).

 

[porkiewpyne]

And not to mention one recent stuff up by Aksys Games saw a few "fans" rage like it's the end of the world, calling for a boycott and all that jazz.

 

[JulietStMoon]

And not to mention one recent stuff up by Aksys Games saw a few "fans" rage like it's the end of the world, calling for a boycott and all that jazz.

Too bad it wasn't the TWEWY iOS port. that would've been all kinds of ironic.

 

[Gahars]

Math.

Why put time and effort into a localization when, more likely than not, you're not going to get a big return on that investment?

 

[YamiHoshi.nl]

Localization isn't just asking some GBATemp Members to hack their game, it's all about the costs the company makes.
Sure, localizing Pokémon is a good idea, because all of the costs can be earned back easily, but Love Plus, for example, just won't go through the throats, outside of Japan, making them make more costs, than revenue.

 

[Retloc]

I understand the reasons you guys are giving but when a company is trying to decide on a new game that is terrable like fossile fighters and say a digimon game and there are still digimon tv shows shown in the us and toys for sale why not bring that game over than start a new series that follows very close gameplay but with no fanbase or anime to draw attention to it for free advertisement. a digimon game would fair much greater profits so why go with a shitty new game and not a good game that just need localization. and yes i know that its a different company that produce and distribute that game so its not like its legallly easy to do.

Maybe I should just finnish my japanese course and move there cause too many games just never leave japan. OH money hungry world I hate you so

 

[GamerzHell9137]

The last 3 digimon games were not localized for the DS... *digimon fan mumble mumble*

 

[Skelletonike]

I agree that a lot of good games never get localised, but don't go saying Fossil Fighter is a bad game, both games were pretty solid and despiste not having much publicity it was made by nintendo (and two other studios), and published by nintendo themselves.
Most games come from devs that have no european or american studios, so other companies need to pay a certain ammount to them in order to localise the game. Like what atlus does often.

 

[ashxu]

Just interest I guess. Some games are targeted for the Japanese audience. That and it may be too expensive or not worth the localization.

Ace Attorney Investigations 2 was never localized because Capcom didn't believe it would sell well. Anime games aren't too popular in the west unless it's some shit like Naruto.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

I honestly believe we'd have a better chance receiving games if companies only opted for subtitles rather than full voiceovers. I know it costs money regardless, but cutting out voiceovers could spare a lot of cash.

 

[McHaggis]

Let's not forget that many indie developers will want their games to be localized in the west. The difficulty usually lies in finding a publisher that thinks your game is worth translating, manufacturing, marketing and distributing in another country ― they're the ones taking the majority of the risk. Here's a list of things you might not have considered regarding localisation:

• Europe can be expensive to localise for because there are several main languages instead of one or two (USA).
• Even something as simple as translating text can require non-trivial changes to the code such as, in the case of an RPG, translated text being too large or small to fit in the same space neatly.
• Many games have voice acting, so actors need to be hired, cut scenes may need extending or shrinking, lips may require resyncs, etc.
• Did the game get good reviews in the region it was released in?
• Further changes may need to be made to the game to please the rating boards in a specific region. A game targeted at 12 year olds in Japan may not be suitable for those younger than 15 in another region.
• How long will it take to localise? Some games take years to localise due to red tape and slow back and forth communication between the publisher and the developer or ratings boards. The longer it takes, the bigger the wait for the return on the investment.

All these costs (and others) would be factored into whether a game is worth localising or not. In the case of in-house developed games, it's usually up to the region heads whether a game is localised or not. For instance, Nintendo of Europe would decide whether or not they would localise a Fire Emblem game in Europe, Capcom's US division would make a decision about bringing a specific Monster Hunter game to the US. If they decide it's not worth it, then the developers cannot even approach another publisher to get the game released in another region.

I honestly believe we'd have a better chance receiving games if companies only opted for subtitles rather than full voiceovers. I know it costs money regardless, but cutting out voiceovers could spare a lot of cash.

Average consumers would find this less than appealing, I think proper native voice acting would probably give a larger return than just including subtitles.

 

[Foxi4]

Games don't get localized due to a global threaty to purge the population of the Weeboo by causing them to mentally starve due to lack of Weeboo input or learn Japanese and (perhaps) move there in the future. Titles worthy of localization for the western audience are carefuly picked as to preserve the sanity of all nations.

Seriously though, some games just don't necessitate a translation simply because they won't pay back the expenses or the profit will be so minute that the studio might as well spend that time doing something productive and more profitable in comparison.