Pokémon X/Y and International Releases

[Netholas]

Today, Nintendo Direct was geared for the announcement Pokémon's upcoming sixth generation.

During the announcement, they built up anticipation with a walk through the years of release, changes in features, and most important: release dates of localized editions.

X and Y will be the first Pokémon games, and among few Japanese games in general, that have a worldwide release date. This makes me wonder about localizations as a whole. Should games have to wait periods of time before they can (if ever) cross borders or should companies and developers gear more games for worldwide releases? What about language? If instead of separate versions going to different countries and region-locking them, that data went instead to detecting the system language and adjusting accordingly.

What are your thoughts about it?

[dramspringfeald]

Mh, I still paly the 1-4th gen. I got tired of the "Newer" stuff

[netravelr]

Yeah... totally a day one purchase for me. Sadly, now I have to get a 3DS just like I had to get a Vita when P4G came out.

[Zylinder]

I don't have a 3DS, and won't be buying it for this. Maybe for Harvest Moon and Rune Factory. Pokemon officially ended at #251 for me before they started the downhill ride to ugly land.

As for the simultaneous release, it means there won't be five million articles about the Japanese release and five hundred million threads yap-yap-yaping about a fan translation and assorted foolery. Lots of time and productivity will be saved. The system language idea of yours already existed in those old GBC Harry Potter games IIRC, so I'm sure there must be another reason Nintendo is doing this whole Region Locking shindig. Anti-piracy?

[Blane Doyle]

Crap.

Nintendo. You have just duped me into trading my trusty DSiXL for a 3DSXL. I have so much need for this it isn't funny.

I don't know about the technical aspects of a simultaneous release, but I agree with Zylinder. It does mean that we won't see "WHEN'S IT COMING OUT I'M GUNNA TRANSLATE IT MYSELF" all over the place so... that works for me.

[KittyKatStar]

Should games have to wait periods of time before they can (if ever) cross borders or should companies and developers gear more games for worldwide releases?

Worldwide release! It just seems... wonderful that fans around the world can enjoy the same game roughly around the same time. ^^

And Pokemon X/Y will be a day one purchase. Grew up with Pokemon and its generations.

[FlawedFlare]

The pokemon in 5th generation disappointed me. If the 6th generation gets worse, I think I'll lose faith in the future pokemon forever. I wouldn't really buy the game right away, but I wouldn't mind giving it a chance. The 3D graphics don't seem all that bad to me either.

Regarding localization, I think it'd be better if games would be released world wide, but it depends on its fanbase. If it's big and people love em, then yes. People across the ocean and seas would want to buy and play them. If not, companies won't be sure if it'll be a big profit or not. Extra work translating games in different languages will cost the company extra.

[papillon]

If instead of separate versions going to different countries and region-locking them, that data went instead to detecting the system language and adjusting accordingly.

This isn't a fair comparison. Choosing to make the game possible for other people to play is a separate issue from actively supporting those other people.

I don't own a 3DS because of region-lock. I travel too much; I'd end up having to own three different copies of the console and color-code all my games and ack, what a nightmare. No matter what games they release, I cannot get a 3DS until region lock is broken.

I still buy new games for my DS, including games that were never released in my 'home' region (whichever region you think my home is). However, in some cases those games do not support my language. And that's fine. Translation is not a free and easy thing to do; it would be silly for me to expect every single Japanese game ever written to include a full English translation on the off-chance that overseas players happen to be interested.

With a title like Pokemon or Final Fantasy or whatever, the company has plenty of resources and knows that a worldwide audience is interested. It's reasonable for them to prepare for a worldwide launch. With smaller titles, it would be prohibitively expensive for companies to be expected to support all languages right at launch (and as you probably know, many titles are licensed by entirely different companies when they DO get translated).

For that matter, the need to support multiple languages may be one thing that holds companies back from releasing games in the European region. I don't know for certain, never having taken the time to set my DS to be french and see what happens, but certainly when I buy games in Europe the *manuals* come in a large pile of languages all at once. That can't be easy, and that holds Europe back from receiving niche releases.... which is, again, why I need a region-free console.

[Sapphi]

Should games have to wait periods of time before they can (if ever) cross borders or should companies and developers gear more games for worldwide releases?

With something like Pokemon, which has a big social aspect, I'm kind of intrigued by the idea that all the world's players will be starting on equal ground. The first generation of Pokemon players in the USA is in its mid-twenties right now, and I've noticed a lot of rom-hacking and data ripping in the community during the period that Japan has the game and we do not. We can't go back to simpler times, but a simultaneous release would mean that people might be more encouraged to become like children again and actually buy the game and discover its contents for themselves.

But... I regret to say this as a diehard Pokemon fan, but I am afraid this might be the generation that kills it for me. I didn't like the change of style they pulled after the GSC series, but I kept buying the games because I loved Pokemon. Something unfortunate I noticed is that as Pokemon goes on, it becomes less exciting - I think part of that is the fact that I'm not 11 years old anymore, but the other part is that they seem to be dumbing the games down. In my copy of White, I felt like the NPCs led me around everywhere by the hand, as opposed to the RBY days when you had to explore every nook and cranny of the game or you might miss something important. I am worried that this problem will persist (or get worse) in X and Y. I also have mixed feelings about the 3D use, and I don't even own a 3DS and am not sure if the purchase is justified anymore. I'm trying to feel optimistic about the new games, but when I saw the promotional video and the new starters I felt a little betrayed. It was inevitable that they'd make this switch but I'm still nostalgic for the simplicity of the games of my childhood.

[Lishy]

What I wish is if they could stop making legendaries the central focus of the game, with the criminal organization trying to capture it.

I wouldn't mind something darker and edgier like Colosseum, but I'm tired of Team Aqua/Magma being recycled. The reason Team Rocket was cool was because they didn't need legendary Pokemon to commit their crimes. And as cool as N was, team Plasma itself was boring.

What could possibly be cool is if they have another antagonist who doesn't rely on a criminal organization. And while they're at it, they can get rid of gyms too. Sure it's a pokemon tradition, but it's been done too many times.

Gamefreak needs to take a risk. Give us a darker, baddass Diesel Punk setting again like Colosseum, and give us a plot where the antagonist acts alone. Perhaps they can illustrate what military conflict is like in a world involving Pokemon, and have that conflict be the center focus of the storyline rather than legendary pokemon or gyms?

[Ryue]

What I wish is if they could stop making legendaries the central focus of the game, with the criminal organization trying to capture it.

I wouldn't mind something darker and edgier like Colosseum, but I'm tired of Team Aqua/Magma being recycled. The reason Team Rocket was cool was because they didn't need legendary Pokemon to commit their crimes. And as cool as N was, team Plasma itself was boring.

What could possibly be cool is if they have another antagonist who doesn't rely on a criminal organization. And while they're at it, they can get rid of gyms too. Sure it's a pokemon tradition, but it's been done too many times.

Gamefreak needs to take a risk. Give us a darker, baddass Diesel Punk setting again like Colosseum, and give us a plot where the antagonist acts alone. Perhaps they can illustrate what military conflict is like in a world involving Pokemon, and have that conflict be the center focus of the storyline rather than legendary pokemon or gyms?

Don't think they will go for the last part (military conflict). I think it was shown ONCE or TWICE in the anime series though, but else the target group is probably too young for them to do anything in that direction.

[Lishy]

What I wish is if they could stop making legendaries the central focus of the game, with the criminal organization trying to capture it.

I wouldn't mind something darker and edgier like Colosseum, but I'm tired of Team Aqua/Magma being recycled. The reason Team Rocket was cool was because they didn't need legendary Pokemon to commit their crimes. And as cool as N was, team Plasma itself was boring.

What could possibly be cool is if they have another antagonist who doesn't rely on a criminal organization. And while they're at it, they can get rid of gyms too. Sure it's a pokemon tradition, but it's been done too many times.

Gamefreak needs to take a risk. Give us a darker, baddass Diesel Punk setting again like Colosseum, and give us a plot where the antagonist acts alone. Perhaps they can illustrate what military conflict is like in a world involving Pokemon, and have that conflict be the center focus of the storyline rather than legendary pokemon or gyms?

Don't think they will go for the last part (military conflict). I think it was shown ONCE or TWICE in the anime series though, but else the target group is probably too young for them to do anything in that direction.

Do little kids even like Pokemon anymore? I figured the series grew with the audience.

Besides, it doesn't necessarily need a T rating. Just some more mature themes that a more mature audience would understand. As it is they get away with all sorts of inappropriate things in the Pokemon Dex entries, so they might as well try something new in terms of plot.

[Ran08]

I agree with you guys, I didn't like Gen V much anymore, even though I did buy Pokemon Black and Black 2. But since I've always been a Pokemon fan, and that I do have a 3DS anyway, I'm probably gonna buy this. Last chance for them. Hahaha. If this game turned out to be just like the other kinda repetitive Pokemon games, with a similar formula (young trainer sets out on a journey, collects badges and pokemon, defeats a legendary-pokemon-wielding criminal organization, wins the league), then I guess I won't buy Gen VII, if ever there will be any.

Still, that's just me talking. When the time comes, my heart would probably be screaming for a new Pokemon game again. -_____-

[Dragonstar89]

The whole point to most games having Region Lock codes and having separate release dates is due to that specific region's rules on Copyright, and also Localization (Translation voice scripts and business out of the region the game was created) will play a part in such things. Pokemon X & Y are getting a one World wide release date because (most likely) of how huge The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are around the world. I did began to think some though. (If I'm recalling correctly) this is the first Pokemon game that let's you choose your language out of, I think 17 different ones? That could possibly have something to deal with it.

As for the 5th generation Pokemon, I wanna see some bad-ass looking dragons and such. I like (mostly) all Pokemon, but what they've shown us so far for the 5th generation is kinda...sad. I like Chespin and the Mega Evolution of Lucario and Yveltal, that's probably it. The more generations Pokemon goes through, the more the Pokemon end up looking like characters straight from the looney tunes rather than Pokemon :/

[SHiNKiROU]

I'm waiting until Pokemon Z releases, assuming Nintendo still follows the generation formula.

I don't own a 3DS because of region-lock. I travel too much; I'd end up having to own three different copies of the console and color-code all my games and ack, what a nightmare. No matter what games they release, I cannot get a 3DS until region lock is broken.

...

For that matter, the need to support multiple languages may be one thing that holds companies back from releasing games in the European region. I don't know for certain, never having taken the time to set my DS to be french and see what happens, but certainly when I buy games in Europe the *manuals* come in a large pile of languages all at once. That can't be easy, and that holds Europe back from receiving niche releases.... which is, again, why I need a region-free console.

I'm thinking about Earth Federation in Gundam anytime I complain about region lock.

Nintendo assumes people are stupid and they do not know what is a megabyte (Nintendo calls it blocks), and people cannot get around foreign languages. I grew up with Japanese games and buggy Chinese translations.

Should games have to wait periods of time before they can (if ever) cross borders or should companies and developers gear more games for worldwide releases?

Wikipedia lists one reason for region lockout:

Staggered launches. If a console is region-locked, then staggered launches of the games would be easier, as console producers could easily control the huge bow-wave of people wanting a game the moment it is released.