Subtitled Out of Region Video Games

[otomegirl24]

So yeah, has anyone ever thought about that? I doubt I'm the only one though because I feel like it's such a simple idea. Y'know, say you import a game all the way from Japan and you only understand bits and pieces of it. No problem, just go to the options button in the game and switch the english subtitles on so you can read it. You think the game companies ever considered something like this, but just blew it off because they felt like it would be a waste of time and money or something else?

What do you all think? I think it would make it that much easier to import games from Japan especially if you have difficulty reading kanji, hiragana, or katakana. And wouldn't that mean less time trying to spend trying to translate it ourselves or waiting for people to create a patch for a game?

[LVUER]

It needs (more) money to do that. And if the games won't be released outside Japan, it would be a complete waste of money for the developer.

[Codexus]

The whole point of having region lock in the first place is to prevent people from importing games. Unfortunately big publishers don't like it very much when the customers have too much choice. They prefer locked markets where they can control when and at what price games are released.

For example, these days a lot of money goes into the marketing budget (I still wonder what they do with it, I never see any advertisement for games), so they want to use it for maximum impact. They don't want the buzz about the game to start too early and be already dead by the time the official release campaign starts.

Unfortunately, this is an area where the publisher's interests are different from the customer's.

[papillon]

No problem, just go to the options button in the game and switch the english subtitles on so you can read it. You think the game companies ever considered something like this, but just blew it off because they felt like it would be a waste of time and money or something else?

When you write a game, do you automatically include a Flemish language option?

No? Why not? Do you hate Belgians?

You can't reasonably expect a game developer to include a translation for every language in the world at their own expense just because one person in a foreign country might someday decide to import the game.

[otomegirl24]

No problem, just go to the options button in the game and switch the english subtitles on so you can read it. You think the game companies ever considered something like this, but just blew it off because they felt like it would be a waste of time and money or something else?

When you write a game, do you automatically include a Flemish language option?

No? Why not? Do you hate Belgians?

You can't reasonably expect a game developer to include a translation for every language in the world at their own expense just because one person in a foreign country might someday decide to import the game.

...touche. But I wasn't suggesting to translate for every language in the world, just english.

I guess it would be a bit unfair to only have subtitles for english if they were to ever do something like that, but a girl can dream right?

[gekiganwing]

In anime fandom, a few companies release Region 2 products with coherent English subtitles, and a dub if one exists. I recall that Studio Ghibli has a history of doing this..

Commercially released video games have different prices by region. In the US/Canada, prices are relatively cheap. Games sometimes cost more in the UK, not to mention the tendency for PAL region games to be released months if not years later. The listed prices for games in Japan are often considerably more... though I'm sure someone else knows more than I do about how much retailers actually charge, and what does/doesn't get discounted. Outside those regions, don't be surprised if you pay ridiculous prices for fairly old hardware and software.

That said, fans may want to be thankful for the modest number of region free games and systems. AFAIK, all PSP, PS3, original DS, and any Gameboy games are region free. Some companies choose to release region free games even for region-coded systems... the 2D shooter Mushihime-sama Futari will work on any XBox 360.

IIRC, the games that get released throughout western Europe have to include English, French, Spanish, and German text.

[kinougames]

It is a complete waste of money, especially for doujin groups. I mentioned it in another thread, but Westerners don't buy games like the Japanese buy games. Like gekigan said, buying games in Japan costs a fair bit more than buying games in English speaking countries, and at the very least, America. I remember going to toy stores in Japan when I was younger and looking for video games and being dead shocked that the GBA Pokemon games (brand new back then) were running like 4800 yen in the stores when it was only 30USD.

Think of it this way:
A game cost 10,000USD to make and is about 15 hours long, sells for 6000 yen, and let's say it's 100,000 words of dialogue. They have to translate that 100,000 words, which at a low cost with an amateur translator is about a minimum of an extra $6000. That's without a rewrite to make sure it is understandable to the average English-speaker, which would probably cost at least another $6000 assuming you pay for a much better translator who will also do the rewrite. That's already doubling the cost of the game just so that the dialogue can make sense. Add to that the cost of translating status messages, GUI text, and then adding all of those into the game. Add to that the extra coding/programming time. You've now probably multiplied the original cost of the game by 1.5.

And to add insult to injury, no one will buy it for 6000 yen in other countries, and you're forced to sell this much more expensive version for half price.

The potential benefits are way too risky for that cost, especially because they could instead funnel that money into making the game better and then get some native English speakers to license it and/or translate it for free anyway, or import it, as the quality would speak for itself.

[Riviera]

Some games pretty much do that. If the game has a dual language option, it can be considered to have "subtitles."

A lot of Atlus games have the option to have japanese or english voicing. Which is nice because Atlus is actually not one of the biggest game companies out there.

There is also the option of "undubbing" a game, which is basically just replacing the english dub with the original japanese voicing.

[LVUER]

When those game was released in Japanese, it only have Japanese subtitle and voice. ONLY AFTER it was localized into English, the publisher decided to leave the Japanese voice (with English sub of course).

Not the other way around...

They do that for those purist who prefer original voice over (bad) English one... but can't read Japanese (like me ^_^ ).

Those who likes to do this are NIS and Atlus. Capcom do that once or twice in the past, but never do it again now. Namco also did that several times in their Ace Combat series... But surprisingly, bigger company rarely/never do that (I want to hear FF in Japanese T-T).

Game with most complete subs I've met is Star Ocean 3 Director's Cut. It have English and Japanese sub AND English and Japanese voice, and you can combine all of them (so there are 4 combination all).

But for Japanese developer, making subs other than Japanese sub is just a risky, unneeded addition. They never know if they game will become a hit, or just another pile in bargain bin.

[Riviera]

When those game was released in Japanese, it only have Japanese subtitle and voice. ONLY AFTER it was localized into English, the publisher decided to leave the Japanese voice (with English sub of course).

Not the other way around...

They do that for those purist who prefer original voice over (bad) English one... but can't read Japanese (like me ^_^ ).

I know that. I was just telling her that games like this are available.

There are games that come out in Japanese and have english language options, however. Some of the Ace Attorney games did this. Whether it was just voicing or actual subtitling options, I don't actually know, but a lot of people imported these titles before they were released in north america because of this.

[kamiruxkamiru]

reminds me of Blazblue... from english to japanese to korean xD

Anyway, the only reason why japanese avoid doing that could probably because of the wide piracy going on everywhere, you see those japanese titles being pirated already what's more if they include an english subtitle? IT will bring doom to their company..

[Ramidel]

If a company does decide to release a game in America, they will almost certainly redo the voice clips if they voiced the game to begin with. "Just subtitle it" is a somewhat popular choice for anime, but only for anime that are targeted specifically towards America's geek market and that nobody plans to put on TV, and it's getting rarer as the dub teams get better and more and more anime goes mainstream.

Anything like this would probably be done by an indie studio that's desperately trying to cut costs; the big boys will never even consider targeting a niche market.

[Agent Zero]

I don't know about you guys but i prefer it when I have 6 languages option.
English, Spanish, German, Russian, French and Italian.

With this you have covered the entire western world. ( USA and EU )

Trow in Japanese and you have covered all the game makers.

But the font stays Latin.

@LVUER

That is why when you start making money make an update or a patch. /troll

[ShindoW]

If a company does decide to release a game in America, they will almost certainly redo the voice clips if they voiced the game to begin with. "Just subtitle it" is a somewhat popular choice for anime, but only for anime that are targeted specifically towards America's geek market and that nobody plans to put on TV, and it's getting rarer as the dub teams get better and more and more anime goes mainstream.

I hate this trend. A lot of series I would like (Ghost Hound [which later got english dub on bluray], Hell Girl 2 and 3, ect. and the game Record of Agarest War which sounds bland having to mute the voices during cutscenes. This coming from someone who loves a few games that didn't have voice acting. I guess I expect dating games to have VA lol) are only released sub only. I want to not have to read my screen. If I wanted subs, I'd find better ones through illegal means for free. I know it's expensive but why bother bringing it over at all?

[Ramidel]

If a company does decide to release a game in America, they will almost certainly redo the voice clips if they voiced the game to begin with. "Just subtitle it" is a somewhat popular choice for anime, but only for anime that are targeted specifically towards America's geek market and that nobody plans to put on TV, and it's getting rarer as the dub teams get better and more and more anime goes mainstream.

I hate this trend. A lot of series I would like (Ghost Hound [which later got english dub on bluray], Hell Girl 2 and 3, ect. and the game Record of Agarest War which sounds bland having to mute the voices during cutscenes. This coming from someone who loves a few games that didn't have voice acting. I guess I expect dating games to have VA lol) are only released sub only. I want to not have to read my screen. If I wanted subs, I'd find better ones through illegal means for free. I know it's expensive but why bother bringing it over at all?

As I said, the trend is turning away from bringing over subbed titles. Agarest War's style is rare in video games.

A preference for subtitles is not uncommon among the geek market. However, the American side of the Japanese game industry doesn't like to target the geek market, and a large part of this is their belief that the geek market will steal the game anyway (correct) and that stealing the game is a bad thing for their sales (insert off-topic flamewar over whether this is correct).