[OT] Games and their localizations

[Puke]

ahhh, System Shock. Such a brilliant game. I never had the Version with voice acting, until I found it in a bargain bin. Now I cant get it to run on a modern machine, and none of the "Dos Emulators" I have found support games that run in protected mode.

but back to the point, many games (mostly major titles, some minor ones) from the 80s and 90s supported multiple Languages. often you would select english, french, german, or spanish at the time of the install, or when you started the program.

It may not have to do with actuall language issues, but other market factors that distributors wish to control (similar to region encoding on DVDs) or it may have to do with release dates. movies are timed for release in different regions, presumeably because of different market pressures in each area (similar relases effecting expected turnouts, etc) and videogames may do the same. also, international Versions of games often have a later release date, as translation is the Last thing to happen, and the game company does not want to delay the domestic release.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

what, you mean people speak other language's than english?

[tesco samoa]

here games come in english, spanish, german, french ( Canada French, which i believe is 16th century french with lots of slang )

As most products must be english and french

[Alneyan]

You are a lucky one Tesco. I wish it were the same here in this most remote part of France, as our own translations are somewhere between "an Orc speaking French" and "Vogon poetry". You get my meaning.

Actually yes the Hammerite Mouse, some people are said to speak other Languages, but this has yet to be proven. They must refer to these foreign words used in English. *Shrugs*

Puke, while it is usually true translation is the Last thing to happens, there are cases where it isn't quite the case. AOW: Shadow Magic was released in France (and in Italy if I recall correctly) a month before its shipping date in Albion. Is it that hard to translate a game from American English to British English? A few other companies manage to handle the translation while the game is still developed, and then there isn't much of a delay. But this doesn't happen too often, as our translators seem to need three months on average to properly slaughter a game.

[ December 16, 2003, 11:16: Message edited by: Alneyan ]

[Narrew]

It is a big conspiracy, this is how we Americans plan on taking over the world. Oh we will throw you a bone now and againg, but you will learn American english and our way of life...heck I doubt that we even translate to British English, though I am sure all Brits cringe when we Americans say we speak English

[Slynky]

Originally posted by Narrew:
It is a big conspiracy, this is how we Americans plan on taking over the world. Oh we will throw you a bone now and againg, but you will learn American english and our way of life...heck I doubt that we even translate to British English, though I am sure all Brits cringe when we Americans say we speak English

One need only look at the parts of a car in English and in, well, "English" English to see the disparity.