The old and unwieldy GTA4 thread*

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Wonder how much of the delay is because of PS3 version's localisation.
It'll release worldwide at the same day, and many top class PS3 games have had subtitles for different languages.
I would bet GTA4 also has subtitles, possibly even dubbing in different languages because it has a lot of story and dialogue.
That would be a very welcome addition for those who's command in english language isn't good enough to be able to excecute the missions in game.
 
Many top class PS3 games had both subtitles AND voice in no less than thirteen different languages. But then there's also the manuals that have to be printed in different languages and so on. If the game releases worldwide the same day, then it matters little - actually, the 360 version is a tad more complex because it may then have a lot of different masters, vs the single worldwide master for the PS3. For instance, Halo 3 had only one spoken language on the disc, but it was German in Germany, French in France, etc.
 
Arwin said:
Many top class PS3 games had both subtitles AND voice in no less than thirteen different languages. But then there's also the manuals that have to be printed in different languages and so on. If the game releases worldwide the same day, then it matters little - actually, the 360 version is a tad more complex because it may then have a lot of different masters, vs the single worldwide master for the PS3. For instance, Halo 3 had only one spoken language on the disc, but it was German in Germany, French in France, etc.
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Do counties require separate certification, or is it just a single EU-wide one?
Anyway, I'm not sure about the disk space/Blu-ray part, but I see no reason for localization effort taking more time for PS3 than 360 (regarding rabidrabbit's point).

How extensive was the localization for other big multiplatform titles (CoD4, AC) on PS3 and 360? Was it any different?
 
betan said:
Do counties require separate certification
Click to expand...
Yes.

I dunno why localization would take so long. If you recorded/produced the foreign language assets alongside the rest of game development, you'd be done in the same time. Still, it's a good few months before US releases are released in the EU for whatever reasons.
 
Stuff like booklets/manuals are tricky, if you make them too soon and change something ... but then they still need to be printed. There's definitely also an issue with the different European ESRB like regulations and such. I know Lair had a lot of trouble with Germany, ironically, with the bits of meat that fell off a dragon or something silly like that.
 
I dont believe any recent news is available specifically for the PS3 visuals maybe few mentions here and there. Im thinking the media released so far has been done on the 360.

-although Im not entirely sure
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Yes.

I dunno why localization would take so long. If you recorded/produced the foreign language assets alongside the rest of game development, you'd be done in the same time. Still, it's a good few months before US releases are released in the EU for whatever reasons.
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I think localization as a reason for delay is sort of an inside joke of devs. Case-in-point: the developers of Microsoft Flight Simulator X released the latest enhancements via SP2 in the expansion pack "Acceleration" several months before the service pack itself was available. Their reason for the delay "localization". :rolleyes: So they can get it (localization) done for a product shipping for revenue but not for a freely-available patch? It doesn't take months to do that, I'm sure one person that speaks each language could do it in a week or less. Unless they just have one guy doing all the localization, there's no legitimate reason for it to take so long. There's barely any dialog in Flight Sim. You've got the training missions, some text for a few menus, and ATC. All of that's already been done for the original release anyway, so why the hell would they even need to do that for a service pack? It's not like any of the aforementioned items changed...
 
sevanig said:
Any news on how the Ps3 version is looking??
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After the latest 360 preview, IGN promised they'd get a hands on sometime soon after (a few weeks or so), and that the hands on would be either on PS3, or they'd get the hands on on 360 and also get to see the PS3 version, can't remember which.
 
I mean if Sony's requirements for localisation were more than those of Microsoft's.
In the end, both versions will likely have the same language options, at least in subtitles.
 
I think for the sake of stock and production management, it's pretty much needed. Europe might sell 1 million copies of a game, but you don't know how many will be in French, Spanish, English, German,... speaking countries. If you print 250,000 for each of four languages and the demand is 500,000 in one and 0 in another, you've got 250,000 units sitting around doing nothing. If the discs are multinational, you can spread the production run around where its needed.

The only alternative to this would be an English release coinciding with the NA release available internationally, followed by the localised SKU(s). That has good and bad points too. Or, you only release world-wide, which would be ideal if developers could get localisation sorted in development without delaying the whole world a stupid amount. Rogue Galaxy was 8 months after the US release, with no different content other than localisation. Why would it take 8 months?! I've no idea, and don't know if world-wide releases are plausible/sensible, but I can't see why it wouldn't be.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
The only alternative to this would be an English release coinciding with the NA release available internationally, followed by the localised SKU(s). That has good and bad points too.
Click to expand...
I *really* wish Square-Enix would adopt this mode of delivery because, prior to this generation I was pretty dog sick of having to wait almost 14 months after the initial release of a FF title before being able to play it in the UK..

Shifty Geezer said:
Or, you only release world-wide, which would be ideal if developers could get localisation sorted in development without delaying the whole world a stupid amount. Rogue Galaxy was 8 months after the US release, with no different content other than localisation. Why would it take 8 months?! I've no idea, and don't know if world-wide releases are plausible/sensible, but I can't see why it wouldn't be.
Click to expand...
Well alot of games do it to be fair so it's not that big of an issue provided you plan for it & also provided the scope of content which requires translation isn't rediculously huge.. For example if you have 400,000 lines of text & 5,000 lines of speech in your title then unless you both pin down the (near-)final scripts in pre-production & get your localising up & running alongside production then it should be manageable.. Also you'll need to make sure you leave enough time for (& pre-plan prior to) QA & testing your localized text especially in places like menus etc, where variations in localized text (e.g. 3 letters in one lang & 10 in another) can cause UI issues that need addressing..


However for most game you wouldn't have anywhere near that amount of content anyways, RPGs being the exception..
 
A smaller publisher with limited cashflow would like to receive the first money back from the first territory before paying hard cash for fabrication and marketing in the next territories.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
I think for the sake of stock and production management, it's pretty much needed. Europe might sell 1 million copies of a game, but you don't know how many will be in French, Spanish, English, German,... speaking countries. If you print 250,000 for each of four languages and the demand is 500,000 in one and 0 in another, you've got 250,000 units sitting around doing nothing. If the discs are multinational, you can spread the production run around where its needed.
Click to expand...

You have to be a pretty retarded in terms of management to let that happen. You should have a pretty good ideal of initial demand of your product since you can start taking orders from retailers and wholesalers well before the release date of your product giving you enough time to determine where you should concentrate your product. If your product doesn't sell well in a certain region then they just end up sitting on somebody else's store shelves and not in your warehouse.

Shifty Geezer said:
The only alternative to this would be an English release coinciding with the NA release available internationally, followed by the localised SKU(s). That has good and bad points too. Or, you only release world-wide, which would be ideal if developers could get localisation sorted in development without delaying the whole world a stupid amount. Rogue Galaxy was 8 months after the US release, with no different content other than localisation. Why would it take 8 months?! I've no idea, and don't know if world-wide releases are plausible/sensible, but I can't see why it wouldn't be.
Click to expand...

Localization represents a cost and the way to minimize the risk of taking on unnecessary cost is to guage the demand through a limited release. Franchises like GTA and FF can get away with worldwide release. But you don't want to take on localization costs and do a worldwide release only to find out your game sells like crap. Its best to release your game in its target markets to get a better ideal whether or not your franchise will be successful in other markets.

I understand why new franchises do limited releases. I don't understand why FF does so, as having to wait a 12+ months for a NA version or a Euro version makes absolutely no sense. I guess Square doesn't feel the need to take on additional cost of doing numerous localization concurrently and upfront or they want to spread their costs, revenue and profits over time. Maybe they like having their FF franchises releases bolster more than just 1 fiscal year.
 
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