XB360 and PS3 download localisation support

[Shifty Geezer]

Bionic Commando Rearmed is receiving a PAL PSN delay for localisation reasons. Why isn't the Live! version similarly held back? Does MS not support European languages and not do localisation? Or does Sony require localisation to a lot more languages, and MS stops at French, Germans and Spanish or something?

 

[pipo]

Most likely. Sony's localisation has always been a lot better.

I'd expect MS to step up after all that 'Europe is key' talk. It's about time for a native Dash (for smaller countries) too. Fall update?

 

[Arwin]

Just one of the many reasons why 360 is hotter in the UK than elsewhere in Europe.

 

[aselto]

Most likely.

Most likely not, I just checked 5 random Live Arcade games and all have you standard French-Italian-German-Spanish and I imagine it is a requirement for a Live Arcade game. I don't know, perhaps Sony requires languages beyond that, but that's sounds a bit unrealistic to me. More likely bugs appeared while Capcom was localizing PS3 version.

Sony's localisation has always been a lot better.

It depends on a country, in some cases Microsoft is doing a much better job in that regard.

 

[Arwin]

Yes, so just those four languages. Sony generally supports many more, from 10+ languages (and subtitles, often configurable whichever way you want - e.g. Finnish language with Swedish subtitles). Take in contrast Halo, which you can get in German in Germany, but then you can't choose to have English spoken language instead. Of course BluRay helps here too, mind.

For PSN games you also have quite a few choices - with French Italian German Spanish English being the absolute minimum. Almost everything out there I can play in Dutch these days - for Sony titles that's generally guaranteed.

That said, you may still be right, probably a platform specific issue right now ...

 

[pipo]

I don't know, perhaps Sony requires languages beyond that, but that's sounds a bit unrealistic to me.

I meant it's better in general.

I've got a Dutch OS on my PS3 and key Sony releases even have Dutch voice acting. AFAIK MS only did that for VP.

 

[aselto]

Yes, so just those four languages. Sony generally supports many more, from 10+ languages (and subtitles, often configurable whichever way you want - e.g. Finnish language with Swedish subtitles). Take in contrast Halo, which you can get in German in Germany, but then you can't choose to have English spoken language instead. Of course BluRay helps here too, mind.

Apparently Sony deliberately avoids my country as much as possible and localises only their ubercasual games like Buzz or Singstar but ignores everything else. On 360 on the other hand you can play most 1st party games and plenty of 3rd party games in Polish. Perhaps it more depends on local teams than overall strategy.

Still, I don't care as I play games in English anyway.

For PSN games you also have quite a few choices - with French Italian German Spanish English being the absolute minimum. Almost everything out there I can play in Dutch these days - for Sony titles that's generally guaranteed.

That said, you may still be right, probably a platform specific issue right now ...

I don't think that putting requirement to support more languages would be a good thing though - it would just be steeper for indie devs to put their games on Live Arcade without guaranteeing them higher revenues, as the rest of European countries have small population/console userbase. PSN on the other hand has either 1st party games or from big publishers like Capcom, so they might do that just for the sake of it. But I don't think that Capcom wouldn't put mroe languages on Live Arcade if they already are localising for PSN version.

 

[Dominik D]

Yes, so just those four languages. Sony generally supports many more, from 10+ languages (...). Take in contrast Halo, which you can get in German in Germany, but then you can't choose to have English spoken language instead. Of course BluRay helps here too, mind.

Somehow my DoA: Xtreme 2 game purchased in US had such exotic language as Polish available. Also if your read indie game forums, Paul Johnson from Rubicon Development stated, that for their game MS specifically asked for translation into insane amount of langs and aided in the process. YMMV

 

[obonicus]

Yes, so just those four languages. Sony generally supports many more, from 10+ languages (and subtitles, often configurable whichever way you want - e.g. Finnish language with Swedish subtitles). Take in contrast Halo, which you can get in German in Germany, but then you can't choose to have English spoken language instead. Of course BluRay helps here too, mind.

Halo's a special case, though. All of the games had only one audio track but all the subtitle tracks.

 

[archie4oz]

Or does Sony require localisation to a lot more languages, and MS stops at French, Germans and Spanish or something?

Well SCEE officially supports 42 countries on the PSN, so they generally try to hit as many as feasable.

Also I think a part of it is the difference in the fashion in which MS and Sony handle regions. MS tends to be more centrally controlled, whereas Sony tends to lend a lot of autonomy to it's regional sections. This tends to grant MS a more coordinated global release of a title but weaker coverage in smaller EU countries. Whereas for Sony each region plans a title release around their own schedule, which allows it to tailor releases for more regionally focussed coverage with the byproduct of probably a later release date.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

In this particular example then, Bionic Commando Rearmed, XB Live! is receiving it in Europe on the prior release date with the languages of English, French, German, Spanish, Polish and Italian, and the PSN version is being delayed to add a lot of other languages like Dutch?

Are developers made aware of this at development? Has this come as a surprise to Capcom, or did they not think to add localisation for the other countries while they were doing the major languages?

I can't decide is delaying the larger markets is a bad move for Sony, or if the devs are just being a bit silly not getting their act together and then blaming Sony for delays!

 

[ERP]

It's usually down to the publisher which languages are supported.
Localization issues could cover everything from language to PAL technical issues though.

 

[Arwin]

Are developers made aware of this at development? Has this come as a surprise to Capcom, or did they not think to add localisation for the other countries while they were doing the major languages?

I can't decide is delaying the larger markets is a bad move for Sony, or if the devs are just being a bit silly not getting their act together and then blaming Sony for delays!

I don't know - Eurogamer suggests it happened to Capcom on PSN two times before, for the same reasons ...

In the end though I think the delay is just 1 week. So it's not a major issue.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Here's an interesting tid-bit :

Chris Lewis, vice president, Interactive Entertainment Business Europe, Middle East and Africa, tells us about the pressures and challenges of pushing Xbox 360 in the region.
...
Live is vital to your strategy to broaden Xbox 360’s appeal. How has Live take-up in Europe compared to the US? We don’t normally break out the European element of our Live membership. I mean, I know what it is, but I don’t want to get rapped on the knuckles by being too explicit with you. I will say to you as a percentage of that overall total, it’s just less than a quarter...And I’ll tell you also that a large part of that is in the UK...

Live! clearly isn't so hot in Europe. I wonder how PSN compares?

 

[Zassk]

Here's an interesting tid-bit :

Live! clearly isn't so hot in Europe. I wonder how PSN compares?

Europe has 1/3 of all 360 owners, so having 1/4 of the Live! users isn't too far off expectatinos.

 

[inefficient]

Europe has 1/3 of all 360 owners, so having 1/4 of the Live! users isn't too far off expectatinos.

Most of those users are in the UK. Which is why, not suprisingly, MS most focuses on English language games.

 

[PARANOiA]

How is delaying the launch of a working English version of a high-profile game a good thing? I imagine this will simply end up with more multi-platform owners buying the 360 version since it's available on day one. Compound this with the fact that the arcade game has gameplay links to the full retail game coming out soon and this must surely be a pain in the ass for Capcom to have to put up with. More people will be encouraged to buy the 360 version of that, too, if they buy the arcade game on 360 without waiting for the delay.

I'm not saying localisation is a bad thing - what I'm saying is delaying the working part of the game for the benefit a tiny fraction of your userbase is terrible business. As someone who would have been effected if I owned a PS3, I'd be furious.

 

[manux]

How is delaying the launch of a working English version of a high-profile game a good thing? I imagine this will simply end up with more multi-platform owners buying the 360 version since it's available on day one. Compound this with the fact that the arcade game has gameplay links to the full retail game coming out soon and this must surely be a pain in the ass for Capcom to have to put up with. More people will be encouraged to buy the 360 version of that, too, if they buy the arcade game on 360 without waiting for the delay.

I'm not saying localisation is a bad thing - what I'm saying is delaying the working part of the game for the benefit a tiny fraction of your userbase is terrible business. As someone who would have been effected if I owned a PS3, I'd be furious.

How would it be a delay if you know from the beginning that you are going to do localisation work? You take take the localisation into account when planning time schedule and way of working and that's it. No delay as the release date is exactly what was planned. Only idiot would notice week before release that "oh, we need to support these additional languages, let's start doing something".

As a ps3 owner I have really liked the sony way of delivering localised content. Most simple games can be played by even those who don't understand english(i.e. children can play rub a duck in theír native language). Also bringing all the different languages to single disc can be a cost saving matter. You can press huge amount of discs and distribute them to market based on need as opposed to if you press europe disc, asia disc and usa disc separately.

I played heavenly sword twice just because of the dubbing. First time in english and second time in my native language. The voice acting was superb on both languages. The same thing could happen with other games. Some games give best feeling when played in their native dialect(i.e. japanese) and then many need subtitles to be able to understand it. Props for sony for doing the right thing and letting consumer choose the audio and subtitles and not force feeding single choice. Ratchet&clank on spanish was rather funny experiment...

 

[dubyateeeff]

IIRC even the trophies are translated.

I find translated text, menus etc is very irritating. But if it makes stuff more accessible for the general population (family, friends, gfs etc) than I guess I can do with one week delay. But I would like to have the option to buy the english versions of the games earlier and then have that patched to Swedish when it is finally made available. That goes for regular games to, but I can't see how localization can delay games that much since translations can be done in parallell with other tasks.

But I guess there are support issues that stops them from doing that or <insert sarcastic comment here>.

 

[JPT]

But I guess there are support issues that stops them from doing that or <insert sarcastic comment here>.

You have to do Q&A for each of the languages also