Topic: How to solve the tedious problem of localisation (?)

Reading the eShop release page, I don't think we can complain about the current state of affairs of the european eShop, but at the same time there is a number of indie US games worth playing that probably won't be making it to Europe anytime soon. Examples include Sportsball, Dot Arcade, 1001 Spikes, Adventures of Pip, the Angry Gamer game (I swear there's a guy in the comment section who complains about this game not being released every week - it's the EU equivalent to the american "STILL NO ZERO MISSION IN US!!" thing) etc.

Of course Nicalis is the main offender here. I'm especially concerned about 90s Arcade Racer, scheduled to be released in 2015 (2034 in Nicalis years) and that very likely will never make it to the old continent, because Nicalis.
It's so frustrating to have such an idiotic company get their hands on legitimately good games like Cave Story (released ONLY 2 years later on PAL 3DS), Grinsia, 1001 Spikes, Ikachan (all three never released in EU). The occasional release of sure-fire hitters such as Nightsky (for casuals), VVVVVV (for hardcores) and the not-yet-confirmed Binding of Isaac is irrelevant when you think that half of Nicalis' catalogue hasn't been ported, despite people asking for these titles, and the games themselves requiring zero translation expenses.

Of course all of this would be useless had Nintendo decided not to region-lock the console but, despite what the NL says about it being a non-issue, region locking is one clever way Nintendo has to ensure that every user pays as much as possible for a game. Region locking prevents an UK user from getting a US copy of Runbow for £9,8 instead of the 11 quid required in the UK eShop. It prevents an italian user (example: me) from getting Badland: GOTY Edition for €9 on the US eShop rather than €12 on the EU eShop. May I remind Nintendo that artificially keeping prices as high as possible is still not entirely legal in the west?! Nintendo already got fined for many million euros in the early 2000s, but apparently it's true that wolves lose the teeth but not their nature.
And the point of losing proper localisation and translation is just a sad joke, considering companies like Capcom or Tomorrow Corporation can get away with releasing full english text-based games to an audience of 700.000.000 non-native english speakers.

Now, the problem is not Nintendo not releasing Zero Mission in US. If you are a Nintendo buyer in US, you've been scammed so many times already that you probably have earned the right to pirate Zero Mission, so go ahead and do it - they won't call the videogame police, trust me.

I have tried to investigate a bit about the process of localisation, but I haven't found any information that I would call "definitive". I know we have a number of US developers who have successfully published in Europe, so I'd like them to shed some light on the costs of the process. If Nintendo is not ok with people talking about this stuff I can't blame developers for not talking, but I guess we're in the realm of fair commerce here, so the paying audience should know. We're not talking about Houdini escaping from the bloody water torture cell, so I don't see the reason for being so secretive.
I have no idea why Nicalis refuses to port their games - maybe it has to do with the fact that you have to prove that your game is functional to get a rating?! And of course their games, being broken beyond belief, can't stand a chance?! I seriously have no clue. I don't want to believe they are deliberately avoiding the European market because it's too expensive to get the game approved by the EU authorities.

So what could we - the audience - do to have companies like Nicalis to port their games over to Europe?! One solution would be to set up digital orders (or "pre-orders" as they are now called) to guarantee that there's enough interest in the game to justify the porting costs. But that of course would lead to the disastrous scenario of companies releasing games ONLY if there's enough pre-release interest in the games, which would be, in many ways, a far worse outcome than St. John could have predicted in the Apocalypse.
Another way would be to have petitions, but in the internet age of petitions being done for everything - therefore worthless - I don't see them being something that would convince a publisher to port a game. So, any idea?! Thoughts?!

Or start an e-mail campaign. Have people e-mail the company asking them to localize it

Also a physical letter campaign might work well.

That's a good idea. Or a twitter thing maybe?!
It seems with twitter nobody reads/replies to email anymore these days. I don't know how to use twitter though.
I have written many serious emails to Netherrealm Studios but never got an answer from them.
But through the awesomeness of twitter I can magically know how many times Ed Boon goes to the bathroom every day.
Isn't technology brilliant?!

@spizzamarozzi: You do realize that the indie developers individually choose the prices of their games and not Nintendo. Also a big part of the reason you have to wait longer or indefinitely is the number of translations required to release in your territory and the insane costs charged by your ratings board (by your i mean all of NOE teritory) The creator of Gunman Clive stated that Australia wanted 3,000 bucks and a physical copy of the game mailed to them for certification. He didn't have a wiiu disk writer and had to ask Nintendo to make one for him and send it to him in Sweden so he could send it to the ratings board. Thats just nuts.

@faint: the point about region locking is general: if it applies to the inconsistencies in prices for indies (as stated above) or for Nintendo products (Splatoon comes to mind) it's not my problem. The purpose of region locking is obvious and it's not justified by any ethical or cultural difference. This is a Nintendo policy that has been "expanded" to their eShop, therefore to indies, but I'm not concerned with who decides the prices - I'm just trying to understand how legit the process is.

Number of translations is irrelevant. Most indie games are released with no translation at all (see full text game Little Inferno). Capcom has released four text-based adventure games in english only for almost full retail price, despite three out of four titles having been already translated in the past. Arcade games, platformers, racers et al require basically no translation and could be perfectly released in english without people from Portugal panicking because they don't understand the ultimate goal of the racing game they have just purchased.

I don't know about Australia - but I know it's not Europe. I remember reading that the German rating board only requires a DVD video of the gameplay for rating purpouse, and the cost to be much lower. I don't know though - that's just a recollection.
Even if the cost was €3.000 (which I doubt, otherwise many first timers wouldn't have released their game on the EU eShop), it's not a crazy amount of money considering you are releasing your game in a whole continent.
It's a sort of an investment that people who are very serious would go through - a bit like someone buying a new amp to record an album. But honestly, I suspect the price being a lot lower in Europe - I don't think RCMADIAX has spent €9.000 to have his cheap three games rated, but you can ask him.

@spizzamarozzi: Are his games released in Australia? From what I understand Australia has the least number of indies due to this reason. Just because the uk gets it doesn't mean everyone else does.

Hello, since I just released a game in Europe (ZaciSa: Defense of the Crayon Dimension!) perhaps I can shed some light on the super fun process!

The main thing holding back indie games, esp small indies like me, is cost. Unlike Europe & Australia, ESRB in North America is free for digital games. So just the thought of having to pay money is kinda offensive in this day and age. Though, that little side-rant aside. Europe isn't cheap. PEGI & USK are both in the $1000s normally for digital only games. But it can help greatly to have your game be small in size (like less then 350MB).

My game is like 150MB, so I got lucky. For me, cause of small game (in size that is), PEGI was around 260 Euros and USK was about 300 Euros. So combined that's 560 Euros. But don't forget, I'm from the States. So that becomes over $600 USD. While that much isn't much, it can become a gamble for an indie. You just don't know how well your game will do in a different market. Germany alone having a single rating board that is pricey is also a toss up. Luckily, Germany is #1 in eShop users, so is easier to justify. (Europe = Germany, UK, France in that order I've noticed from what I've seen and others told me) Again, all of that is just for smaller games. Bigger games or retail games will become expensive.

Thankfully, this experience has become very positive for me. My game has sold well in Europe these past 2 weeks. Already made back the PEGI amount. And getting close to making back the USK amount based on Germany only sales.

I hope this helps a little.

If they are a small indie, you can try to help them bring to Europe. Like help show that those in Europe would be interested in their game. Convince them to set up a indiegogo for getting ratings's done. Etc. Just some ideas.

@faint: Do indie games come with language options in Europe? Some do probably, but I assume most just stick with English, from what I've seen. I don't think translation is a big problem for a lot of indie developers, because most don't bother with it to begin with.

@Octane: How often do you change your system language to see if indie games have localization?

@Bloodix: you're a true gentleman, cheers for sharing some info with us laymen!
I totally understand $600 for a one-man-studio can be a risky investment - so I'm glad you're making your money back and hope you can make a good profit with your game in the long run (you kinda deserve it - and more - considering the wealth of free updates and the care you have put in all the little things that many overlook, like FIGS etc).

I would assume that the bigger the game, the bigger the studio, the bigger the investment, but also the bigger the potential pay-off. So while not being risk free for a more enstablished publisher such as Nicalis, it's still way safer than for a one-man-band such as you, I suppose. Great to know digital size matters - I had no clue.

Yours are very good ideas on how to convince people to bring their games to Europe. Not entirely convinced on donating in advance to cover for rating costs though, but for one single reason: nobody can tell if the company really needs the money or they are just after a risk-free business operation. I don't see why you should take risks but Nicalis, with far wider business opportunities than yours, can't. But however, great ideas nontheless.

Kinda sad to see Italy not in the top-3 countries in the eShop but it's understandable considering Germany and the UK are far wealthier than we are. Germany also has SKTTR, who alone has bought as many eShop games as the whole cities of Milan and Turin combined. So yeah, thanks a lot of the insight - it's incredibly important for us laymen to understand the inner workings of these processes so to create a fairer digital market, so to speak. Cheers and good luck with ZaciSa!

I thought this was going to be another thread I could use to tell everyone how horrible Square Enix are for never localising Dragon Quest, but I can roll with it.

The region lock really is the biggest problem here. I do enjoy my 3DS from time to time but when I compare it to every generation prior I just get annoyed looking at how much the region lock is holding me back from playing what I want - so much so that if Nintendo stick it on their next console, I won't buy it. It's just such an archaic practice, and one that is so painfully anti-consumer. Sony and Microsoft do just fine without it, and Nintendo did just fine without it up until they integrated it into the later DS models.

@spizzamarozzi: seriously they should be releasing games in North America and the UK on the same day. I don't understand why this isn't common practice. The games are already translated and ready to Go. If the game has Actors from the UK even better cause they just sound better than north American actors. I think petitioned complaints are done and over. The last big one being Xenoblade, Last Story and Pandora's Tower. To think it was a possibility those games were pretty close to not being ported. Then there is the issue of the Dragon Quests. Square has really gotten weird about localising their games not just Dragon Quest. If I recall correctly Nintendo Published Bravely Default and Dragon Quest IX so apparently anything from square must be ported by Nintendo. Natsume just came out with a cheapy game called Gotcha Racing which should have no problem being ported to Europe but it looks like its going to have an issue for some reason. Doesn't Natsume usually drag their feet when porting to the UK and Europe?

This shouldn't be an issue at all when games are already translated in english

I love Sacizas. Thanks for the new maps.

If PEGI were the end-all and be-all and had a modest fee attached that would be the real solution. In the download space I'm not sure how a console being region-free fixes anything. I just acquired a PS3 Super Slim and I can say I've seen an import section in the PlayStation Store - unless you have to muck about with system settings and create a new account? If so, that's not very useful or consumer-friendly. I think the Apple App Store does a much better job of things with foreign language apps sitting side-by-side with other apps. Do a search for "mahjong" or "pachinko" and you'll see a ton of Chinese and Japanese games pop-up - you just need to know what you're looking for.

For what it's worth the Australian Classification board has recently changed its rules a bit. Purely in reaction to the way that indie and mobile games have changed the market. A lot of which doesn't get rated here anyways, stuff on iTunes, Google Play and Steam for example.

Here's an article about it: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/australian-game-clas...

The program — which justice minister Michael Keenan announced last week would apply to Australia on a trial basis — allows game-makers to have their digital products classified for release simultaneously around the world by completing a free online questionnaire about the content in their game.

Currently, any game made available in Australia must be classified by applying to the Australian Classification Board (ACB), a process that can take months, cost up to $2460 and is largely impractical and unenforceable when considering the hundreds of games released on digital platforms every day. The switch to the new online tool — run by the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) — means developers in participating countries will have their games automatically rated in Australia for free, and Australian developers can similarly use the tool to get classified in all participating regions, which includes the US and Europe.

Wow, I really hope that takes off and sorts things finally!

aaaaannnddd...1001 Spikes gets localised - finally.
I like to think that me sending dozens of emails and calling Nicalis a collective of gits for months has helped the process.
So now what's next?! Sportsball? Adventurs of Pip? Starwhal?!

You lost me at "we have the right to pirate".

I don't ever recall that being a right. You don't have the "right" to get a free copy of someone's work. No one owes you that "right".

Back on topic, it may depend on the publisher or developer.

Probably just stop making games. Then we wont have to worry about localizing them

Piracy hurts the creator when the creator loses money due to piracy.

SNES Earthbound for example shouldn't be pirated because Nintendo are currently making money from it through the Virtual Console. But a game that has never been re-released since the 1980s or 1990s? There is no real difference whether someone who wants to play it buys a used cartridge or downloads it off the internet. The creator isn't seeing any additional money either way. You could say piracy encourages creators to make their old work available to buy again.