After reading our review of Pop from the North American launch on the 12th May, we know a lot of you guys are itching to play this. Sure, you got a storming launch line-up with the first look at Dr. Mario and Toki Tori, but many of you were left questioning why the sublime Pop wasn’t released at launch, or at least shortly afterwards.
To clear all this up we went straight to the horse's mouth and contacted our good friend Nic Watt from Nnooo. He's kindly answered a few questions relating to Pop and the incredibly fun process of localisation.
Nintendo Life: What are the basic languages which Nintendo insist you must support for EU/AU/NZ?
Nic Watt: I think the only language we have to support in game is English. However the online manual has to be in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Dutch.
NL: What languages are you supporting?
NW: We are supporting: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Dutch throughout.
NL: How much does this sort of localisation cost?
NW: The costs are obviously dependent on the game as some games have way more text. Usually translators charge per line.
For Pop we had to pay to get both the game text and the manual text translated which were over €2,000 each.
NL: Once you do the localisation, do NoE verify it in some way?
NW: NoE play the game and verify the manual. They check and comment on any and all translation areas.
NL: So is it just the localisation slowing things down?
NW: We didn't leave the localisation late we did have the game translated pretty early. However some parts of the game were not translated in accordance with some of Nintendo's standards so we had to amend those.
Obviously not speaking any of the languages we translated into made the process a little slower as we needed to liaise with our translation service.
The game was also partially delayed as we fixed the bug which became apparent in the American version of the game. We decided we had to fix that bug for Europe which meant having to resubmit too close to the launch window to make launch day.
NL: Will the price point still be 700 points for EU/AU/NZ?
NW: As far as we are aware the price is the same in America and EU/AU/NZ.
NL: Can you give me a rough idea of when this will launch in EU/AU/NZ?
NW: We have no firm date as yet as we are awaiting NOE approval once we have that we can negotiate with them on the release date. We hope it will be late June.
NL: What were the teething troubles you had with online scoreboards for North America? Is this resolved?
NW: There was a small bug in the game which is very very rare. It occurs at such a small rate it wasn't detected in testing and is basically related to Nintendo WiFi connection and your profile. We have since tracked it down (which took a lot of creating profiles and connecting to Nintendo WiFi until we could get one which exhibited the behaviour!) and this should be fixed in the EU/AU/NZ version.
We are working with NOA on getting this fix to their customers too.
NL: What did you learn from the North American launch?
NW: Loads! That a small company can make a game for a new service and make it for launch. That you have to roll with the punches, some reviewers hate the game but a lot of our customers love it.
We are just so proud to be alongside some great games made by developers we admire (Pop alongside a Final Fantasy game and a game made by the creator of Elite!!).
NL: Can you roughly say how many downloads of Pop were made in North America to date?
NW: I don't think we are allowed to announce sales figures at the moment but we are doing really well and are very taken aback by how many people are interested in Pop.
NL: Would you consider running a score attack competition like Hudson are doing with Star Soldier R?
NW: We would love to be able to do something like this, however Pop is not really designed with this in mind. I need to look at how Hudson are doing this and see if we can support a similar feature either now or in the future.
NL: Are you planning any new WiiWare games? Can you drop us any hints?
NW: We are planning more WiiWare games and hope to start work on the next one in the next week or two. We cannot say very much about the next game other than it is going to make more use of the controller and be a bit more competitive. There are some hints to it on our website nnooo.com
Comments (25)
Mmmm, interesting i didn't really think about how much time it takes to sort out games for europe. Well least i know its on its way now.
But i am now wondering what UK are going get this friday, i was expecting pirate:key of dreams, defend castle maybe, if one of these two games came out i'll be very happy
"am praying for something good"
its okay, Pop just hopped aboard a ship and took a senic route from America to Europe.
it'll be there shortly.
Glad to see the game has gotten solid consumer support and the am looking forward to the sophomore effort. Thanks for the interview.
Great little interview that answered my questions regarding Pop in Europe.
To me it makes the wait for games so much more bearable when you know why you are waiting!
I wonder if we'll see Pirates this Friday in Europe.
I hope they translate all Wii Ware Games in all languages. It is better for the younger ones which want to play the games, too I hope Final Fantasy will be the only non translated game.
I can't wait for this game to arrive on our shores. Hope it's sooner rather than later - a definite buy. I'm glad to hear they're quick to fix bugs too.
Yeah, but how much English do you need to know to get the basic idea of how to play a puzzle game? Heck, even I can play the occasional Japanese game and still get the picture. Besides, I think it serves for some good English education.
Great news. Be it in French, Danish, German or English, I will get this as soon as the bell tolls and the Blue Light beckons.
Where the hell were the Euro Wiiware games last Friday?
Best be some this Friday.....
dear europe... pop rules worth the wait
Interesting. I haven't played this game... yet. But I'm very happy to hear a small developer getting recognize and having a certain amount of success. Even with a very simple premise, Pop looks very polished.
Pop is outstanding. It's probably the biggest surprise of the WiiWare titles for me personally. I find myself coming back to it quite often.
"...some parts of the game were not translated in accordance with some of Nintendo's standards so we had to amend those...."
The Nintendo Language Police is at it again just like back when they cleaned up Sunset Riders. Personally I can't think of what could be so bad about the POP text that didn't agree with Nintendo. If the translation itself was that bad then Nnooo should get their money back.
I'm with Corbie. I bought Pop because I thought it would be a good diversion for my girlfriend when she's all over me and I just want to check up on WiiWare World. Now, she'll be rubbing my face in her boobs and all I can think about is beating my high score in Pop...
Seriously, this is addictive little gem with a delicious breakbeat soundtrack that is as dynamic as it is hypnotic. I've actually been so impressed that I've gifted it to most of my friends...
Poor Europe my @$$! First of all Pop is hardly anything to get excited about. Who cares? You already have all the best WiiWare games and they were all released on day 1. We here in NA had to recieve them on a week by week basis, and at the same time the quality of our VC releases have suffered while yours have been thriving. If anyone should be getting sympathy it should be North American VC fans. They the ones getting screwed right now.
That's surprisingly solid information, and very interesting.
@Rapadash6.
Oh poor America 2000 Wii points don't cost $30. And you can't talk about screwed until you are expected to pay $30 for 2000 Wii Points only for a majority of the VC games to be unplayable (16.66% slower and with fat borders).
Our VC situation was just as bad as America. This last month of imports and C64 games (doesn't apply to Australia...the people who really get screwed) have been the only things bringing it up. It seems people have pretty short term memories these days...
Also at least you've had new WiiWare releases (they might not be top quality), the launch batch is still all we have.
Plus, I (and many other commenters) care about Pop. Just because you don't doesn't mean nobody does.
Pop reminded me a lot of Lumines on the PSP in the way I didn't expect much out of it and it really surprised me and turned out to be a lot of fun. That doesn't happen very often for me so it's nice when it does. I'm hoping that the creativity found in Pop finds its way into many more future WiiWare releases and we have many more nice surprises.
Sounds great guys. Better break out my piggie bank by the end of June then.
sigh yet another reason why regionalisation of games is utterly idiotic. Why should native English speakers from the UK / Ireland / NZ / AU /etc. have to wait so that docs can be translated into languages they will never look at? Not to mention people from Scandinavia, etc. who probably will be using the English option anyway.
I can understand the need to translate for certain countries but it would be nice to have the choice. Why not based the regionalisation on the Wii location / languge settings and let people with English language Wiis have the game in their langauge? People who really want the translations can wait, meanwhile less complaints and more money from people who want the English version anyway...
Great interview. Now I think I know where my next round of Wii Points are going.
I hope Pop launches here at 500 points and Defend Your Castle also launches at 500 tommrow. I would love that. Then I wont have to buy more Wii Points.
Oh I assume Fwick is the next project...consdiering the hint.
news is in, after 2 weeks of wait, i see only one game, and it isnt pirates:key of dreams or defend your castle=( instead its sumthing called : action loop, twist, am gutted=(
cant believe that we have only been given one game, i expected at less 2, or even three, due to time we been waiting!!!
sorry about moaning, but i was real looking forward to this friday, fingers crossed that i wake up tomorrow morning, and there be other game there....."please"
Actually I've noticed the High Score problem gradually being fixed...now theres just some guy named AxemRed at the top who's score is about 50,000,000 lower than the guy at #2. Ah well, it's not like I'll ever get up there...and it's good to know that Nnooo is trying their best to fix it! Thanks Nnooo!
Nnooo is prity cool when it comes to PR.
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