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SquareEnix Europe Considering Crowdfunding Localizations

by Donald Theriault - October 12, 2015, 9:21 am EDT
Total comments: 6 Source: Game Informer

And we're talking directly, not "buy our PS4 musou game to get the RPGs you want".

It might be obvious soon just what the cost of a localization is, if SquareEnix's plans for localization come to fruition.

In an interview with Game Informer, SquareEnix Europe CEO Phil Rogers spoke of a desire to crowdfund some localizations of games. "I think that is a partnership that can be built up in a very natural way . I would really like to see how we can do that" said Rogers, adding that crowdfunding would be a good way to gauge demand for niche titles.

SquareEnix has looked into crowdfunding previously through its SquareEnix Collective program, which earlier this year opened the door to use of older Eiods franchises such as Gex and Fear Effect.

Talkback

TOPHATANT123October 12, 2015

I like this idea so long as it isn't abused, it would have of fans putting their money where there mouth is instead of publishers deciding for us what will and won't sell.

wow, this rabbit hole goes deeper than I thought. I had heard of the gross misappropriation of the idea that is the Deus Ex Augment Your Pre-order.


I don't know how to feel about this idea of localization randsom. on the one hand, I am down for the idea of more localizations of projects that might not see the light of day otherwise. At the same time, part of the onus of capitalism is to take some risks! this isn't a small company that wouldn't be able to get the idea off the ground without pitching it to you. They're using it as an interest gague and... I feel like this is my fault for buying into Mighty no. 9. businessmen wanna tap the crowdfunding thing now more than ever and I just feel dirty about it.


here's hoping this all goes okay and it doesn't feel like JRPG hostage taking.

MythtendoOctober 12, 2015

This is why i've started hating crowdfunding (I first started turning against it when the Penny Arcade guys used Kickstarter to have fans pay their bills, which violated the rules of Kickstarter but Kickstarter allowed it because their 10% cut gave them over $100,000). So now if people even want the CHANCE to have a game released in their region, they'll have to give AAA publishers money. That money won't even get you the actual game, it'll just give you the chance to buy it. It's bad enough that Harmonix asked people to give them money to give them money for a game that Sony was already publishing. I refuse to pay ransom for localization, and I hope fans turn against them for this like when they tried the Deus Ex pre-ordering bullshit.

AnGerOctober 13, 2015

Yet another reason to not like Square Enix's treatment of Europe, apart from the following:

removing languages from installments of a series previously present in said series (Dissidia 012 only had English text, Kingdom Hearts 3D was stripped of its Italian and Spanish text, Kingdom Hearts HD only featured English audio)
publishing games that got a full-on retail release everywhere else only digitally (Drakengard 3)
bugs preventing DLC from working properly (again, Drakengard 3)
lazy translations (the German version of KH DDD is full of abbreviations and mistranslated ability names)
relying on other publishers for bringing out their properties (Bravely Default, Dragon Quest VI and IX)

If this was some small-scale publisher attempting to gauge interest in a very niche title or genre, I can accept the desire to crowdfund to some extent. However, this is just Square Enix not caring or wanting to care. Your games don't sell enough? Here's a crazy idea for free: Market them and give them a proper localization.

AnGerOctober 13, 2015

Oh, and to add to the list of asinine decisions by SE Europe, they put out Chrono Trigger on the DS with no translation save for English... but the iOS version had text in other languages. Brilliant. Bloody brilliant.

SorenOctober 13, 2015

Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope.


After the "augment your pre-order" crap, I can't believe anyone would expect SE to do crowdfunding right. The consumers should not be the one taking risks on products, specially with a company like SE.

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