Yakuza 5 Devs Have No Plans For Western Release

[Psychobabble]

Oh yeah? Well then I'm not buying any more violent tentacle porn DVDs until they do. How do ya like that Japan!?

 

[havoc33]

And no, SEGA failing to advertise the games in the west has nothing to do with anything in SEGA's mind. SEGA just sees consistently low sales. Sure Yakuza 3 sold about the same it did in Japan if you combine everywhere in the world aside from Japan, and 3 and 4 both had over 100K sales in US, but SEGA wants MORE then that. A profit is not the only amount they want. They want a significant profit that justifies the cost compared to using the same amount of money elsewhere.

How much could a translation really cost though, since they no longer do the voice acting? Why wouldn't it make sense for them to make an English translation instantly and sell it in Europe and the US since it nearly doubles their sales? I cannot understand why they would want to create a series like Yakuza, and limit themselves to the current max sales ceiling of 500.000 to 600.000 copies in Japan. Surely a text translation, different box and distribution can't blow away all the profit from selling another 500.000 copies worldwide? Please explain.

 

[Blastinburn]

Operation Rainfall was running a poll recently [http://operationrainfall.com/vote-to-localize-sega-konami-polls/] in cooperation with LAI (Language Automation Inc) where LAI would offer their services at a discounted price for the the game that got the most votes. The game that won the SEGA poll was Yakuza 5, which eliminates the barrier mentioned, that the Dev team would prefer to work on the next game than localize the current one. Between the now SEGA owned ATLUS and the services of LAI, their excuse is gone.

I don't personally care about Yakuza, but I know what it's like to have a game you want, from a series you love denied to you because the company refuses to localize it.

How much could a translation really cost though, since they no longer do the voice acting? Why wouldn't it make sense for them to make an English translation instantly and sell it in Europe and the US since it nearly doubles their sales? I cannot understand why they would want to create a series like Yakuza, and limit themselves to the current max sales ceiling of 500.000 to 600.000 copies in Japan. Surely a text translation, different box and distribution can't blow away all the profit from selling another 500.000 copies worldwide? Please explain.

Translations are actually quite expensive, ESPECIALLY between Latin based (alphabet) and non-Latin based (symbol-based: Japanese, Chinese, etc...) languages. It's not just a matter of popping it into Google translate (trust me, I've tried playing a game setup to auto-translate, it's not readable), grammar, tone, meaning, even sentence structure needs to be changed just to make it readable. And even then, it may fail to get the point across. Cultural references won't be understood by people in other countries (and if your target demographic is just people who are deeply embedded in Japanese culture, good luck actually making a profit), getting tone of voice and character across in dialog is a challenge for good writers, and here they need to interpret it correctly first. Add to this that many Japanese games are not only story driven, so having a good translation is very important to enjoying it, but really long, and you have a recipe for a money sink. You could try and do it on "cheap" with only a few people, but it will take longer, and you're more likely to miss errors and mistakes. But while hiring more people can speed up the process and put more eyes on the text, it obviously costs more, and you can also get differences in writing style that can pop up in different places. Also (again), as someone else mentioned, they also need to make sure the text fits and lines up in the dialog boxes since 1 character in Japanese = 1 word but it takes several characters in Latin based languages to make a single word.

I am less sure about this part, but even putting the translation from Yakuza 1 and 2 (if they don't hate it and want it redone) into the HD remakes would require a lot of work if the engine or text handling system was changed (which is likely, considering the PS3s strange architecture), and any changes made to the originals in terms of text handling would need to be applied to the HD remakes as well even if the engine didn't change.

TL;DR:
Companies don't not localize games because they're jerks. If it was easy and profitable (or they thought it was) they would do it, the purpose of companies is to make money after all.

 

[Big_Boss_Mantis]

Thirdly, Yakuza 2 came out in 2008, a 2 years after the PS3 came out. That does not mean a game cant sell on PS2 exclusively. After all, Persona 4 did despite being from an ultra niche series. If your angry at them for releasing a game in 2008 on PS2 a year after the game released in Japan (because you know, most Japanese games take that long to release in the West after Japan) then you are an entitled piece of shit.

Gee, man, chill. Did you forgot to take your pills?

You know what is funny? I bought Yakuza 2, played half of it, then upgraded to PS3 and an HD Tv, so the PS2 looked terrible. Then I bought Yakuza 3 and saved it until they released the second on on PS3 as a PS2 classic (wich, by the way, has a release cost next to ZERO) or an HD collection.I have 60 bucks to spare if they decide to bring it to the PS3 (and I would be paying twice for the same game).
So yeah. Damn those entitled consumers like me.
SEGA put Shinobi, Virtua Fighter 4 and Sonic Heroes as PS2 classics on the PSN, by the way.

Most Japanese developers do take about one year to localize a game and bring it overseas, I'll give you that. But it DOES hurt sales of the games (even when they ultimately sell well), and it is their fault, not the consumers. It is bound to happen if your product is one year old, launching with another product from this year, by the same price.
You are saying "Japan does it. #dealwithit". However it saddens me, since I prefer japanese games and they are diving head first into irrelevancy, because they can't keep up with the times.
Localization with subtitles is much cheaper than other parts of game developing (like writing, sound design and, obviously, heavy programming) and they COULD fix it.

And in the Yakuza series, one year is THE MINIMUM. The games take two years to NEVER to be released.

Lasatly, the Yakuza series is selling slightly more at each iteration (as is the rule in this industry, with some exceptions), as you have provided the numbers yourself. There is room for growth. There is a market for localized japanese games on the west. And there is people consuming manga and anime. They can find a market if they work for it and please their consumer base.

Instead, they are all like "I can't make the amount of money I think I deserve to make in these games, so I'm not releasing at all". There is a word for it. Which one is it... Oh yes! Entitled.
See, this word is not exclusive to the consumers...

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

You know, I'd love to see some proof of that because I'm smelling some major ol' bull right there.

Xenoblade and The Last Story had sold well enough, last I heard.

Ummm... what?

All of the games in Operation Rainfall didn't sell so well.


Not even 2 million copies sold altogether in worldwide. Those games didn't even sell that well in Japan. Especially when compared to the Yakuza games in question. The Yakuza franchise barring the first has sold nearly 1 million units with each installment worldwide. Its worth localizing the Yakuza series when you look at how minimal of job they need to do with translating considering they just stick English subtitles in the game.

The other games you mentioned seems to be brought up more with your issues with Sega than the the point of the OP. I agree with you that Valyria Chronicles 2 sucked. Though I also think that Valkyria Chronicles was a game that didnt't need a sequel due to its story being complete in the first game.

I also agree with you about Sega's handling of the Phantasy Star franchise. Though you have to keep in mind, translating an MMO is a large task and I'm willing to wait for PSO2. Besides, if you want to get mad at Sega for its lack of speed when translating games, then you have to get made at a lot more than just Sega, just saying.

But both of those franchises you've mentioned have nothing to do with the localization issues being talked about here.

Yakuza will eventually be released in North America. The Escapist always reports that Sega "has no plans to localized Yakuza (insert entry here) outside of Japan." Then the following year, the game gets a spontaneous release. No petitions, no major online outcry. It just happens. Its the same deal with the "Tales Of" series with Namco Bandai.

If by next year we don't have Yakuza 5, then I'd be worried. Until then Nintendo and only Nintendo will wear the crown for being horrible for localization thanks to Operation Rainfall needing to happen in the first place.


Another point. Sega's parent company did just buy Atlus, so I can see them doing the localization work for Yakuza 5 should Sega choose no to do it themselves.