And yet Company A knows that, if those niche games are localized, they'd sell more with the original language track, since people don't buy dub-only titles (as evidenced by XSeed pleading for you not to snub games on that premise) and can write in international VO deals and use that as a justification for billing more for the license.
Actually, this wasn't XSEED pleading you not to snub games on that premise, it was *me*, personally, pleading you not to snub games on that premise.
To be perfectly honest, people DO seem to buy dub-only titles. I mean, our best-selling title to date is The Last Story, which is one where we sadly were unable to offer the original Japanese audio track. So I'm pretty sure the issue is one that applies only to a very small subsection of fans.
The only reason I said anything at all is because, frankly, I don't like the idea of snubbing ANY fans. You guys who refuse to play games without the original Japanese audio track are just as important to us as anyone else, and we really WISH we could give you what you want... but we can't. So the next best thing is simply to explain ourselves as best as our NDAs allow. We can't give you specific reasons as to why the Japanese audio was left out of any game we've published, but we can give you general reasons why Japanese audio is frequently omitted from games throughout the industry, and assure you that we did our best to include the original Japanese, and will continue to do our best in all future releases. And also assure you that the game itself is what really matters, and as long as we did our jobs right, you shouldn't find that the lack of Japanese voices takes you out of the experience at all.
As this seems to be a hotbutton issue for a lot of people, I would like to posit one other point as well:
And one would think that a VO actor would offer the international package, as they'd make more money for the same amount of work.
It's not really up to the actor, in most cases, but to the actor's agent. And because international law is so ridiculously convoluted, the actor's agent may simply not be equipped to deal with the paperwork and bureaucracy required for overseas distribution. Trust me when I say nothing is as easy as it seems from the outside -- XSEED was releasing games in North America exclusively until about two years ago when we finally broke the Europe barrier (but only for digital content), and we've finally expanded beyond the west as of last month with our first digital release in Australia and New Zealand. People often wonder why we waited so long to release in other countries, and the answer is... we didn't! We've been working on it all this time, but running into one roadblock after another trying to get all the red tape squared away.
We're a small company of less than a dozen people, with extremely limited experience and very few contacts outside of the U.S. and Japanese markets. Breaking into international distribution isn't just something you can do on a whim -- it costs money, takes time and requires a LOT of trial and error. Sadly, our world isn't quite as globalized as people seem to think it is -- just because the internet is a thing that exists doesn't mean there aren't a million firewalls in place keeping us from using it the way we want to. And I'm certain that same problem must apply to agency work as well.
So again, while I can't say for sure that Japanese voice agents aren't just being lazy bastards in a lot of cases, I really don't think it's fair simply to assume that that's the case. Most likely, they're just struggling to make ends meet, and can't afford the time and money it would take to expand to an international market just yet. Maybe as time goes on, more agencies will make this transition.
I realize that the publisher may have no way to distinguish between low sales due to no dual audio and low sales due to other factors, but that doesn't change the fact that as a consumer, I'm just trying to find good games that I will enjoy playing! It is the publishers' job to figure out which games have a target audience that will make them worth publishing, and having or not having dual audio should figure into that decision, not just be an afterthought.
It does. If we believe a game won't sell without dual audio, and dual audio simply isn't available to us as an option (even after much pleading with the developers), then we probably won't publish that game.
That really hasn't come up, though. Lack of dual audio isn't really a deal-breaker in most situations, as we're generally pretty confident that a game will sell on its own merits and on the strength of our localization. If our analysis of a game indicates that dual audio is absolutely necessary in order for it to succeed (rather than simply a nice extra to include for hardcore fans), then frankly, it's probably NOT a very good game.
-Tom
