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Square Enix sends cease and desist letter to FF Type 0 translation group

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Seik

Banned
Why?If it gives fans the incentive to import the game where's the problem in that?

You're only half right.

While it still gives them sales, it won't show in their numbers for NA.

If NA numbers are bad, they just won't bother doing similar efforts afterwards. I mean just look at how smartphone centric they are now.

EDIT: The translation already was distributed, though. So even if they take it down, the damage is done. It may seems useless but I guess they have to do it by some 'principles'.
 

DOWN

Banned
They have chosen to have this policy and enforce it in the way they have. 'Just a policy'. Who do you think makes the policies? Are they handed down by god or something?

They are made by lawyers. Litigious lawyers.

"First thing we do, kill all the lawyers."

The lawyers develop, write, and enforce the vast majority of policies dealing with any business and IPs. They cause just as many frustrating facepalms in corporations as they do to the outside population.

Remember when Bethesda shot down the new game from the Minecraft team based on it having the word "scrolls" in the title? And then how the game studio behind the actual Elder Scrolls said that was handled all in the legal teams? And then there was a lovely and fun Easter egg tribute to the creator of Minecraft in Skyim.

The legal team has a day to day focus that is often quite independent of the thought processes that the company's core runs on. You must be outta your mind if you think the general population and leaders of Square are well versed in their litigation policies. The people who know those policies are the ones who issue letters.
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Piracy is/was so bad on the PSP that not many people buy games, let alone import them.

Yeah I'm curious as to what percentage of the people who downloaded the patch had legitimately purchased the game. I'm assuming not that much but ┐(´ー`)┌

A lot of people might just pirate the PSP game and download the fan translation patch rather than purchase the upcoming western release. There's some point to the C&D I guess.
 

Toxi

Banned
Square Enix has to be the most inept company at PR in the industry. Pretty much everything they say or do makes them look petty or incompetent. Even when they regain good will (FFXV), they proceed to squander it until their fans are even more cynical.

A cease and desist one month after the translation is released? Seriously?
 

Hasney

Member
That's fine, I was going to get the PS4 version, but I shall cease and desist and import a cheap second hand PSP version now this is in the wild. Cheers SE.
 

i-Jest

Member
You're only half right.

While it still gives them sales, it won't show in their numbers for NA.

If NA numbers are bad, they just won't bother doing similar efforts afterwards. I mean just look at how smartphone centric they are now.

Very true. Well what's done is done. The games coming for PS4. The translation is already out their for portables. I will still be buying the game for my PS4 even though I got the translation patch.
 

Setsu00

Member
"Special thanks... and all fans of Final Fantasy" is such a genuine line of the credits of all Square games, doncha think?

Screen%20Shot%202014-07-18%20at%201.15.53%20AM.png

Screen%20Shot%202014-07-18%20at%201.16.12%20AM.png

While I don't understand why SE would pull the plug on the translation AFTER it was released, I still believe that they have the right to do that. It's their game and just like any other company, SE is focussed on generating profit.
 

Corpekata

Banned
Even if they weren't getting helped by the fan translation, the C&D will probably increase attention to it (and the very easy ways there are to pirate it) and also hurt Square's image. All probably worse than the "harm" it would've caused leaving it alone.
 

sublimit

Banned
You're only half right.

While it still gives them sales, it won't show in their numbers for NA.

If NA numbers are bad, they just won't bother doing similar efforts afterwards. I mean just look at how smartphone centric they are now.

But...
1)They haven't even announced a release day yet.And since this is SE we're talking about the HD version will not come out before 2016 at the earliest.Why send a cease and desist now?

2)Secondly we're talking about different platforms.I'm sure the majority of the fans who got in all the trouble to import the PSP version (of a game that was released in 2011) would also double dip on a HD version.

And not only that but they wouldn't look like complete douches in the eyes of their western fans (once again.)
 

Renpatsu

Member
A lot of people might just pirate the PSP game and download the fan translation patch rather than purchase the upcoming western release. There's some point to the C&D I guess.
Whilst the PSP fan translation of Type-0 can affect the sales of the HD Remaster I honestly think you're overestimating the numbers of people who actually go through with the effort required to patch a game in order to play it, regardless of how simple those steps are to begin with.

This is of course assuming the HD Remaster is that much of a qualitative difference compared to the orginal release on PS4/XBO. Imagine if the HD Remaster was just a simple upscale? That might be a bit more of a problem.
 
fan translation in progress -> square allows it to continue unabated -> fan translation releases -> square finds out, realizes 90% of their work is done for them -> square announces type-0 coming to the west within a week -> sends cease and desist months after the fact to try and write it out of public memory and make it look like they just found out about it

never forget Mr. A

 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Whilst the PSP fan translation of Type-0 can affect the sales of the HD Remaster I honestly think you're overestimating the numbers of people who actually go through with the effort required to patch a game in order to play it, regardless of how simple those steps are to begin with.

This is of course assuming the HD Remaster is that much of a qualitative difference compared to the orginal release on PS4/XBO. Imagine if the HD Remaster was just a simple upscale? That might be a bit more of a problem.

Haha that's why I added 'I guess,' since I don't think the numbers are that high.

Maybe they're afraid of people trying it out and finding out the game is sub-par thus ruining PS4 / XB1 sales~
 

Renpatsu

Member
Wait what? Xseed bought a fan translation? Link pls
Xseed licensed a fan translation to be used as the base translation of an official localisation. It's not as uncommon a practice among the more creative localisation companies.
Edit:
Haha that's why I added 'I guess,' since I don't think the numbers are that high.
Maybe they're afraid of people trying it out and finding out the game is sub-par thus ruining PS4 / XB1 sales~
I think if anything the fact that this was originally a PSP release is going to do them the most harm, sub-par or not. I'd be pleasantly shocked if the game does turn out great though because it is at the very least deserving of a good official release in the west.
 
SE is well within their rights to send a C&D. Trying to paint them as the villain is ridiculous.

With that said, I don't think this will help them much, The patch has been out for a month and there's probably mirrors up all over the internet by now.
 

Goldmund

Member
They might at some point have to prove that they always did their utmost to protect their properties. Even if they intently looked at every case of infringement, pondered the severity and in this case secretly thought "What an awesome thing, our fans are great!", -- they'd still have to at least send a C&D letter.
 

Sesha

Member
The fact the translation is done and is already in the wild just makes them look inept as well as jerkasses. Good job, SE legal department.
 

2+2=5

The Amiga Brotherhood
But...
1)They haven't even announced a release day yet.And since this is SE we're talking about the HD version will not come out before 2016 at the earliest.Why send a cease and desist now?

2)Secondly we're talking about different platforms.I'm sure the majority of the fans who got in all the trouble to import the PSP version (of a game that was released in 2011) would also double dip on a HD version.

And not only that but they wouldn't look like complete douches in the eyes of their western fans (once again.)

Not at all.
As a pissed Vita owner that used to do anything to get Type 0 on Vita:
1)i played the fan translation and i have no intention to double dip
2)maybe i was in the wrong mood but i didn't like it, it has a huge potential but some stupid decisions made it boring(14 party members, boring free time management, rts missions and other things), i left it after few hours(still better than FFXIII though).

If Square makes some right big changes(but is it possible to reduce the number of party members for example?) then Type 0 could be really awesome, but as is imo Square knows that if people play the PSP game they won't buy the HD version.
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
I think if anything the fact that this was originally a PSP release is going to do them the most harm, sub-par or not. I'd be pleasantly shocked if the game does turn out great though because it is at the very least deserving of a good official release in the west.

Did they announce any details on what the console release was going to be? Haven't been following and was assuming it would just be some kind of upscale with some small additions / changes.
 
SE is well within their rights to send a C&D. Trying to paint them as the villain is ridiculous.

That's nice that they're operating within the letter of the law. Please explain what's not morally reprehensible about obviously letting someone else do the translation work for you, and announcing localization plans within a week of the translation's release.

Does having the right to be a POS when you're being a POS mean that you're not a POS?
 

Toxi

Banned
They might at some point have to prove that they always did their utmost to protect their properties. Even if they intently looked at every case of infringement, pondered the severity and in this case secretly thought "What an awesome thing, our fans are great!", -- they'd still have to at least send a C&D letter.
If Square Enix have proven anything, it's that glaciers respond faster to copyright infringement.
 

UrbanRats

Member
While I don't understand why SE would pull the plug on the translation AFTER it was released, I still believe that they have the right to do that. It's their game and just like any other company, SE is focussed on generating profit.
Correction, they are focused on losing money AND face, every day of the week.
 

Renpatsu

Member
Did they announce any details on what the console release was going to be? Haven't been following and was assuming it would just be some kind of upscale with some small additions / changes.
Rumours so far indicate around the same level as Peace Walker HD or GoW PSP HD releases. If it goes the other way SE do at least have precedent for good remasters with FFX and KH recently.

Edit: Also just to be clear. Most official sources in the past have indicated that an official translation (and English VO) was already done before they decided not to bring it over to the west.
 

Seik

Banned
But...
1)They haven't even announced a release day yet.And since this is SE we're talking about the HD version will not come out before 2016 at the earliest.Why send a cease and desist now?

2)Secondly we're talking about different platforms.I'm sure the majority of the fans who got in all the trouble to import the PSP version (of a game that was released in 2011) would also double dip on a HD version.

And not only that but they wouldn't look like complete douches in the eyes of their western fans (once again.)

1) This I can't say, maybe they're just late to the party or they knew but were waiting to see if they were going to translate it themselves to proceed to the kill.

2) The thing is that, even if that translation already got released and it's on a different platform, your thing is all assumptions. I'm not saying that I disagree with it, at the contrary, but the heads at SE don't give two shits about assumptions (and their reputation, apparently) and it shows by how strictly they seems to keep their stuff to themselves. They're hungry for money, somehow it's normal for these businessman, though sometimes we have examples of what should be done, like that post that mentioned XSEED buying translations, but that's just not how SE rolls. :/

If you take a glance at all the projects they killed, it was pretty much a given that they would shut it off the moment they announced the remaster. I'm actually surprised it didn't happen waaay earlier.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
This reminds me of when Sega had ALL SHINING-ANYTHING (and some not even) videos removed from Youtube.
 

FranXico

Member
Really classy, Squeenix. Really classy.

You neglect your loyal costumers and then proceed to punish your most passionate fans.

What you deserve is that gamers boycott FFXV.
 

liquidtmd

Banned
Lol SE

*The horse has trotted round the stable, ate, got bored, drew a picture, figured out the gate mechanics, opened it, bolted, ran five miles down the road, gone to the pub, had a beer, flown to France for sightseeing*

Square - "Hey we better bolt that gate!"
 

Nohar

Member
For legal and marketing reasons, SE C&D letter is perfectly logical. It's their right, but it's also an obligation to protect their intellectual property.

However, they should have done that sooner. Doing this so late only hurt their relationship with their consumers. PR-wise, not the best move.

They could also have bought the fan translation... But it seems they didn't consider that move. Classy.
 

Axass

Member
This is so amazingly idiotic.


  1. The fan translation is already complete and in the open: this won't stop anybody.
  2. They look like dicks and lose a great amount of goodwill, like with everything they do lately.
  3. They already lost an enormous amount of goodwill due to not wanting to localize the game on PSP and then announcing it for freakin' PS4 and X1 but not Vita.
  4. Streisand effect: now even those not knowing about it will know.

Keep digging your grave SE, in a few years we'll see how sticking with those loyal mobile customers worked for you.
 

LAA

Member
Sigh, how have SE become this bad.
If you actually made the games your fans cares about and localised the games your fans cared about, instead of making games no-one asked for or wanted and making mobile games (again, no-one asked for or cared for), YOUR FANS, wouldn't need to translate in the first place, and they shouldn't have to, but seeing they love your games, they decide to translate it themselves for them and all fans to enjoy, seeing they can't rely on you to do it. Took this long just for you to announce it, won't be surprised if this is yet another game low on your priority list and forgotten about by you for a while, so in my view, those fans are literally doing better for your fans than you are.
 
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