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[Canis lupus]

From translating and coding to QA, how much does a game like for example Yakuza or a small JRPG cost to localize? There's an interesting article about Atlus explaining the localization process, but it only delves into how long each steps take. I'm thinking this business could be the next big thing on KS. Stretch goals like 1. localization 2. ports/visual enhancements 3. (limited run) physical versions for popular and niche should entice the diehard fans to pledge more than usual. Muv Luv KS got $1.25M with an insane average pledge of $160 per backer.

 

[BY2K]

It depends.

Do you do voice overs? How much text is there? How many languages? Do you change content due to cultural sensibilities?

There's really no way to tell.

 

[oneida]

There are simply too many factors, for example a small team can take months longer than a large team to do the same task, so you're paying them for a longer period but there are fewer people getting a check. I imagine the team working on the Yakuza 5 localization is much smaller than a traditional dev team since they're "only" working with the game's script and not building anything.

 

[Etzer]

Way too many variables to give a good answer, I think. For example, even with voiceovers, are we talking about full voiceover or just grunting and a couple of "Yeah!" and "Take that!"?

 

[Peltz]

That's like asking how much game development costs. There really is no answer and it runs a pretty wide gamut.

 

[SephLuis]

From what I got reading XSEED interviews, they usually go like:

Make a literal translation
Adapt the literal translation to proper english, focusing in preserving the original meaning
Program everything back into the game
Quality Assurance
Ship it

Obviously, this is much more complicated. Games like Yakuza has tons of texts and a lot of the terms have to adapted so that they make sense in english.

Also programming. As far as I know it can be done in house or they ask the dev to take care of it, but either way it consumes a lot of time and they need to Q&A the game so that the translation didn't broke anything.

It always great reading their localization blogs. Try reading for trails in the sky and you should have an idea:
http://xseedgames.tumblr.com/

 

[Chainsawkitten]

Porting a game from Windows to Linux could theoretically range from "recompile using gcc rather than Visual Studio" to "rewrite the entire thing from scratch".

 

[Canis lupus]

There are simply too many factors, for example a small team can take months longer than a large team to do the same task, so you're paying them for a longer period but there are fewer people getting a check. I imagine the team working on the Yakuza 5 localization is much smaller than a traditional dev team since they're "only" working with the game's script and not building anything.

So let's say, a staff of 10-15 translators/coders for ~10-12 months, $40-50k*10, about half a million to a million just to get the game out, no PR manager/marketing/website stuff etc involved. Would that be reasonable for a game like Yakuza?

That's like asking how much game development costs. .

There's an example in the first sentence.

 

[SephLuis]

So let's say, a staff of 10-15 translators/coders for ~10-12 months, $40-50k*10, about half a million to a million just to get the game out, no PR manager/marketing/website stuff etc involved. Would that be reasonable for a game like Yakuza?

I think the individual salaries would be bigger and they still would have costs with QA.
One year to localize a game like Yakuza seems right, but I wouldn't be surprised if they needed more time.

 

[2+2=5]

Porting != localization, localizations usually don't get ports or enhancements, a port is a port no matter the language.

 

[myca77]

How long is a piece of string?

There are so many variables as others have said that it is really hard to put a number on it.

What's being localized? Text, voice, in game assets.

Are you straight up translating or adapting the source?

What's the line count/word count?

Do you have a glossary of terms?

How many languages?

What type of constraints do you have on the translations?

What type of constraints do you have on the dialog?

How many actors do you want in?

How much coverage do you want to have in loc QA?

The above are just a few variables that could have the costs changing by quite a large margin.

I normally just say "one million dollars!" Laugh and then run the numbers for my part of the process through some funky tools to get a quote.

 

[sensui-tomo]

Dont forget paying extra to japanese voices if you keep that in ( iirc this is a reason why people cut out japanese audio from games) I have wondered how much went into Way of the Samurai 4's localization, I do hope they made out even on that title.

 

[SoundPulse]

There are way too many factors to give you a proper number. It's not an insignificant amount of resources.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Depends on the length of the text, how much there is to program back into the game and how much needs playtesting etc. Like there's obviously a big difference between the likes of RPGs/Adventure games compared to Action games. Normally, anyway. It's all relative.

Licensing can also be a nightmare for localization.

Dont forget paying extra to japanese voices if you keep that in ( iirc this is a reason why people cut out japanese audio from games) I have wondered how much went into Way of the Samurai 4's localization, I do hope they made out even on that title.

Even that is really due to which firm these Japanese VA are from, I believe, so that may be why some games only have Japanese VA and some have just English VA. I do wonder how some really niche games manage to have both since it must cost an arm and a leg.

 

[Phediuk]

Depends how much text/voices have to be translated, especially with PAL versions that might have six different language tracks.

 

[finalflame]

Considering the games industry and how it underpays compared to the rest of the tech sector, probably account for something like $20-$25/hr for localizers, and then try to do some math to figure out the amount of man hours required. But then there are other costs -- many translations might cause UI problems or require re-working/re-engineering of interface elements to get something to fit properly, etc. Strings can inadvertently break certain parts of the game. There are probably many meetings between localizers to discuss the tone and voice of the translations, yadda yadda.

Also extensive QA and playtesting to confirm that the strings work. As an example, I would spend ~5 hours on localization work (translating), then another ~5 hours playtesting across 2 different platforms (mobile).

And then if you have VO, you need to account for voice actors, etc, too. I'm not sure what regional/legal requirements and costs would be like, but probably some of those.

P.S.: I work in localization, but not in the games industry.

 

[Granadier]

How long is a piece of string?

Borrowing this. That's a damn good analogy.

 

[sensui-tomo]

Depends on the length of the text, how much there is to program back into the game and how much needs playtesting etc. Like there's obviously a big difference between the likes of RPGs/Adventure games compared to Action games. Normally, anyway. It's all relative.

Licensing can also be a nightmare for localization.



Even that is really due to which firm these Japanese VA are from, I believe, so that may be why some games only have Japanese VA and some have just English VA. I do wonder how some really niche games manage to have both since it must cost an arm and a leg.

I think some of the niche games actually may have thought they were going to localize certain games and may have added a clause in the contract with the VAs...

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Another thing is companies tend to factor in the cost of marketing/PR/QA as a part of the cost bringing games over to other markets too (with good reason), which is why certain games get left out in the first place, it is a pretty damn pricey venture for businesses when you factor in all of the costs/risks, so it is sometimes frustrating that these big companies don't bring certain games over, but it is also sadly understandable at the end of the day, OP. At least we always will have fan translations if the worst comes to the worst.

Depends how much text/voices have to be translated, especially with PAL versions that might have six different language tracks.

That, too. PAL region localizations will be more time costly as well if they translate in all of those languages, but that goes without saying really. It's kind of an area I feel sorry for my European brethren in since there's many games not in Romanian, Norwegian, Swedish etc since they normally just do the same languages all of the time. It's something to consider in Europe, which markets you want to target it towards and which you have to miss off.

It seems like the days of having dedicated internal localization teams (or those that translate/edit the game texts exclusively) is over and a lot of them freelance, since it's A) better money and B) easier for translators to manage more than one project at once with multiple clients instead of being tied to one project at a time. Some of these big companies will also favour outsourcing the workload to places like 8-4, XSEED and Aksys since they simply are there for those companies in Japan who aren't large enough for having their own base/sector in international markets.

 

[Famassu]

Opportunity cost is also relevant. Localizing something like Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky The 3rd might not bankrupt XSeed, but what if they could release 2-3 or even 4 smaller games that sell far more copies (combined) than TitS The 3rd with the same effort that goes into a single Kiseki game?

And with bigger publishers, it's also relevant to understand that they ARE big companies which have far bigger operating costs than small niche localization companies. It's wholly different for a company like XSeed to release a game than it is to Square Enix. What is a decent number of copies sold for XSeed can be wholly inadequate for Square Enix, even if the actual cost of the work that goes into the localization doesn't differ all that much.

Considering the games industry and how it underpays compared to the rest of the tech sector, probably account for something like $20-$25/hr for localizers, and then try to do some math to figure out the amount of man hours required. But then there are other costs -- many translations might cause UI problems or require re-working/re-engineering of interface elements to get something to fit properly, etc. Strings can inadvertently break certain parts of the game. There are probably many meetings between localizers to discuss the tone and voice of the translations, yadda yadda.

Also extensive QA and playtesting to confirm that the strings work. As an example, I would spend ~5 hours on localization work (translating), then another ~5 hours playtesting across 2 different platforms (mobile).

And then if you have VO, you need to account for voice actors, etc, too. I'm not sure what regional/legal requirements and costs would be like, but probably some of those.

P.S.: I work in localization, but not in the games industry.

Don't translators often/usually get paid by the word, not necessarily an hourly wage?

That, too. PAL region localizations will be more time costly as well if they translate in all of those languages, but that goes without saying really. It's kind of an area I feel sorry for my European brethren in since there's many games not in Romanian, Norwegian, Swedish etc since they normally just do the same languages all of the time. It's something to consider in Europe, which markets you want to target it towards and which you have to miss off.

Don't be sorry for us Nordic folk. Swedish, Norwegian & Finnish people are usually fairly fluent in (comprehending) English. It's really not all that important for our games to get localized for our languages. It's a far bigger deal in Italy, France etc. countries that, from my understanding, have fairly bad English skills on average.

 

[myca77]

Don't translators often/usually get paid by the word, not necessarily an hourly wage?

Most translators who've worked on jobs I've been on are freelance and do generally bill per word, with different rates for translation, adaptation and proof reading.

 

[Jazz573]

Completely depends on the game and it's genre. Also are you licensing the Japanese VAs or are you hiring English VAs? Or maybe it has no voices. Also depends on how text heavy and the general length. I've never done localization myself, but I'd imagine text heavy games like JRPGs and VNs are more expensive, and less story-focused action heavy games are much cheaper.

 

[finalflame]

Don't translators often/usually get paid by the word, not necessarily an hourly wage?

Depends. I am a full time localizer, which means I am a full time employee of the company I work for, and my job ~80% of the time is to be localizing all kinds of content, strings, etc. With that in mind, as a localizer, you are expected to be familiar with the company's tone, and adapt it into the same tone uniformly in your language/for your region. It goes way beyond just translating the words into my language, rather, I need to be actively conscious of the tone and message and if how it is being conveyed in my language aligns with the original tone and message of the english source material. This allows for some creative freedom, and also means that you often need to make small or significant changes (sometimes when writing the original English creative material, the copywriters have absolutely no concern for how well it will translate culturally to other regions. This means I end up sitting in lots of meetings with PMs and in long email chains with copywriters to agree on a localized copy).

When you're talking about out-of-house or freelance translators, yes, they tend to bill by the word. At my last company, previous to me being hired as a full time localizer, they used external translators. These people are not nearly as familiar with the product, and just do their best to give an accurate and appropriate translation. They won't be taking into consideration a number of things that a full-time localizer would.

 

[H.Protagonist]

Can’t help you with the porting part, but it costs a pretty penny to be sure.

For localization stuff, here’s a breakdown from an older post I did on this with some more details added. Obviously, no actual dollar amounts can be given here because without an actual project with all the details, you can’t estimate the costs, and it’d be bad form to share that kind of info anyway, so only the most general of ballparks or thoughts will be listed here.

This topic comes up often enough that I really just want people to be aware of all the work you actually need for this kind of thing. Should anyone attempt a kickstarter like this, these are some of the things they'd need to consider.

Please be sure to check out some of the links at the bottom as well.


Some of the Costs Associated w/ Localization (Digital-only*):

*Costs associated with the actual printing, approval, design, delivery, cost of shelf space, advertising , etc. aren’t something I know the exact $ specifics of, but they are very significant.

• Licensing a game & dev team time: Dev time is money
  
  The right to publish a game in another territory can cost some serious money. What you’re paying for here are the distribution rights, licensing fees, and for the team to not only implement your text but also work with you through the QA process to make adjustments. Even modestly-sized projects can last many, many months, so the dev team needs to be secured for putting the text in and then later on for builds/inserting fixes even if QA comes a month or two later down the line after implementation.
  
  Programming work extras: English menus and graphics also have to be redone, so it’s not just a matter of handing over English text and them copy/pasting it somewhere. Artists often have to work to retool this stuff before it can be added in. Programming-wise, internal codes have to be switched to add service ID, communication IDs, windows have to be adjusted to accommodate the translation because English takes up more space, etc.

• Translation & Editing: Less people is better
  
  This includes not just text, but digital manuals as well which adds to time/design costs. <-- don&#8217;t forget.
  
  The size of the game and deadline sets your team numbers, basically. At XSEED we prefer to have as small a team as possible to ensure consistency of text and tone, but if the game is huge and the deadline is tight, we've thrown as much as 3 translators and 2 editors at titles before. Obviously, the more cooks you have in the kitchen, the greater the chance of fuck ups, so ideally you want less people. Just hiring 5 translators to bang out your text does get it done fast, but then you have to sort those 5 different styles into a single game. It&#8217;s not pretty. Less is more here and throwing more people at it tends to make it worse.
  
  Extras: Having a proofer go over the edited files would be a useful addition after the editing phase, but that&#8217;s considered extra. Usually it&#8217;s up to editors to sort that out and then QA to catch misses.

• Voice Recording: Studio + actors + directors + producers = oh my
  
  Recording is a huge part of the process even if it only takes a month or so to wrap up.
  
  Work needed:
  
  Script &#8211; You&#8217;ll get the Jpn original, but have to add in the English equivalents. Often, there are time limits on the length of the Japanese voices that have to be matched in-game. This is for game size reasons, scene length, lip flaps if the scene is animated, etc. Restricted length adds time to recording, so your recording costs will go up accordingly.
  
  Work on scripts can also only be done towards the end or after editing has been finished because you need in-game lines for the script so that they match the internal text. One of the great joys of recording is finding out in the studio that a line in game is entirely too long for the voiced file and you have to edit/rewrite on the fly. This is often caught when you&#8217;re working up the script (as editor and then manager I used to do these), but there&#8217;s always something. Always.
  
  People needed:
  
  Sound Technician &#8211; The sound board jockeys. They capture the lines, fix the quality, and handle all the voice files. (*part of the overall studio cost you&#8217;re paying for)
  
  Actors &#8211; Maybe you have an awesome budget and can afford one VA per character, but this usually isn&#8217;t the case. Most VAs can expect to voice at least 2-3 characters (1 main, 2 NPC, etc.) in a game for smaller budget titles. (*part of the overall studio cost you&#8217;re paying for)
  
  Director &#8211; This is usually part of the overall studio deal. These guys and gals run the show while you&#8217;re there and direct the VA/ensure pace is being met so that the schedule holds. Some companies have their own personnel for this, so it&#8217;s not a certain cost (though usually). I did this when the director was also a VA in the game or they had some schedule conflicts. (*usually part of the overall studio cost you&#8217;re paying for)
  
  Producer/Company Rep &#8211; It&#8217;s imperative to have someone who knows the text (usually the editor of script maker) attend recording. They&#8217;re there to explain characters, context, clarify lines, rewrite, direct, and basically approve the takes as they come in. Sure you can just hand off your script to a studio and say &#8216;go nuts&#8217;, but it&#8217;s your funeral. (*not part of the studio &#8216;budget&#8217;.)
  
  Translator &#8211; Not sure for other companies, but we usually send 2 people to recording, and one of them is a Japanese speaker. Most everyone at XSEED speaks or reads Japanese (to varying degrees), but when you&#8217;re uncertain of a line it&#8217;s best to check in with a native speaker to make sure you have the original intention of the line correct. (*not part of the studio &#8216;budget&#8217;.)
  
  
  Notes on subtitles-only (because people think they can just cut costs by not recording): You say that Japanese-only is fine for you, but a publisher loses a significant chunk of sales if there is not an English dub. Is it worth it for the company to release a game with so much of their potential audience written off? Not usually. There are exceptions, of course (companies with smaller expectations for one), but it can have a huge impact on your sales/audience reached. If a company were aiming for a dual release (digi and physical) then a dub is almost always needed because it's difficult to get store placement otherwise.
  
  And, as others have said, the voices are not often even licensable for an NA/EU release.
  
  Please see Tom's posts below for more info.

• Ratings: This shit ain't free, takes time to prepare and submit, and it is required if you want to release in these territories.
  
  ESRB (US Rating)
  PEGI (EU Rating)
  UK Rating
  USK (German Rating)
  Aus/NZ Rating
  DJCTQ (Brazilian Rating) You'll need a physical proxy in Brazil currently to even get this.

• QA: Internal, external, text, compliance, etc.
  
  Depending on the size of your game and the complexity (multiplayer? DLC? Branching storylines?) you&#8217;ll need at least a month, usually way more for this. Cost-wise, unless you have an internal team that knows all the latest compliance rules and how to test them, you&#8217;ll be hiring one of the outside QA companies to make sure all your region settings are correct, the ratings are set correctly, people aren&#8217;t sticking to buildings and exploding (this has happened), etc.
  
  Your internal team will usually comb for text bugs, check manuals, do playthrough, etc.
  QA can be hell, and skimping on costs here always bites you in the ass later.

• Submission: Time is money
  
  Submitting to first party doesn&#8217;t cost you a fee, but it is something that takes a lot of prep and checking to make sure it&#8217;s done right and then you have to babysit it as it goes through and address all bugs that come up, changes you&#8217;re asked to make, and sometimes have a spirited back and forth on things you think deserve to be waived. Sometimes for the more complicated and contentious bugs, you&#8217;ll have people from the first party in other territories weighing in as well, so your &#8216;bug&#8217; could take weeks to sort as everyone has their say. Failing master will cost you more time and therefore more money because the dev team (who probably thought they were finished) now have to hang around and fix whatever the issue is and then wait again for resubmission to run its course.

• Marketing: Plans, people, designers, ad space, websites, etc.
  
  Most people think commercials or GameStop store cardboard cut outs and promotions when they think &#8216;marketing&#8217; for games, but a lot of the work includes stuff like the website (from scratch and written up by your internal team or translated and touched up?), press blasts, sending out review copies, arranging/doing Q&As, interviews, etc. Everyone seems to take this stuff for granted, but it takes people and effort and therefore more time and money. Granted, big money comes into play when you do ad placements, banners, and the like, but just depends on your budget, really.

Other localization considerations:

EU Release Work (a la me (XSEED)) - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=99968774&postcount=83
Voice Rights and Availability (a la Tom (XSEED))- http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=525009%29
General Trials and Tribulations of Publishing Localized Games (a la Hatsuu (XSEED)) - http://hatsuu.tumblr.com/post/55401774233/why-video-games-take-so-long-to-publish
Problems with Using Kickstarter for Localization: One POV (Wired article - XSEED) - http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/02/kickstarter-blindside/all/
Very Detailed Info on the Work That Goes Into the Text w/ Charts and Examples (a la Hatsuu via Kotaku) - http://kotaku.com/getting-jrpgs-out-in-english-is-harder-than-you-think-1441094168


tl;dr - A fucking lot.

 

[finalflame]

...

Legendary post. Thanks a ton for chiming in.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Can’t help you with the porting part, but it costs a pretty penny to be sure.

Thank you so much for this post.

 

[Jb]

This post was so great. Thanks a ton

 

[John Kowalski]

oh wow that's pretty amazing thanks H.Protag

 

[Se7enSword]

Can’t help you with the porting part, but it costs a pretty penny to be sure.

tl;dr - A fucking lot.

That's some great information! Thanks a lot Jess.

Spoiler

And people complained about TrailsSC $30 price

 

[Malvingt2]

Can’t help you with the porting part, but it costs a pretty penny to be sure.

Thanks for the info.

That is a lot of work.. Time consuming for sure.

 

[SephLuis]

H.Protagonist, thank you for the amazing post on localization and congratulations to all of you in XSEED. You guys are awesome.

y, people aren’t sticking to buildings and exploding (this has happened), etc.

Can we have the details ? Please ? =D

Sticking to walls was something said in the XSEED localization blog for Trails SC, but bugs exploding people ? I want to know the details. For science.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Then I guess the elephant in the room question is...

how on earth does a localization turn a profit then?

 

[TheSpoiler]

Then I guess the elephant in the room question is...

how on earth does a localization turn a profit then?

Like all games, it has to be worthy of making a profit. Localizing games is a huge gamble. For some titles, it's probably easier depending on the time frame of release, the type and genre, and how big the vocal crowd is.

For something like Yakuza, I would imagine it's incredibly difficult. I don't think there's a huge market for involved Japanese drama beat'em ups to even think about breaking even. And that's some large flavor work right there.

 

[Sterok]

I must admit, I don't really know why something like Stella Glow was localized, even if I'm happy about it. It has a lot of text, a good amount of voice acting, and might sell 30K total (retail + digital) in the US when all is said and done, and an equivalent amount in other countries. How does Atlus justify something like that? Even if it makes some money, it can't be much compared to other titles they could theoretically localize. Then again, Atlus keeps bringing over poor selling Etrian Odysseys, so I guess they and XSEED have figured out how to make it all work.

 

[LiK]

tl;dr - A fucking lot.

excellent post

 

[H.Protagonist]

Everyone > My pleasure. You know I go ham before my second coffee.

I understand that localization is one of the murkier (weirder?) sections of the gaming industry, so I'm happy to shed a bit of light on it. Been trying to get it out there more, but I don't expect everyone to know what goes into it or why it causes localizers acute suffering to hear "all they have to do is translate! It's easy!", so hope this helps. I'll probably do more of these 'How the Sausage Gets Made' type write-ups on my blog in the future.

That's some great information! Thanks a lot Jess.

Spoiler

And people complained about TrailsSC $30 price

I can see their side. I mean, it is an older game and pretty niche to boot. I confess it causes me pain to read that take on it, though. What it took to bring that sucker out was beyond anything generally covered in the scope of a traditional localization budget. What that game actually 'cost' is far more than anyone will really ever know. Of course, that's not the consumer's problem, either. Eh.

H.Protagonist, thank you for the amazing post on localization and congratulations to all of you in XSEED. You guys are awesome.



Can we have the details ? Please ? =D

Sticking to walls was something said in the XSEED localization blog for Trails SC, but bugs exploding people ? I want to know the details. For science.

Rune Factory 4. After the team put the text in for the first English build it broke something profound (that was a 1.4(?) mil game) and some NPCs started sticking to building roofs and blowing up. One of my favorite WTF QA memories.

Then I guess the elephant in the room question is...

how on earth does a localization turn a profit then?

Careful balancing of the overall yearly budget and project juggling. A moratorium on office snacks. Sacrificing interns.

 

[ghostlight_ross]

H.Protagonist gave a pretty great overview of what happens on the localisation side of the things but since you mention ports I thought you might be interested in something I wrote a little while back on porting Japanese games to PC.

http://blog.ghostlight.uk.com/post/porting-japanese-games-to-pc--how-it-works

 

[gelf]

H.Protagonist I'm tempted to bookmark and quote that post every time someone makes a baseless claim that a localisation would be easy and that company X just hates its western fans and doesn't want their money.

 

[SephLuis]

Rune Factory 4. After the team put the text in for the first English build it broke something profound (that was a 1.4(?) mil game) and some NPCs started sticking to building roofs and blowing up. One of my favorite WTF QA memories.

Thanks for the answer and for making my day funnier =D

 

[Kama_1082]

More than you can afford, pal.

 

[Canis lupus]

Can&#8217;t help you with the porting part, but it costs a pretty penny to be sure.

For localization stuff, here&#8217;s a breakdown from an older post

tl;dr - A fucking lot.

Thank you, very informative post. Would you be willing to share a figure on some of your projects? Can't wait for Cold Steel, by the time it comes out you will have worked 2 years on the localization, it must be one of your biggest?

H.Protagonist gave a pretty great overview of what happens on the localisation side of the things but since you mention ports I thought you might be interested in something I wrote a little while back on porting Japanese games to PC.

http://blog.ghostlight.uk.com/post/porting-japanese-games-to-pc--how-it-works

Thanks Ross, I'll be reading this as well.

More than you can afford, pal.

Go shitpost elsewhere, pal.

 

[Parsnip]

Great post Jess.

 

[kamineko]

I appreciate the great info & links, marking for later

 

[wrowa]

Actors &#8211; Maybe you have an awesome budget and can afford one VA per character, but this usually isn&#8217;t the case. Most VAs can expect to voice at least 2-3 characters (1 main, 2 NPC, etc.) in a game for smaller budget titles. (*part of the overall studio cost you&#8217;re paying for)

Oh, so actors aren't directly paid by a game's publisher but by the recording studio?

I can see their side. I mean, it is an older game and pretty niche to boot. I confess it causes me pain to read that take on it, though. What it took to bring that sucker out was beyond anything generally covered in the scope of a traditional localization budget. What that game actually 'cost' is far more than anyone will really ever know. Of course, that's not the consumer's problem, either. Eh.

I just want to add that I'll be eternally grateful for your work on SC (and for Xseed bringing it over in the first place). <3 It's one of those rare cases that made me think "I can't imagine the Japanese line was half as awesome as the English one" all the time. Thank you for that!

 

[SephLuis]

I just want to add that I'll be eternally grateful for your work on SC (and for Xseed bringing it over in the first place). <3 It's one of those rare cases that made me think "I can't imagine the Japanese line was half as awesome as the English one" all the time. Thank you for that!

The japanese version does not have the lines for the treasure boxes. I felt betrayed because I love those =(

 

[H.Protagonist]

H.Protagonist gave a pretty great overview of what happens on the localisation side of the things but since you mention ports I thought you might be interested in something I wrote a little while back on porting Japanese games to PC.

http://blog.ghostlight.uk.com/post/porting-japanese-games-to-pc--how-it-works

Nice post, R. My knowledge of what goes on this side of things is woefully lacking. I just kind of hand stuff off the Sara and magic happens. Thanks for posting that. People should def give it a read.

H.Protagonist I'm tempted to bookmark and quote that post every time someone makes a baseless claim that a localisation would be easy and that company X just hates its western fans and doesn't want their money.

Go nuts. I was hoping it would be a helpful touchstone of sorts whenever the topic comes up.

Thank you, very informative post. Would you be willing to share a figure on some of your projects? Can't wait for Cold Steel, by the time it comes out you will have worked 2 years on the localization, it must be one of your biggest?

Sure thing. What do you mean by "a figure" on some of my projects, though? And for Cold Steel, my part there was very minor this time (just the books). Even if it was, nothing beats SC for size/time.

Great post Jess.

Cheers~

I appreciate the great info & links, marking for later

Np. The last link is especially cool because it really lays out some of the struggles when working with text. Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in localization.

Oh, so actors aren't directly paid by a game's publisher but by the recording studio?



I just want to add that I'll be eternally grateful for your work on SC (and for Xseed bringing it over in the first place). <3 It's one of those rare cases that made me think "I can't imagine the Japanese line was half as awesome as the English one" all the time. Thank you for that!

Not directly, no. They're part of the overall package estimate (in my experience, anyway) that you get from the studio after you send them your project needs.

'Preciate the kind words. Biggest fear was fan reception since it's been so long and was so bloody hectic, so really happy to hear you enjoyed it.

 

[James93]

Its usually higher than most publishers can justify based off project demand.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Too much for company's that can afford it.

 

[ScatheZombie]

So let's say, a staff of 10-15 translators/coders for ~10-12 months, $40-50k*10, about half a million to a million just to get the game out, no PR manager/marketing/website stuff etc involved.

From my experience, only in-house translation gets paid by salary, and they make about double what you guessed. They also do not work overtime without additional compensation and have hard limits on the amount of words they will do without a specific amount of time.

Oursourced translation is paid by the word, and it can vary wildly in pricing. I've seen places that charge 7 cents a word and places charge 17 cents a word. The price also depends on the turn around time you are expecting. The shorter the time requirement, the higher the price. It took anywhere from 3 to 6 months for oursourced translations to get back at the standard rate, but we could have them back within a week if we paid 5x as much.

On the last MMO I shipped, we burned through our initial $500k translation budget in 3 months on about 30% of our total strings. And we were only translating into French and German at the time. During a major patch, just my changes and additions to the game that I (and my team of two other devs) worked on cost the company over $100k to translate into 2 languages because we overhauled a major system that required a new tutorial, tooltips, spells, items, etc.

It's way more expensive than most people think.

 

[Nyoro SF]

One thing I wanted to clear up after reading the blog.

It's said that you lose a big chunk of sales for not having an English dub and going subs only. However it's then referred in a tertiary aspect that stores won't stock the game without the dub (this followup statement is a little unclear).

Retailers will refuse to stock games or stock far fewer copies of the game in their stores (Gamestop, Walmart, Target) if you do not have English as a main voice line track? Is this the main barrier to sales of games that are sub only; retailer approval?