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NOA localizer insists Xenoblade too risky, defends Wii U naming

Pathetic somebody lost their job over this. This is a part of the reason the gaming community irritates me.

The gaming community had nothing to do with his firing, it was 100% his fault. Talking about internal company matters, disparaging the customers of the company you work for and doing so without permission is more than enough to get you canned.

This is in no way exclusive to gaming, any company would fire you if you did something similar.

Exactly! I've worked for smaller tech companies since the 90s and every one has had non-disclosure agreements and wording in contracts that would allow them to terminate you for breaking those agreements. Working for a company like Nintendo there must be huge NDAs and clauses about keeping your mouth shut unless you are a spokesman for the company and sanctioned to speak about things in public.

I would never in a million years do what he did as he probably broke his NDA and lost the trust of Nintendo. Given what has happened to other people in the past few years when they do these things I can't understand why people put themselves at risk like this, especially in this case where it was his dream job.

Sad to see him lose the job but this shouldn't be surprising to anyone with knowledge of how the corporate world works.
 
Poor guy. Seems like he forgot that business doesnt work the same as the normal world. From his point of view he's just telling the regular reasonable truth. Under regular circumstances there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, he's just keeping it real. They're normal, expected, boring business decisions.

Unfortunately this is indeed business. Enormous difference that he apparently didnt realize. You cant go around telling people that what they love isnt worth it no matter how true it is. This seems like an honest misjudgement from an honest guy so I hope he gets back on his feet shortly. Surely he's learned his lesson already.
 

Eppy Thatcher

God's had his chance.
Yea... honestly dude should have known better seeing as he's been wanting to work for Nintendo his entire life. There is no way he went through his entire college career and never read one article about how tight Nintendo keeps their info.
And yes - basically any other company in the world would have done the same thing if they considered the topics he spoke about off limits. Not sure what exactly this guy was expecting. Still really sucks though..

I am a little confused about people being angry at "internet outrage" over this guy getting fired. The corporate policies at NOA are what got this dude fired. Not some internet movement.

Sucks though. What do you even do at this point? He should start a blog or something. I can't imagine he would be happy going to work for another gaming company.
 
Congrats internet outrage machine, you got yourselves another notch on your belt.

I'm upset the guy lost his dream job... but really, what he did was stupid. He could have saved himself a LOT of heart ache if he actually asked his employers if he could do it (and they would have rightfully shot him down).
 

TasTokyo

Member
I read it through auto translate but could you give me a better idea of how it got spun?

Jesus, 1306 Comments!

What was written in the Article? And could someone tell how the tone of the first few Comments were?

Anyone have a translation? I want to know exactly how bad it got spun that NOJ wanted this dude fired.

Quick translation:


"NoA Localizer Chris Pranger talked on the The Part Time Gamers podcast

「Quote of him 」

- Localization takes a large amount of money but most fans don't understand this
- Xenoblade was this type of deal and at the end of the day was in the red
- Xenoblade going on sale in the US was extremely lucky. There is no way that the costs could be covered by sales of it.


The tone of the comments are things like :
- We already knew this
- It didn't sell in Japan in the first place
- Definitely in the red
- What was the metascore?
- I'm no professional but does localization really cost that much?
- In Japan it didn't sell outside of kids and long time fans anyway...
- Massively in the red
- Definitely in the red lololololol
- If you put this on PS4 it would make a profit
- People who own a Wii U don't want this type of game. Making it just to lose money is pointless.
- They're not going to localize Xenoblade X then?
- RPGs aren't really meant for localization. It's no problem doing them in English but other languages are a waste
"


I've generally just taken the shorter comments from the first 50 or so. There is quite a lot of slang being used I'm a little unsure of the nuance on. For example I know insult slang for Sony fans is Gokiburi (cockroaches). However there is then a lot of talk of Cat fried rice..... which I don't know.

I mean basically the tone of the comments is they lost money on this, this is why DQ11 is on PS4, people saying if Y game made a profit then Xenoblade must have etc.

I feel the linked article is perhaps a slight misrepresentation of his comments from the other translated article. Although I haven't heard the original podcast to judge and am simply going on the quotes here on GAF.
 
I sincerely doubt it though. Bending back to outrage isn't a way to conduct a business.

Companies bend back to public outrage all the time. Do you think WWE honestly cares that Hulk Hogan made a few racist remarks? They fired one of their biggest icons because they had to, not because they wanted to.
 
What did he say about Sakurai?
https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/3fpzax/cool_podcast_with_insight_on_how_sakurai_feels/
That isn't exactly the most pleasant picture of the man. I also wonder if the Ness conspiracy is like a smashboards thing or if it is actually internal to Nintendo. If it is true talk about petty ("you humiliated me but it is you who will be humiliated when I make Ness suck").

I've generally just taken the shorter comments from the first 50 or so. There is quite a lot of slang being used I'm a little unsure of the nuance on. For example I know insult slang for Sony fans is Gokiburi (cockroaches). However there is then a lot of talk of Cat fried rice..... which I don't know.

I mean basically the tone of the comments is they lost money on this, this is why DQ11 is on PS4, people saying if Y game made a profit then Xenoblade must have etc.

I feel the linked article is perhaps a slight misrepresentation of his comments from the other translated article. Although I haven't heard the original podcast to judge and am simply going on the quotes here on GAF.
I think some of it might be confusion about the franchise naming.
In Japan you have: Xenoblade, Xenoblade Cross
Elsewhere you have: Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles X

Some might have thought Xenoblade Chronicles=Xenoblade Cross.
 

BONKERS

Member
This guys just doesn't seem to understand how to make Niche worthwhile. Unlike NISA,XSeed,Gaijinworks,Atlus and the like.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Ah ok, thanks. Well, while I feel sorry for the guy he should have known that you gotta be careful with a company like Nintendo. :/ Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing but I hope he lands on his feet.

You hsve to be careful no matter who you work for. I consider my words very very carefully when I discuss the industry.

Really sucks, though. It's a very easy mistake to make. Hope he lands on his feet.
 
https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/3fpzax/cool_podcast_with_insight_on_how_sakurai_feels/
That isn't exactly the most pleasant picture of the man. I also wonder if the Ness conspiracy is like a smashboards thing or if it is actually internal to Nintendo. If it is true talk about petty ("you humiliated me but it is you who will be humiliated when I make Ness suck").


I think some of it might be confusion about the franchise naming.
In Japan you have: Xenoblade, Xenoblade Cross
Elsewhere you have: Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles X

Some might have thought Xenoblade Chronicles=Xenoblade Cross.

Aside from the Ness thing (which he called a theory and he might have been joking about anyway) he doesn't really come across as insulting Sakurai. We already knew that Sakurai takes Smash very, very seriously, to the point that its become a detriment to his health.
 
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