The state of international releases: Dubs, translations and their handling

[Jeff Kelly]

A topic that's probably a bit special but something that bothers me a lot lately.

Most German versions of games are really really bad. I can just assume that it's the same for other locales. Games with good dubs/translations are the exceptions and even the exceptionally well translated game is usually worse than the original.

On the one hand the German speaking market is the only one in which all foreign content is traditionally translated/dubbed. So there is an entire industry that's devoted to that. This until a few years ago has led at least to some level of quality and professionalism.

On the other hand each translation costs money, a well made one costs a lot of money. It might not even be money that's budgeted and spent by the developer but one that is spent by the local publisher/distributor so that kind of overhead is usually kept as low as possible.

This coincides with the fact that you no longer have access to the original language tracks. Some time ago most games weren't dubbed at all or at least included the original language track (with/without subtitles) which was a good compromise between the people not capable of understanding the original language and the ones that wanted the original experience.

Nowadays if you buy the German version of a game you only get the German language version and you cannot switch to the original anymore. This has led to a huge gray market in game imports, something that is rather difficult because of our particular stance on age ratings for games/movies.

So how bad is it, actually? Imagine translations of the "Someone set us up the bomb" quality. That is quite common. Even the great ones are a different beast quality-wise.

Mass Effect 2 for example features Martin Sheen, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Seth Green, Michael Hogan, Tricia Helfer and a whole cast of more or less known actors. The German version doesn't even feature their official German dub voices (yes that exists) but other voice actors of variable quality.

It also clashes with the current trend of DLC content. I can name a whole lot of DLC content that either was available much later in translated form or was even never released here. Which until a few years ago wasn't particularly a problem because you could get the original version anyway.

Since we have quite a few developers on this board I'd like to hear their stance on translations and why exactly the original language tracks get cut on many of the current releases. There are a lot of UK shops that make a killing with shipping original versions to Germany (How much? Enough that they now offer free shipping to German customers). This theoretically runs the risk of German customs confiscating the merchandise but a lot of people (including me) do it anyway.

[Tebonas]

They need to stop forcing dubs on us. A big part of why I went almost exclusively Steam is the fact that Brick&Mortar stores only tend to have translated versions and you have to order English boxes online. And the Xbox Online store doesn't give you the choice either, which is frankly why I returned exclusively to the PC.

Everything Jeff Kelly says about Dubs is true, its THAT bad.

[Rendakor]

I expected this thread to be about US imported Japanese titles.

[Jeff Kelly]

Since more and more games and other types of media are only available online and therefore can no longer be imported the amount of hassle you have to endure to get them increases.

I pay $10 per month for a VPN provider just so that I can trick my devices into thinking that they are located in the US/UK just to have access to the respective online stores. Which doesn't even work for all stores because some check the address (easy to fake) or verify if your paypal account or credit card was issued in the respective country (impossible to circumvent).

There is even a black market nowadays for prepaid credit cards issued in the UK/US just so that people can buy original versions of movies/TV shows or games online.

iTunes Germany offered the last season of Lost as season pass parallel to the US release of the episodes. It outsold any other TV release in the German iTunes store and stayed in the top 10 for the entire run.

Anything that isn't dubbed won't get released over here (market to small) but this means that a distributor or broadcaster has to licence and market/broadcast it to front the cash for a dubbed version. Even if it is, it usually takes years until a German company picks it up (they usually wait and see if it's popular across the pond). Currently there is no legal way to get 'Terriers', 'The Big Bang Theory', 'Community', and a whole host of other shows without waiting for the UK DVD release and importing it yourself.

Any other option - even if it leads to me paying money for a legal copy - would mean that I'd be committing a felony, either by breaking a licence agreement or other copyright issues or by being forced to misrepresent myself online. Or I could just torrent it which actually is the most convenient way.

I didn't care personally but with the death of brick and mortar stores and physical copies being replaced with downloads it get's harder and harder to legally get original versions.

[Jeff Kelly]

I expected this thread to be about US imported Japanese titles.

Which basically is the same issue. With the added 'benefit' of probably even less people understanding the original language I suppose. At least with Anime there is a whole sub culture of 'fansubs' that are usually better than the original subtitles.

[Azazel]

There are a lot of UK shops that make a killing with shipping original versions to Germany (How much? Enough that they now offer free shipping to German customers). This theoretically runs the risk of German customs confiscating the merchandise but a lot of people (including me) do it anyway.

A related but different point is that these same UK shops are selling a huge amount of items to Australians with the same free shipping (it's actually subsidised/paid for by the 20% VAT they don't need to pay on export sales and the Royal Mail's large letter category). Our issues are censorship and (especially) price, where our local prices are jacked up on average between 20%-300% on prices we can pay to the UK for the same title. Often the same disc inside the packaging as well, with an Australian OFLC rating stamped on it alongside the BBFLC and PEGI ratings. Yet the local industry steadfastly refuse to lower their prices.

Of course, our stuff doesn't need to be dubbed into another language, and as I said, the discs are often the exact same ones, so it's simply gouging.

A similar situation exists with Blu-Rays, though more and more, the local prices are dropping down to "close enough" compared to UK imports, so while big ticket items are still often 200% of the import price (especially boxed sets & TV series) slightly older movies can be within a couple of dollars of the UK price - Kill Bill for example was $2 more expensive here, so WTF.

Sorry for the derail - your post just made me think of our parallels.

[UnSub]

Derail: after my local EB completely screwed up one of my preorders, which UK site should I start ordering Xbox 360 games from?

OT: Are there legal requirements for local language dubbing on games sold in that region? Germany and France both tend to get their own translations, but I'm much less aware of games translating themselves into (say) Spanish.

[eldaec]

In practice you need dubbing to sell in volume in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Almost all their TV is dubbed, almost all their cinema is dubbed. Although I suspect there is some quota bullshit backing this up in France, it is really driven by marketing assumptions (distributors and retailers don't believe anything else will sell).

Everywhere else in Europe (and pretty much the world) does original language plus subtitles and turns their noses up at the philistine dubbing nations.

[Azazel]

Derail: after my local EB completely screwed up one of my preorders, which UK site should I start ordering Xbox 360 games from?

http://www.ozgameshop.com/
http://www.365games.co.uk/
same place, different storefronts - my main source of games these days.

[UnSub]

Derail: after my local EB completely screwed up one of my preorders, which UK site should I start ordering Xbox 360 games from?

http://www.ozgameshop.com/
http://www.365games.co.uk/
same place, different storefronts - my main source of games these days.

Thanks!