localization posts

Aion 1.9 patch highlights with producer Chris Hager

by Seraphina Brennan Mar 4th 2010 at 11:00AM

Yesterday NCsoft teased some of the upcoming features in Aion patch 1.9, making daevas the world over drool their sparkling, celestial spit. However, while everyone was busy drooling, we met up with Aion's producer, Chris Hager, for a more extensive look into the patch notes.

Patch 1.9 has a bunch of things going for it -- from the introduction of a new "rent-a-item" system, to daily quests, to looking for group interface enhancements and more. As we said yesterday, there's over 26 pages of patch notes which will be appearing on the Aion main website -- that's a huge number of fixes and changes.

While we can't cover them all in this document, we aim to hit the highlights of the patch that just hit the Korean test server. Now extend your wings and fly with us to the land after the break!

Tags: aion, aion-game, aion-patch-1.9, aion-the-tower-of-eternity, chris-hager, featured, interview, korean-test-server, localization, nc-soft, nc-soft-aion, ncsoft, ncsoft-aion, patch-1.9

Gamepot Partners with Square-Enix for Fantasy Earth Zero

by Eliot Lefebvre Jan 14th 2010 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Fantasy Earth Zero

Apparently, Square-Enix isn't satisfied with just launching the highly-anticipated Final Fantasy XIV this year. In partnership with Gamepot USA, they're also going to be rolling out Fantasy Earth Zero, a new game for this side of the pond. The game promises PvPvE elements a la Aion, will be free to play, and should be available early this year.

Sound like a remarkably short turnaround? That's because the game isn't actually new, having launched in Japan in 2006. Square-Enix had initially put quite a bit of promotion behind the game, but it very nearly died in its home country soon thereafter. Gamepot saved the game from a swift death, uncoupled it from the rather ill-fated PlayOnline Viewer, and moved to a free-to-play model that's been working out quite well for the game ever since.

Tortured history aside, players can expect Fantasy Earth Zero to deliver a very active PvP experience with large-scale battles, as well as the usual high production values associated with a Square game. Take a look at the official teaser site to see about entering the local beta, and keep an eye open for more details about the game become available in the likely very near future.

Tags: aion, f2p, fantasy-earth-zero, fez, free-to-play, gamepot, gamepot-usa, launch, launches, localization, new-games, new-titles, playonline-viewer, pvpve, square, square-enix, translation

Mythic taking over DAoC Europe

by Kyle Horner Jan 7th 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dark Age of Camelot, News items

Mythic Entertainment today announced that GOA's license to publish and maintain Dark Age of Camelot in Europe will not be renewed, and that Mythic plans to take hold of the reins for European support. The news post says the transition will occur "in the coming weeks" which hopefully means a gradual shift is being planned, rather than a sudden one.

The developer makes sure to assuage any fears of rocky times ahead by saying, "We are currently working with GOA to take over operation of the game and its European community, and will soon be providing details about pressing player questions such as existing subscriptions, character transfers, game versions, localization, and more." It sounds like everything is well under control, but an effort like this is most certainly a delicate one. Hopefully things go smoothly, as we'd rather report good news over bad.

Tags: character-transfer, character-transfers, daoc, dark-age-of-camelot, europe, game-version, goa, localization, mythic, mythic-entertainment

Star Wars: The Old Republic being localized in French and German

by James Egan Aug 18th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, New titles, Star Wars: The Old Republic

One of the unique aspects of Star Wars: The Old Republic is that it's being developed as a fully-voiced MMO through the efforts of hundreds of voice actors. According to BioWare, the script for SWTOR contains 40+ novels worth of content. This is impressive -- not to mention a bit frightening -- but what happens if BioWare and LucasArts want to tap the non-English speaking markets? (They do.) BioWare stated: "Today, we are revealing that BioWare and LucasArts will be localizing The Old Republic into French and German and we are launching the French and German versions of the official website."

Our understanding is that the French and German releases of Star Wars: The Old Republic will be fully voiced as with the English version. If the localizations for each of these languages truly encompass everything in the English version of SWTOR, this could mark the biggest localization effort undertaken to date in the MMO industry.

Tags: bioware, french, fully-voiced, german, localization, lucasarts, mmo-industry, new-titles, sci-fi, star-wars, swtor

So that's how they localize a game...

by Seraphina Brennan Jul 23rd 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Business models, Culture, MMO industry

If you thought localization was just a developer running everything through an auto-translator and shoving the game out the door, you're pretty far off according to Atlus U.S.A. The team over at the company that produces some of the best game localizations in the business have written a very insightful post into why game localization takes so long.

Atlus doesn't just take a game and throw it through a quick translation process. There's the weeks of the translators playing the original game to get a feel for it, then the weeks of the actual translation, the weeks of re-programming to make the new text, voice-overs, and graphics line up. Then you have the weeks of testing to remove bugs and finally the packaging and shipping process. On a good game release, you're looking at around three and a half months for the localization. For MMOs, you're looking at something much more intensive thanks to the amount of text involved.

Interested in the full process? Check out Atlus's production diary number 12 for the full rundown.

Tags: atlus-online, atlus-usa, localization, neo-steam, neo-steam-the-shattered-continent, translation

NCsoft aims to bridge the East-West divide with Aion

by James Egan Jun 18th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles

Stereotypes and ingrained perceptions can be frustrating to deal with, but let's face it -- some stereotypes do exist for a reason, and this can certainly apply to games as much as to anything else. There have been no small amount of Asian import MMOs that have been localized poorly for the western market, and this has certainly left a bad taste in gamers' mouths. Localization is a major challenge for any developer, and there's a rather wide chasm between what makes a game popular in an Asian market like Korea and what players embrace in the west. The westward-bound MMO that many people are focusing on right now is Aion, from NCsoft.

The westernization of Aion is the subject of another solid interview at The MMO Gamer by Steven Crews, who sat down with Aion producer Brian "Xaen" Knox, the person largely responsible for NC West's localization of this title. Knox talks about what he sees as being the best aspects of both East and West in terms of game development, and how some western influences on Aion's design have actually proven to be successful in Korea. It's a fairly in-depth interview and hits on a number of Knox's ideas about how a game can begin to bridge the game culture divide between East and West, seen in the context of Aion. Check it out over at The MMO Gamer.

Tags: aion, asia, brian-knox, east, fantasy, game-design, game-mechanics, interviews, korea, localization, nc-west, ncsoft, steven-crews, the-mmo-gamer, west, xaen

Free to play MMO Cronous to launch in India

by Seraphina Brennan Jun 2nd 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Culture, Launches, Free-to-play

Lizard Interactive, the makers of free-to-play MMOs Cronous and Sho Online, has made an agreement with Servex of India to bring Cronous over to the Indian MMO audience.

The Indian MMO scene is very much like the Asian MMO scene, where internet and gaming cafes dominate the market while at-home users only make up a small percent. To combat this, Lizard and Servex have also teamed up with Sify and Zapak -- two of the largest internet cafe chains in India. These chains will be offering special promotions and incentives for players who choose Cronous, as well as simply promoting the game in their stores.

The Indian MMO scene is one of the best marketing choices right now, as the market is uncrowded and quickly gathering steam. This move is very similar to Rappelz's choice to move into the Middle Eastern market, choosing to take the costs of localization in order to tap an untapped player base.

Cronous will be launching their Indian website later this month, with game service targeted for the same timeframe as well.

Tags: cronous, free-to-play, india, internet-cafe, lizard-interactive, localization, servex, sho-online, sify, zapak

The birth of the Middle Eastern MMO scene

by James Egan May 1st 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play

Much of our coverage of the MMO industry at Massively is clearly focused on North America and Europe, with the occasional article about what's happening in Asia, but we rarely have the opportunity to point out what's happening in MMOs in the Middle East. Truth be told, we weren't aware that MMOs are operating in this region of the world until an article we came across today.

Sanya Weathers recently got in touch with Fadi Mujahid, general manager of a Dubai-based company called Game Power 7 which has localized the free-to-play MMO Rappelz for the Middle East/North African (MENA) market. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, Game Power 7 is the first company to focus on the MMO industry in the Middle East and North Africa to date.

Mujahid explains to Weathers how Game Power 7 made these first inroads to the MENA market, from market research to localization efforts (adding 'Middle Eastern touches' to the characters and other changes to make the game less offensive to the market's cultures), to getting the word out about the Arabic version of Rappelz.

Tags: arabic-rappelz, fadi-mujahid, game-power-7, localization, mena, middle-east, north-africa, rappelz, sanya-weathers

Lord of the Rings Online launches in Korea and Russia

by William Dobson Apr 23rd 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Launches, MMO industry, News items

Turbine has issued an announcement regarding the regional availability of their number one title. Just ahead of Lord of the Rings Online's second birthday, the folks over in Russia and Korea are now able to join in the Tolkien-inspired fun with new localized versions of the game. Pictured above are the logos for the two new regions, Korean on top and Russian underneath. Noticeably, the Korean logo is in the Mines of Moria format that we've all become used to now, whereas the Russian logo takes after the original logo from vanilla LotRO (Shadows of Angmar). We aren't sure whether this means that Korea's LotRO is Moria enabled and Russia's is not. Perhaps a couple of our readers could translate the sub-headings and shed some light on the issue (and yes, they did! See the comments for info).

Korean company NHN is handling their region's version following a deal from December of 2007, and IT Territory made a similar agreement to bring the game to Russia in January of 2008. Both of these companies made statements emphasizing their high expectations for the success of LotRO in their respective markets, but the real test of that begins now.

Tags: it-territory, itt, korea, korean, localization, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, mines-of-moria, nhn, russia, russian, turbine

GDC09: Tinkering around with Neo Steam and Atlus Online

by Seraphina Brennan Mar 31st 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, New titles, Previews, Free-to-play, Casual

The World of Gatheryn isn't the only steampunk MMO on the block this year at GDC09. While Gatheryn certainly appeals to the Victorian steampunk crowd, Atlus Online's upcoming MMO Neo Steam will be bringing in those who like more fantasy mixed in with their brass and gear-driven inventions.

Atlus may be a newcomer to the world of MMOs, but they're proving that they're no newbies with their initial offering. Our look into Neo Steam was quite informative and surprising, especially considering that this will be the second time Neo Steam will be releasing in North America. Atlus is putting a large amount of effort into making Neo Steam resonate with North American audiences, and not just putting out a rehash of the same game you've already seen.

Tags: atlus-online, atlusonline.com, fantasy, featured, free-to-play, gdc-2009, joystiqfeatures, launch, localization, neo-steam, neo-steam-the-shattered-continent, new-title, steampunk

EVE Online extending reach into Russia and Japan

by James Egan Mar 3rd 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Business models, Culture, News items

The sci-fi massively multiplayer online title EVE Online is very much a game of galactic conquest. In that spirit of world domination, CCP Games has been working on establishing the title's presence in both Russia and Japan. EVE developer CCP Caedmon is part of the company's localization team, and has written a dev blog titled "Machine Translation's Bad, M'kay?", dealing with CCP's efforts to reach out to Russian and Japanese gamers.

Both Japanese and Russian localizations of the EVE client are now up on the Singularity test server. By all indications, the Russian client's localization is further along, as CCP Games opened up the client for public testing in 2008. However, they're interested in pushing ahead with Japanese localization as well. CCP Caedmon writes, "We know there is a highly dedicated community of Japanese players out there who have been with EVE since the early days and we are excited to hear your feedback."

For more on the status of EVE Online as it applies to other markets, see CCP Caedmon's "Machine Translation's Bad, M'kay?".

Tags: ccp-caedmon, ccp-games, dev-blog, eve, eve-online, japan, japanese, languages, localization, russia, russian, sci-fi, singularity, test-server, translation

Aion's release date expected for fall 2009

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 19th 2009 at 3:30PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Aion, Launches, News items

Localization is big, time consuming business, and NCsoft wants to make sure that they get it just right with the release of Aion: The Tower of Eternity. The US community manager, Liv, has just confirmed that NCsoft is seeking a fall 2009 launch date for the Western copy of the game that has already seen success in Korea.

The game is undergoing a significant re-write of all of the narrative content instead of being simply translated and pushed out the door. What this should produce is a game without the standard awkward mistranslated phrases, incomplete sentences, and dialogue that doesn't word wrap properly.

This style of localization is common amongst recent games that have crossed over into Western culture, such as the Megami Tensei Series and Odin Sphere from Atlus Games. It's more extensive and time consuming, but produces much better results in the long term.

For all of the questions and insights Liv has provided to the Aion audience, check out her full letter and note from the producer at the European Aion website.

Tags: aion, aion-the-tower-of-eternity, breaking, launch-date, liv, localization, megaten, ncsoft, odin-sphere

Age of Conan expands its bloody conquest to Korea

by Samuel Axon Nov 12th 2008 at 7:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items

It looks like Age of Conan is headed for South Korea thanks to a distribution deal between Funcom and well-known Korean publisher Neowiz. You thought you were safe from King Conan's wrath just 'cause you live 7,700 kilometers from Funcom? We could've told you that was a false assumption -- this particular blogger is almost 6,500km away and he's still knee-deep in the barbarism!

We won't predict that it'll be more well-received there than StarCraft, but Korea is a bastion of online gaming, and Neowiz plans to offer full localization and support, as well as all the same content updates the US and EU players get, to the Korean audience. The release date "has not yet been finalized," though -- not even a hint was provided in the press release, so, uhh, we guess we'll just wait and see.

Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Tags: age-of-conan, funcom, korea, localization, neowiz, south-korea

Conan will start speaking Russian later this year

by Samuel Axon Jul 31st 2008 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items

Funcom today announced a partnership with huge Russian developer/publisher 1C Company to localize Age of Conan for the Russian-speaking market. All text and voices in the game will be translated to Russian, and 1C will provide customer support and community services to the Russian community. There will also be a Russian server. This is all due in Q4 of this year.

The English language version of the game has already been released in Eastern Europe, and it's done pretty well. All the marketing hype quotes in the press release stress that the game will be a massive success when available in the native tongue of the region. We're not going to make any predictions about that, but this is probably good news either way if your native language is Russian and you're already playing the game.

Tags: 1c, 1c-company, age-of-conan, aoc, eastern-europe, funcom, language, localization, q4, russia, russian, server

World of Warcraft en espa�ol hits retail July 25th

by Samuel Axon Jul 18th 2008 at 9:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items

The Latin American-localized version of World of Warcraft, which was first announced in March, will finally reach store shelves on the 25th of this month. Initially, it will be available in México, Argentina, and Chile; no word yet on when other countries will get it too. Both the original game and its expansion, The Burning Crusade, will be on sale, along with 60-day prepaid gametime cards.

Spanish language servers will be provided for new Latin America subscribers, but those already playing on the North American servers can download a Latin American Spanish "language pack," and even transfer to the new servers if they want to. Check out the FAQ for more info.

Oh, and Blizzard will be hosting a midnight launch party on the 25th at the Blockbuster at Av. Universidad #697 en México, D.F., followed by another event at Plaza Satelite in Estado de México. ¡Diviértase!

Tags: america-latina, argentina, blizzard, blockbuster, chile, espanol, latin-america, latinoamerica, launch-party, localization, mexico, party, spanish, world-of-warcraft