Simultaneous world wide release?

[Frostwraith]

I swear I've seen Portugese games since some GameCube or Wii games.

You're going to argue with someone living in Portugal since ever that owns a GameCube and Wii? Just kidding!

But you're sort of right, now I remember that GCN games usually had a stupid sheet of paper slapped on a UK box with the translation in Portuguese, but Wii games had the box entirely translated. I have my Brawl copy's game box in Portuguese, for example.

The games, however, never had the language as an option until the 3DS. The box had this warning in tiny letters stating that the game was available in 5 languages including English and Spanish.

 

[Johnknight1]

German, Spanish, English, Portugese and French are the languages usually used for European games.

Which is weird that Australia is PAL, considering they are nearly entirely a English-speaking country/continent.

But yeah, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, English, Russian, Dutch, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese ought to be covered by AAA-game titles (like Smash). Those are languages that tens of millions of people speak.

 

[Diddy Kong]

Dutch isn't really that widely used. Only in the Netherlands, Surinam and the ABC Islands do they speak it. I'd estimate about 25 millions max, which is nothing compared to German, French, Spanish and Portugese.

 

[Johnknight1]

Dutch isn't really that widely used. Only in the Netherlands, Surinam and the ABC Islands do they speak it. I'd estimate about 25 millions max, which is nothing compared to German, French, Spanish and Portugese.

That's still tens of millions of people, but alas, you are right. German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are languages used by much more people. Still, those 2 languages are covered by basically all video game developers, so it's not too big of a deal to worry about those (the same goes with German, albeit to a lesser extent).

 

[Frostwraith]

But yeah, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, English, Russian, Dutch, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese ought to be covered by AAA-game titles (like Smash). Those are languages that tens of millions of people speak.

I very much agree with this statement.

Actually, Nintendo games are already localized in all those languages except Arabic and Chinese. If Nintendo opens a branch in some Arab country and in China or Hong Kong, you can bet that they will add those languages.

It is stupid that Australia has to get the same versions as EU for being a PAL country, since they only speak English after all. There's a good part about it, though: if the game releases first in one area, the other area can easily import it and play without problems.

 

[FalKoopa]

But yeah, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, English, Russian, Dutch, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese ought to be covered by AAA-game titles (like Smash). Those are languages that tens of millions of people speak.

No Hindi?

 

[Frostwraith]

Look no further!
List of languages by number of native speakers
List of languages by total number of speakers

Dutch has 23 million native speakers. It's a significant amount.
Still nothing compared to Portuguese's 200+ million or Mandarin Chinese's 955 million (a number that surpasses one billion if you count all Chinese dialects).

 

[Johnknight1]

I very much agree with this statement.

Actually, Nintendo games are already localized in all those languages except Arabic and Chinese. If Nintendo opens a branch in some Arab country and in China or Hong Kong, you can bet that they will add those languages.

It is stupid that Australia has to get the same versions as EU for being a PAL country, since they only speak English after all. There's a good part about it, though: if the game releases first in one area, the other area can easily import it and play without problems.

The fact that Arabic isn't getting games localized is kinda shocking, considering how wealthy many countries that have a prominent population that speaks Arabic.

As for China, well, you can blame the Chinese government for that one. It's kinda funny, because I'm sure China has many minds that would make for great developers, given the huge population of the country.

And lastly, as for Australia, I find that funny as well. Australia's distance from Europe is not too much different from it's distance to the Americas. Considering games have to go from Japan to South America, you figure a stop in Australia would save Japanese developers a lot of money from just sending games to Australia and then Europe (or vice versa).

No Hindi?

I don't know the state of the gaming market in India and the surrounding countries, so I excluded it. Also until I saw that list, I didn't know the exact amounts of Hindi speakers due to Bengali being the most prominent language in parts of India, as well as a few other less spoken languages in India and the surrounding countries.

 

[Diddy Kong]

21 mil. Kinda what I expected. Can't believe I forgot Belgium though.

 

[FalKoopa]

Look no further!
List of languages by number of native speakers
List of languages by total number of speakers

Dutch has 23 million native speakers. It's a significant amount.
Still nothing compared to Portuguese's 200+ million or Mandarin Chinese's 955 million (a number that surpasses one billion if you count all Chinese dialects).

Lol, going by that list we should have Hindi, Bengali and Punjabi as well.

I don't know the state of the gaming market in India and the surrounding countries, so I excluded it.

It's a small but steadily rising market at the moment.

 

[Johnknight1]

I did not know Vietnamese is that popular. Granted, where I live, people who are Vietnamese are very common, and hearing the language isn't that uncommon, but day-um! You can add Turkish and Persian to that list. I thought those areas had "switched" more to Arabic.

Lol, going by that list we should have Hindi, Bengali and Punjabi as well.


It's a small but steadily rising market at the moment.

I figured several languages in that part of the world had tens of millions of speakers.

And yeah, I figured as much, but to what extent, I don't know.

Obviously though Hindi will be a prominent translation language in video game translations sooner rather than later, since India is quickly become a global economic force, and soon, other languages in the area will become common in translations. Heck, India might get it's own "region" like PAL, NTAC, Japan, Korea (why is that a region? Japan's video game industry ought to translate most games to Korea automatically), and China.

 

[Frostwraith]

@Johnknight1: I can see that happening in India.

I think American versions of the games should include four languages: English (USA + Canada), French (Canada), Spanish (Latin America) and Portuguese (Brazil).

 

[FalKoopa]

Obviously though Hindi will be a prominent translation language in video game translations sooner rather than later, since India is quickly become a global economic force, and soon, other languages in the area will become common in translations. Heck, India might get it's own "region" like PAL, NTAC, Japan, Korea (why is that a region? Japan's video game industry ought to translate most games to Korea automatically), and China.

India is grouped as PAL region at present though.

I think American versions of the games should include four languages: English (USA + Canada), French (Canada), Spanish (Latin America) and Portuguese (Brazil).

Why Portuguese (Brazil)? It's a PAL region.

 

[Frostwraith]

Why Portuguese (Brazil)? It's a PAL region.

I derped.

So, Brazil uses PAL... I thought that all America was NTSC... silly me. (Yes, I did my research as I made this post.)

Spoiler

 

[Johnknight1]

@Johnknight1: I can see that happening in India.

I think American versions of the games should include four languages: English (USA + Canada), French (Canada), Spanish (Latin America) and Portuguese (Brazil).

Hindi being a commonly translated language will happen by the end of the decade, you can book it.

As for the NTAC version of games, all those languages are covered, plus also Japanese commonly, and sometimes Chinese, too. There's quite a hefty Japanese and Chinese population in America and Canada, at least on the West Coast.

India is grouped as PAL region at present though.

Yeah, but when more languages of India and the surrounding area get covered it could become it's own region. Unless of course regions for game releases die and games just get released with all of the major video game consumer languages.

Why Portuguese (Brazil)? It's a PAL region.

Brazil isn't a part of NTAC apparently. I didn't even know that. The same goes with Argentina.

And what country above Brazil is that which is a part of SECAM=???

 

[Frostwraith]

Hindi being a commonly translated language will happen by the end of the decade, you can book it.

Like I said, I can see it happening, so I agree with this.

As for the NTAC version of games, all those languages are covered, plus also Japanese commonly, and sometimes Chinese, too. There's quite a hefty Japanese and Chinese population in America and Canada, at least on the West Coast.

Didn't know that, but it's kind of obvious now that I think of it...
Are there that many Japanese and Chinese speakers?

And what country above Brazil is that which is a part of SECAM=???

Actually, it's not a country, but French Guiana, an overseas territory belonging to France. Obviously, it shares SECAM system.

SECAM countries seem to have PAL versions of games. And it actually makes sense considering that whenever I receive analog TV from Morocco via abnormal propagation, my TV sets have no problem in decoding the incoming signals and I live in a PAL country.

 

[Johnknight1]

Like I said, I can see it happening, so I agree with this.

Didn't know that, but it's kind of obvious now that I think of it...
Are there that many Japanese and Chinese speakers?

I'd say a few million Chinese and Japanese speakers live in North America. Nearly every Japanese and Chinese-American I know speaks English really well though. However seeing as how many Chinese and Japanese citizens come to North America for school and work, including Japanese and Chinese language options to a game is never a bad idea. Plus a lot of in the Americans would rather have Japanese dialogue with subtitles than English dialogue. As we all know, most of the Brawl English voice actors weren't that great, whereas all of the voice actors in Japan were great (Pit went from God-like in Japanese to pitiful in English).

Plus there's quite a few Japanese and Chinese TV stations in America. I used to get this one channel that showed Dragon Ball Z seasons way ahead of America. I got through the entire Buu saga before the Cell Games saga even started.

Actually, it's not a country, but French Guiana, an overseas territory belonging to France. Obviously, it shares SECAM system.

SECAM countries seem to have PAL versions of games. And it actually makes sense considering that whenever I receive analog TV from Morocco via abnormal propagation, my TV sets have no problem in decoding the incoming signals and I live in a PAL country.

I figured most of those countries were PAL because they are Portuguese-speaking countries. That also makes sense why French Guiana is there.

 

[Frostwraith]

I'd say a few million Chinese and Japanese speakers live in North America. Nearly every Japanese and Chinese-American I know speaks English really well though. However seeing as how many Chinese and Japanese citizens come to North America for school and work, including Japanese and Chinese language options to a game is never a bad idea. Plus a lot of in the Americans would rather have Japanese dialogue with subtitles than English dialogue. As we all know, most of the Brawl English voice actors weren't that great, whereas all of the voice actors in Japan were great (Pit went from God-like in Japanese to pitiful in English).

It's always more comfortable to speak your native language, after all, so the Chinese and Japanese communities in NA benefit from media in their language.

Pit in Uprising sounded much better than how he sounds in Brawl thanks to Nintendo hiring more talented actors.

In Europe, there's the habit of dubbing movies and TV series in their official languages (based on my travels across Europe, it's the majority of the cases), but Portugal is a notable exception as all live action films and series are in their original language with Portuguese subtitles. It has helped me a lot to learn English, actually.

 

[Johnknight1]

I find it funny that many animes have multiple English dubs (ie: one for the UK, and one for Canada and America). I never really understood that, lol.

I'm sure sometimes stuff like that happens with movies that are released in Latin America and Spain.

 

[volbound1700]

Portugese makes sense because you also have Brazil and its large population as well as Portugal in Europe. Interestingly tid-bit is that Nintendo could not sell into Russia until 1991 as Japan and Soviet Union had embargos against each other.

 

[Diddy Kong]

I derped.

So, Brazil uses PAL... I thought that all America was NTSC... silly me. (Yes, I did my research as I made this post.)

Spoiler

That's weird that France is listened at SECAM, cause I brought my PAL version of Brawl in France when I learned the Wii had an update that made my Freeloader useless. :/ Speaking of, the NTSC version of Brawl was much darker in color I felt.

 

[Frostwraith]

I find it funny that many animes have multiple English dubs (ie: one for the UK, and one for Canada and America). I never really understood that, lol.

I'm sure sometimes stuff like that happens with movies that are released in Latin America and Spain.

That kind of stuff happens with Portugal and Brazil. European and Brazilian Portuguese sound quite different from one another and have other significant differences besides the accent.

That's weird that France is listened at SECAM, cause I brought my PAL version of Brawl in France when I learned the Wii had an update that made my Freeloader useless. :/ Speaking of, the NTSC version of Brawl was much darker in color I felt.

Perhaps result of the conversion from NTSC to PAL image format.

Like I mentioned before, I think the SECAM and PAL systems are either similar or that TV sets support both modes for easier marketing across Europe. Morocco uses SECAM and yet I can receive analog TV stations from Morocco (when the conditions allow for such) with a PAL TV with no problem.

In fact, one of the reasons that games take time to be released in PAL regions is because of differing image standards.
At least that was one of the reasons in earlier times. I don't think this still applies nowadays, but I could be wrong.

 

[FalKoopa]

In fact, one of the reasons that games take time to be released in PAL regions is because of differing image standards.
At least that was one of the reasons in earlier times. I don't think this still applies nowadays, but I could be wrong.

That really makes me ask, why do handheld games take so long to be released in PAL regions as well?

 

[Diddy Kong]

It's a regular thing with Morrocan people in the Netherlands to that they have TV raders which allow them to watch Morrocan TV programms. I've seen this before, but I think it has to do something with the radars, not the TVs?

 

[Frostwraith]

That really makes me ask, why do handheld games take so long to be released in PAL regions as well?

And that's a good question, actually. Handheld games don't require such conversion at all. But, when you consider that some consoles have region locking...

It's a regular thing with Morrocan people in the Netherlands to that they have TV raders which allow them to watch Morrocan TV programms. I've seen this before, but I think it has to do something with the radars, not the TVs?

I know quite a bit of TV and radio stuff, as it is a hobby of mine to catch distant radio signals.

I know that a good part of TV sets support both PAL and SECAM standards, either manually or automatically, so it must be that case.

In fact, a PAL TV can even decode (partially) NTSC signals and vice versa: the image will either be on black and white or with the wrong colors displayed (can lead to quite wacky results). Another possibility is that they're using digital TV via satellite or something, as the DTV standard is more or less the same everywhere in the world (I'm not sure about this, though).

 

[Deleted member]

Simultaneous world wide release is impossible because people live in different time zones. Australia is about 12 hours ahead of East United States. Hawaiians reach tomorrow last.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Simultaneous world wide release is impossible because people live in different time zones. Australia is about 12 hours ahead of East United States. Hawaiians reach tomorrow last.

Ha ha. Very funny....

You know what we mean.

 

[FalKoopa]

Simultaneous world wide release is impossible because people live in different time zones. Australia is about 12 hours ahead of East United States. Hawaiians reach tomorrow last.

LOL.

 

[Frostwraith]

Simultaneous world wide release is impossible because people live in different time zones. Australia is about 12 hours ahead of East United States. Hawaiians reach tomorrow last.

Is this a joke? Because I didn't think it was funny.

 

[Dark Phazon]

Is this a joke? Because I didn't think it was funny.

LMFAOOOO...ahh good times...