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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
| The Fall: Polish version soon, English version...? |
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Carsten Strehse has <a href="http://www.silver-style.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6648" target="_blank">popped up</a> at the Silver Style forums to post this little fragment:<blockquote><em>The release of the Polish version will be in around 2 weeks. English build still needs some time.</em></blockquote> |
Sun May 14, 2006 7:37 am |
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Acleacius
King of the Realms
Joined: 24 Dec 2002
Posts: 453
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Nice find, Dhruin. 
This at least tells me we could see it in 2006, damn it had been a long wait.
I guess it will be very poilished by the time we see an English version, which is some consolation.  |
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Sun May 14, 2006 7:39 am |
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Guest
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I've been waiting to try this thing for what 2-3 years now? I dont really care about it any more but i will try it once its released i hope its not crap. |
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Sun May 14, 2006 5:15 pm |
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Guest
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And if it's not polished .. then we'll know the developers aren't that good as they think they are ..
Question: since when the polish (and german) market is bigger than english .. wow .. smart move releasing a game and ignoring (for now) the market where you *really* make the bling.
Good Job Silver Style, you're marketing geniuses |
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Mon May 15, 2006 1:03 am |
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Acleacius
King of the Realms
Joined: 24 Dec 2002
Posts: 453
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It's not that, they seem to still be struggling to find a English publsiher, from what I understand.
Though in a way you could be right, it could be due to quality issues they can't find one, dunno.
I personally don't use Steam but, it would be better than nothing. |
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Mon May 15, 2006 5:57 am |
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Guest
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What they won't tell you is that they have a grudge against america, and therefore won't bother making an English version. That's why PB never bothered to bring over night of the Raven and some other company had to pick it up instead.
The Fall Community manager: "So, how is the U.S. build going? Can I tell the fans that we are working on it?"
Carsten: "The last thing I'll do is give my masterpiece to a bunch of ungrateful war-mongers! those americans make me sick!"
Community manager: "But think of the fan support this has over there. Fallout fans will buy it for sure. The U.S. market is much bigger then ours!"
Carsten: "I don't care about money, I have my PRIDE! No masterpiece for the warmongers! Grrr!"
community manager: "Even though you are turning down offers from publishers who want to bring it out in america, I have to lie and say you still haven't found one?"
Carsten: "Yes, if you want a job"
/end conversation
Heh....don't believe me? Watch. |
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Mon May 15, 2006 7:29 am |
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doctor_kaz
Keeper of the Gates
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 108
Location: West Virginia, USA |
I have given up any hope of an English version ever being released. Probably, nobody is working on it. How damn long can it take just to translate a game after it has already been built? I simply don't understand why games like this get no English version, or why it takes so long. With all of the English-speaking PC owners in the world, you would think that these developers would want to recover their big investments by spending a relatively small amount of money to make it available for countries like Britain, US, and Australia. Why are they releasing a Polish version before an English version? |
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Mon May 15, 2006 1:48 pm |
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Moriendor
Black Ring Leader
Joined: 19 Jul 2001
Posts: 1306
Location: Germany |
quote:
Originally posted by doctor_kaz
How damn long can it take just to translate a game after it has already been built?
Not too long but the translation is probably the least of Silver Style's concerns .
quote:
I simply don't understand why games like this get no English version, or why it takes so long.
You will understand if you put yourself in the shoes of an ambitious German developer for one moment.
So, you have an English version of your game finished. Great. What you gonna do now? Go to the shop, buy a few thousand CD-Rs, have some people burn the game on those CDs at 48x speed, print covers and a manual on your trusty ole HP printer, throw it all in a box and just ship it to some random Wal-Marts, Best Buys, EBs, Gamestops in the states?
The short answer is: Nope.
You will want to work with a publisher who can produce a HQ English version for you and who knows the US market. You need someone to produce the game for you, someone to take care of the legal stuff, someone who knows stuff about copy protection issues, someone who professionally prints a manual for you, someone who designs the retail box, someone who knows the local distributors so the copies of the game can be shipped from the warehouse to the distribution channel, you also need someone who has good contacts to the retailers so the shelf space can be bought, and you need someone with contacts to the local media so an advertising/marketing campaign can be planned etc etc etc.....
I don't know what the specific publishing problem with 'The Fall' is but the original German version must have been bugged to hell and back from the comments I have read.
It seems like the patches have resolved most of the original issues but the game still suffers from a pretty bad reputation (meaning it's not exactly an attractive target for a publisher).
Patch 1.10 for the German version is still in beta at this time (1.5 years after the game was originally released).
With all the additional work they have done (i.e. aside from just fixing bugs), it seems like The Fall is pretty much a completely different game now from when it was first released.
It could very well be that a lot of these changes had to be made at the request of a publisher who told them that they would support an English release but that the quality of the game would need to improve first.
That is purely speculation on my side, of course, but I don't think that they would keep working on The Fall just for shits and giggles. I would like to assume that their English market/international publisher is behind all this.
Just give it a little more time... |
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Mon May 15, 2006 3:04 pm |
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vid
Guest
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one word: web distribution. |
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Mon May 15, 2006 3:52 pm |
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vid
Guest
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err.. make that two words |
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Mon May 15, 2006 3:54 pm |
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Moriendor
Black Ring Leader
Joined: 19 Jul 2001
Posts: 1306
Location: Germany |
I could leave it at two words back and just say 'Complicated, too'  . Seriously, think about it. You need a lot more than just a website where the game can be offered for download in exchange for a credit card number. You need a sophisticated, hack-safe online payment, authorization and distribution system that basically lets you verify credit card information and address information on the fly. The system also needs to be able to handle quite a bit of load from multiple users downloading the game at high speeds, i.e. you will usually have to rent servers, too, and pay for a big, fat 1000MBit line (+ traffic costs).
You can't really do that on your own either but have to work with companies who have some experience in these areas (especially companies who own those nifty databases with detailed info on just about every credit card owner on this planet).
Currently, if Valve (Steam) and IGN (Direct2Drive) say 'no' then you're pretty much out of viable options. At least if you want to sell any considerable number of copies. Online distribution is not as easy as it sounds. |
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Mon May 15, 2006 4:36 pm |
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fatBastard()
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 05 Feb 2003
Posts: 40
Location: Denmark |
Why is it that every time someone mentions an english languaged game everybody automatically thinks US, UK or Australia? I'm from Denmark and we are too small to ever get a localized version of a game (pheeew!) so while we occasionally get a danish manual or quickstart guide (with EA games it is often in swedish  ) we usually get the UK version of the game itself (and that is primarily due to EU tax regulations or we might as well have gotten the US version instead).
I'm not very versed in the german language ... okay I'll admit it: I can curse and order saurkraut but that's as far as my german can take me, so that is not an option for me and judging by the standard list of installation languages it would seem that you either have to speak german (primarily Germany, Austria, Switzerland), french (France, Canada and certain african countries which I doubt to be major markets for computer games), Spanish (Spain, Mexico and South America) or english (the rest of the world) in order to play the games ... so I too am a bit confused as to why a polish version which is only spoken in Poland takes precedence to an english one.
Having been burned badly by the Piranha Bytes/JoWood/Atari disaster concerning "Night of The Raven" I tend to now take a step back when I hear of a game not being released in english. I think it is great that so many european and russian developers have started making really good games ... but the language barrier is as strong today as it ever was and I really don't want to go through the process of getting hyped, eagerly awaiting the release and then finally finding myself bending over and grabbing my ankles yet again. Sorry, been there, done that. I'm not letting you do that to me again. EVER!
_________________
Signature? ... erm ... nope, can't think of one. |
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Mon May 15, 2006 9:12 pm |
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doctor_kaz
Keeper of the Gates
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 108
Location: West Virginia, USA |
quote:
Originally posted by Moriendor
quote:
Originally posted by doctor_kaz
How damn long can it take just to translate a game after it has already been built?
Not too long but the translation is probably the least of Silver Style's concerns .
quote:
I simply don't understand why games like this get no English version, or why it takes so long.
You will understand if you put yourself in the shoes of an ambitious German developer for one moment.
So, you have an English version of your game finished. Great. What you gonna do now? Go to the shop, buy a few thousand CD-Rs, have some people burn the game on those CDs at 48x speed, print covers and a manual on your trusty ole HP printer, throw it all in a box and just ship it to some random Wal-Marts, Best Buys, EBs, Gamestops in the states?
The short answer is: Nope.
You will want to work with a publisher who can produce a HQ English version for you and who knows the US market. You need someone to produce the game for you, someone to take care of the legal stuff, someone who knows stuff about copy protection issues, someone who professionally prints a manual for you, someone who designs the retail box, someone who knows the local distributors so the copies of the game can be shipped from the warehouse to the distribution channel, you also need someone who has good contacts to the retailers so the shelf space can be bought, and you need someone with contacts to the local media so an advertising/marketing campaign can be planned etc etc etc.....
I don't know what the specific publishing problem with 'The Fall' is but the original German version must have been bugged to hell and back from the comments I have read.
It seems like the patches have resolved most of the original issues but the game still suffers from a pretty bad reputation (meaning it's not exactly an attractive target for a publisher).
Patch 1.10 for the German version is still in beta at this time (1.5 years after the game was originally released).
With all the additional work they have done (i.e. aside from just fixing bugs), it seems like The Fall is pretty much a completely different game now from when it was first released.
It could very well be that a lot of these changes had to be made at the request of a publisher who told them that they would support an English release but that the quality of the game would need to improve first.
That is purely speculation on my side, of course, but I don't think that they would keep working on The Fall just for shits and giggles. I would like to assume that their English market/international publisher is behind all this.
Just give it a little more time...
This may not be a piece of cake for developers, but publishers should be able to do this without much problem. Games are localized across countries in different languages all the time. There's absolutely no reason why it should take 18 months to do this. Especially since translating from German to English probably isn't as hard as, say, Japanese. What's the incremental investment for completing an English version besides just translating the language in the game? Compared to all other aspects of the game, that has to be really small. At $40 apiece, it can't take many copies sold to recover just that cost. It's not like it's a huge risk that requires a lot of funding. If makes no sense to me that they wouldn't try to push an English version harder and get it published already. Or that a publisher wouldn't take it. Especially before a Polish version, and especially given the total lack of competition in the RPG world now. If these guys wait until the upcoming crop of RPG's (Sacred 2, Gothic 3, NWN 2, etc) to release the game, it will be too late. The game already looks outdated as it is.
This is the exact same thing that happened with Goldenland, and now that's basically dead. I just don't get it. |
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Tue May 16, 2006 1:14 pm |
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