Quote:
Originally Posted by Newton
I have read are from the "Allied" side. Though not official, I have been told that this is because of the cost of "translation" of books written in the Russian and the German languages into English. It is said that the translation would force these books to sale at a price that would prohibit / limit its sales.
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Someone who told you this must have been either an ignorant or a liar. Cost of a good translation of an average book (especially on Central and Eastern European market which means Russian to English translation) roughly equal to the cost of 100-150 copies of a given book. So, if publisher had sold 1000-1500 copies (a very low amount, even for a niche book), the price would have been only 10% higher. Even if text requires high qualification and we double the translator's wage, it's still a far cry from limiting the sales.
The same applies to games. Of course, translation, full dubbing and testing costs much more, but on the other hand, a single edition of a mainstream (i.e. published by non-indie, renowned company) game for English-speaking countries consists of hundreds of thousands copies. In such circumstances, translation cost is also negligible. It is also correct in the case of Central European markets (Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Slovakian) that don't generate such revenues as western markets.
I work in the localisation business for more that 10 years and I have never seen single mainstream game that couldn't have been translated because of localisation cost. Delays are sometimes caused by the timing, that is, some publishers (especially those, who are either less known or cannot afford big advertisement campaign) can wait for a while because there are other blockbusters coming in a given period.
Regards
12-03-2009, 01:56 PM
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