Bringing Tales to North America - A Conundrum

DualShockers writes, "As an avid JRPG fan, I watch the news feverishly that comes out of my favorite Japanese developers. You see the results of that a lot if you keep up with the news on this site, because I feel some of these lesser-known titles could use all the press they can get, especially since some of them have the chance to come to Western regions via localization...."

[Ninferno]

i love it when things come stateside.

[Hitman0769]

I agree with the above. The games that release over in Japan always seem to interest me and its a dire shame that more of them don't make it over here. I would die to have some of the games they have. I'm not sure which company if any will end up bringing over these Tales games but I would hope it would be some one with the utmost intentions of restoring the original game's atmosphere and attitude while bringing it to us , the new audience of USA.

[ranmafandude]

and bring it worldwide(primarily America and europe) and everything will be fine.

[Redempteur]

it's really a shame that namco is ignoring all of us asking for it and not at least reassure the fans ..

I remember we ( rpg fans ) wanted ar tonelico 3 ..what did nis americ a do .. they said YES that they'll bring in US , but it will take time .. everyone is happy , no one is bitching ..because it's perfectly understandable that a huge rpg with lot of text takes time to be translated ..
On the other hand , namco is ignoring everyone like jerks when they could just annonce something and maybe generate hype..

[Millah]

Yea Namco is ridiculous. It's almost like a culture thing, and they don't want non-Japanese playing those games, lol. Wouldn't surprise me if that were true though.

Another game that needs to be localized ASAP is Xenoblade. If this gem never gets brought here, I don't knownwhat I'll do. Dammit that would definitely be worthwhile to localize, it would certainly help sales a bit seeing as Xeno is a fairly known series outside Japan.

[Obama]

It's even more ridiculous that they released TOV on the 360 in the west because of MS money bag and lost tons of money as a result.

[SaiyanFury]

I don't know. I think Namco released Vesperia on the 360 because MS tried to appeal to the Japanese fanbase and failed. Also the 360 released a year before the PS3 which is why Eternal Sonata came first on it. It later released on PS3 for which I was grateful. I still believe the PS3 version of Vesperia is coming, even though it's late to the game. Bring it out Namco, you KNOW there's some of us who'll buy it!

[Bedrockk]

the world is too small a place nowadays to not brings all games 2 all gamers. there's nothing wrong w/ more fans. just b/c its not as big in the US as in overseas doesn't mean there isnt a place for it here.

[Millionaire]

Well said.

[Chadness]

Agreed completely. I realize localization takes some time, but it shouldn't take as much time as it did in the past. Also, I feel that most, if not all, Japanese games should eventually make their way here in some form or another.

Fine, don't localize the voice acting (it is usually horrendous anyway), but at least the text. Then just leave Japanese voices.

Anyway, I'll get off my soap box now. ;)

[thevokillist]

It's true, bring it all everywhere! No more exclusivity from other countries!

[Mahr]

"Yes, indeed, Namco-Bandai has a North American publishing branch. So, again, what is the hold up on these Tales titles? Money? If so, why not farm the localization out to other studios who specialize in localizing Japanese titles?"

Politics. Say hypothetically that the localization decision is handled by one man called Company Executive A. He believes the Tales games will never take off in the West and says 'That Tales game will never do well in the West'. So he sells localization rights to let's say Atlus. Bamco receives a bunch of money for this. Atlus then takes the game and localizes it and releases it.

If the game then proceeds to sell well, Atlus then makes a ton of money on it, more money than Bamco made in sellling the rights and which Bamco *would* have made if they had had more faith in their product. Company Executive B, who is A's boss, says "The game sold well, why didn't *we* localize it and get all that money?" and promptly (rightly) fires Executive A from the company for incompetence.

Once Executive A convinces the company that the game is not going to well in the West, it is in his (not our and not the company's) best interest to kill any chance the game has of proving him wrong.

[Optical_Matrix]

As Bedrock said, the worldwide market is too big for Namco to ignore. Especially seeing as the studio that makes the games is in financial difficulties. Not only that but the Japanese console market is in decline. Handhelds are the true place to make money in the Japanese market (see Dragon Quest IX, Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver and Monster Hunter PSP sales). So to make up costs, releasing their flagship Tales of games in the west where console gaming eclipses handheld gaming makes more sense.

[jdktech2010]

Never played the Tales games'.....might pick them up one day but I'm an FPS lover over JRPG and there's too many good ones out.

I do love me some RPGs though and in general, there are just too many awesome games out to be able to play them all

[tunaks1]

tales of graces is getting an English patch from the people behind the FF4 team, so if you've got a wii its a matter of time.

[rambler]

I think if they give 1 quality Tales of game to atlus to release it will sell quite a bit from atlus' name alone and will probably broaden the fan base. Then if they bring it back to themselves and keep doing quality localisations then there should be a solid enough backing for them to continue the series in english speaking countries.

[Redempteur]

considering that graces is getting twice longer in the ps3 version ..i really want the ps3 version to be translated

[RandomGamer]

As I have said before on here Namco Bandai only worries about money which is why they spend 90% of their time developing and releasing crappy dragon ball z games which they know will sell like crazy to their clearly blind fans who seemly have no problem buying the same damn game each time.

[booni3]

has there been any word on tales of hearts? it was a pretty well recieved DS title that id at least like to try.

[jack_burt0n]

Namco have suffered the most from destroying their fanbases this generation, the tekken 6 port took forever and was worse than the arcade >_< how the f**k do u manage that.

Timed Excluisves to 360 which just alienated everyone, they are in PR financial limbo imo.

[rpgmadboy]

go to the namco official facebook page! fight for localisation guys!

don't forgot to email namco too!

[GigaGaia]

Tales Studio are in financial troubles. Namco Bandai Games International, who do american localizations. Tales Studio problems don't affect NBGI one bit.

So the reason we don't see tales games isn't because of Tales Studio's problem, it's because Namco Bandai Games International are simply stupid.

I repeat, Tales Studio financial problems is only in japan. Namco Bandai Games International are not impacted by that and could very well release those games here. The IQ of all board members combined is simply below 0. Those people are extremely stupid. They make me sick and anyone this stupid deserve to lose his job, all his money and his house and even worse, his family because he would be unable to support them.

What makes me sick is that this show that to have success and be rich, you have to be extremely stupid.

[Redempteur]

listen guy , it's obvious that we want pac man party and another DBZ fighting game instead of a tales of

/sarcasm

[SaiyanFury]

Yes they are in financial straits. That said, Namco was already localising Vesperia which was confirmed by Troy Baker a voice actor in the 360 version of the game. It really wouldn't hurt them to bring it to us, the PS3 audience. Just a personal interpretation here, but I'm still faithfully waiting for it.

[Alos88]

Just try releasing one Tales game digitally and see if your returns are any better. What do you have to lose, ecspecially if it's a game you've never released before overseas?