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| Brett Wooley |
Could crowd funding for localization be a possibility?
10.14.15 - 11:29 PM
It is not uncommon to follow the development of a Japanese game, given the strong history of titles to come from her developers. However, there are times when those games 'don't think it will work out' and would 'rather be friends' with the West. Square Enix Europe CEO Phil Rogers discussed this situation in an interview with Game Informer.
"The simple truth is that in some ways the development process and the tools, it's not always an easy undertaking to reopen a game and add localization subsequently." He believes crowd funding is a "very natural" strategy to export Japanese titles to other regions. This is hard to argue, as people pledging financial support to a product is the best way to confirm if becoming a sound business move.
Square Enix is not a stranger to this possibility, especially with their service "Collective" that was a driving force for games like Moon Hunters, Tokyo Dark, or Ethereal Legends. However, consumers have been burned by crowd funding before, and made sure to voice their feelings about it with the recent Deus Ex: Mankind Divided "Augment Your Pre-Order" system. The "voice" was so loud that Square Enix and Eidos Montreal announced the program's cancellation on October 1st.
The discussion was no admission of crowd funding being the possibility, but it's good to know that the interest in additional localization exists. Square Enix seems to be hinging on Dragon Quest Heroes being a Western hit, to help gauge the success that they can have in this market. Many of my favorite RPGs of the past were fan translated Japanese games, so hopefully a more steady ground between publishers and their foreign consumers can be reached.
