Yesterday, Sony held their E3 conference and it was a pretty interesting affair. It was boring at the start, pretty boring at the end. (save for the MAG announcement, which looks to be a pre-rendered Killzone 2-style affair all over again.) In the middle there was intruguing announcements coming one after the other. Resistance on PSP, emphasis on the PlayStation Network and the surprise announcement of the movie store being launched imminently.
For a PS3 owner Stateside, all of the news at E3 was pretty exciting, right? What about elsewhere in the world?
I wrote a blog in my pre-writer days on Sarcastic Gamer about the obvious differences in Sony’s regional content, taking it on as an open letter to the company from the entire continent of Europe. In the blog I pondered why localisation was such a large reason for delay (if you believe David Reeves, head of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) when Metal Gear Solid 4 was released worldwide simultaneously and even brought South America into the equation, which has only just had word that it’ll be receiving its own localised PlayStation Store in the near future.
As David Reeves explained, it would be wrong for Sony to appear “Anglo-centric” if the UK was to receive content at the same time as the US. Sure, we’d get content in our first language at a fair time, but it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the continent. The thing is, Dave doesn’t realise that giving the US and Japan content first (Japan receiving almost daily updates to the store and the US getting a plethora of content every Thursday) and making Europe wait much longer is a little bit on the unfair side; almost anti-Europe in making us wait.
If you’re thinking I’m over-reacting, hear me out; Super Puzzle Fighter II HD Turbo Mega Hyper Go! Team EX (or whatever it’s called, something along those lines) took a year to arrive in Europe after its Stateside release. Blast Factor’s Advanced Research expansion pack might be terrible, but you have to wonder why it took around 7 months to change the language of the menu options. Maybe the developer just didn’t want to bother, and maybe Sony wasn’t really that bothered either.
What truly irritates me is that localisation appears to be the afterthought rather than a natural part of the development process, as it should be. In the same way that Hollywood films will hit America a month or two before the rest of the world, leaving the rest of us to wait for the dubbing team to work their magic, most games are released in America and Japan long before Europe, or even anywhere else, can dream of even getting their hands on them. Europe’s just overtaken America to become the second biggest gaming market after Asia; why isn’t this being recognised and Europe’s gamers receiving a little more respect that they are long overdue?
What’s really taken the biscuit though, was Sony’s storm of announcements at E3. Page two’s got the scoop.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
22 responses so far ↓
1 lost989 // Jul 16, 2008 at 5:46 pm
as a UK gamer i totally agree with you yamster
i dont mind say waiting a few extra months, its the over pricing that gets me. but at the end of the day they know we will pay, most people dont know much their being screwed
2 NZ listener #1 // Jul 16, 2008 at 5:56 pm
and then NZ and AUS get it after Europe
3 NoneOfYourBusiness // Jul 16, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Isn’t America and Japan the two biggest money pits? I agree its unfair, but doesnt the 360 and Wii do this to to varying extents?
4 LuckyEMS // Jul 16, 2008 at 6:15 pm
the 360 barely does it any more, the main concern was always the video marketplace and most demo’s are released across USA/Europe unless they are held up a few days
and E3 content i think we get the same but I haven’t checked between my accounts
5 Bumblebear // Jul 16, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Agree with you 100%
Its just sooo annoying
“Don’t want to be dias to the UK over the rest of europe”
What a load %&* really. We speak English, same as america, why are we having to wait so long for games?
Tbh id rather not be in europe and get my games same time as america =)
The pricing is stupid, some games ive been charged the same amount in £ for a game as you get charged in $…thats just ridiculous.
Also, we got rock band 6months after the US…and about 2months after that rock band 2 was announced for septemeber…
Please try harder, we promise to make you lots of money sony =)
6 Yamster // Jul 16, 2008 at 6:21 pm
@NoneOfYourBusiness: Europe’s took second place in the world’s biggest video game markets earlier this year, leaving the US in third. Asia’s at the top.
7 Shane86 // Jul 16, 2008 at 6:25 pm
“Why can’t Sony just give the UK this content, since we speak the same language, or just hold back everybody’s content for a worldwide release making everything just that little bit fairer?”
Nothing to do with languages, they need to get more licenses to sell the movies in Europe as well. Just look how long it took MS to get the video marketplace here.
8 Chrisrulz555 // Jul 16, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I can explain the Video Marketplace for you. In different countries film studios often have different distributors, therefore in order to get the marketplace to different countries MS needs to create a deal with each distributor in each country/region. I have a feeling that some distributors takes are so low that they don’t want to lose more by allowing a competing distributor into the market at a low price, making MS not want to make the deal which is probably the current situation here in NZ. So it’s not really a technological/translation issue it’s more of a legal issue.
9 Eoco // Jul 16, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Yamster man, you’re cool and all but you’re overreacting! Sony aren’t being that restrictive when it comes to European content on the Store.
Hey, how did you know I’d say that?
10 Yamster // Jul 16, 2008 at 7:45 pm
@Shane & Chris: I’m perfectly aware of legal constrictions on the varying regions. This just ties into the points I made, I just didn’t bring it up directly as I assumed it was pretty much common sense.
Sony were so ready to launch the US movie store, with US distributors already set to go with around 100 pieces of movie content, ON the day it was unveiled properly..why didn’t they do this for the UK too? Why not arrange for a UK/European distributor at the same time as organising a US one so that both regions can download movie content on launch day?
Or did Sony just not bother with Europe? They could have, and the chances are arranging launches with EU distributors could have been perfectly possible simultaneously, it’s simply down to Sony not bothering to do it as far as I’m concerned. Europe’s always been on the sharp end of the stick.
11 midwinter // Jul 17, 2008 at 1:48 am
You know, it’s not just Europe being exluded here. I’m here in Canada, and, nope, no video store for me either. Sony’s pulled a M$ here, unfortunately :/
12 RedEyedFacade // Jul 17, 2008 at 4:30 am
as an american, i can tell you you aint missing much :). but seriously, i have a great deal of european friends, and i feel for every last one of them. you guys get raped on prices, and most of my pals opt to import games rather than wat the obsurd length of time for pal versions.
i think that, as gamers, we forget that the guys running the show are suits whos main objective is cash making. between the vid store, late pal games, and the announcement that home is region locked, it doest seem like sonys suits care much. its a shame, as it drives a wedge between me and half my buddies list
13 Sjoeter // Jul 17, 2008 at 6:26 am
This is what its always been! its time that European games drop $ony once and for all. i dont get the games that bought an ps3, just look at the release of that machine… Sony doesnt care about European gamers… the price was outrages, the delay? just cant get the right word for it but it has made me even more hate the whole sony concern. give me a Nokia phone. an Samsung HD-tv and an Xbox or an Nintendo and you don’t here me complain. f*ck sony! let them die!
14 Krelith // Jul 17, 2008 at 6:42 am
Good article Yams, I’m in complete agreement with you. We get screwed more than a Hilton sister in front of a camera.
@RedEyedFacade: This is the first I’ve heard about Home being region locked. How’s that going to affect Warhawk exactly? Right now we can play SG gamer nights involving Europe AND US using the in-game server selection. Are they seriously saying we can only form european parties to launch through Home?
15 Tiran Kenja // Jul 17, 2008 at 6:48 am
The localisation is a non-issue with movies, as movies are already localised when they are offered up for renting and buying. The real problem there are the movie studios.
Oddly enough Sony should have a huge advantage in that field, as they own several major studios. But I don’t really think Sony operates as one big beast in that way.
As for other content the localisation dead-horse is also overrated. They keep saying that they have all these languages they need to deal with (13 I think). But in reality most languages of Europe does not get their own translation (thank God for that. I don’t want English-speaking games in my language). So it is really more like 4-6 languages.
16 Alan // Jul 17, 2008 at 7:35 am
does anyone think its the uk’s pathetic broadband speeds that made hd movie downloads near impossible
17 lowestformofwit // Jul 17, 2008 at 8:21 am
Couldn’t agree more. Microsoft sadly aren’t much better. Who in the UK would have loved a Netflix (Lovefilm) service over here?
Guy in charge of the UK community for Xbox actually asked for advice on the forum, which I was more than happy to give as I felt their dedication and passion for their position was far below what it should be for the priviledged position they were given. Guess how much of a response I got?
But yeah, reading Playstation.Blog and seeing all the content released for E3, then going into the EU store is depressing.
18 rick_x // Jul 17, 2008 at 8:54 am
Agree with every word, sadly there’s been a whole loadof us pressing Sony for a response to all the issues you raised here on their official forum . This has been going on for months (48 pages of posts), has survived being moved to an area of the forum where no-one can find it, and still there’s been no response from the mods except when they tried to stop us putting Sir Howard Stringer’s Corporate Address (freely available off Sony’s corporate website) on the forum.
I urge anyone who feels like you to take a read of the thread and get involved with letter writing etc. Cheers
http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=611&thread.id=2918&view=by_date_ascending&page=48
19 Ali // Jul 17, 2008 at 9:04 am
Could SarcasticGamer do a campaign in the same way they did for the micro payments EA where going to pull on the recent Battlefield game.
I feel its about time we had as European PS3 owners a joint way to raise and advertise just how sick and tired we are of the direction Sony are taking with the European market.
As you mentioned there semi-official website threespeech is a waste of time as are their official forums. You did a fantastic job with the EA and really turned a lot of heads it would be great to try something similar and perhaps Sony will finally wake up to European owners concerns.
20 Leathersoup // Jul 17, 2008 at 9:05 am
Well I’m in Canada, we border on the US but we’re not seeing any of the new things either so it’s not necessarily a “contintent” issue thing like they were saying.
Their lies are pretty blatant.
21 rick_x // Jul 17, 2008 at 11:11 am
I’m well up for Ali’s suggestion, it’s about time SCEE took notice of us all.
22 Dathcha // Jul 18, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Maybe I’m weird or something, but I truly do not need localisation… I do not live in the UK but am a dutch guy living in Norway and I would opt to play a game in english over dutch or norwegian any day…
Also, can the various companies maybe learn that Europe is MORE than just the UK? Like MS did with the Video Marketplace… saying it was coming to Europe and now it is in what? 4 countries? There ARE more in Europe you know… but no word on IF they will ever get the same service…
The same goes for Sony of course, the UK getting content first normally and no word on the rest… And seriously… STOP LOCALISING… I REALLY do not want my games or whatnot translated to dutch or something… UGH…
Almost all dutch people that I know fork over an extra 25-50 euros to get their new computer with Windows UK pre-installed rather than the Window NL version
Leave a Comment