Okay, the title is a tiny bit of hyperbole,
but today I would like to make the business case
for localizing basically every game
that comes out on a console.
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I am sure that you have all
had that experience where
you've heard about a game that
came out in some other region,
and you were like:
'man, that looks so cool, I wish I could play that...'
and often those games are the weird ones,
the ones that are considered 'niche'
because they so strongly hit all of the obscure
and not-new-player-friendly things
about a particular genre that you love.
But, of course, because they are considered niche,
they are the kind of game that never gets localized.
But here's the thing about those niche games:
those are exactly the type of games
that get people to buy consoles.
If you are a tactics game fan,
and even one really great tactics game
comes out exclusively for a platform;
that is going to go a long way
toward making your purchasing decision
on what console you buy.
So, here is the business case for
localizing basically everything.
All of today's platform holders
(Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo)
spend tens of millions of dollars
to secure exclusives for their consoles.
And that's not just for Triple A games.
Even smaller titles can cost multiple millions
of dollars to secure as exclusives.
After all, for the developers and publishers
of those titles, releasing a game on just one
single platform means selling to only a
fraction of the gaming market.
So, the platform holder
has to provide financial incentive to do so.
Now paying to localize games isn't cheap,
but it is a lot cheaper than paying for exclusives.
Which actually puts it in the perfect price range,
because small to mid-size developers
often can't afford to localize their games.
They are spending all of their budget
just on getting the thing made and out the door.
This means that a platform holder
(Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo)
could offer those developers a deal
where the devs can launch on all platforms
in their native region, just like they normally would,
but in return for six months to a year
of exclusivity in other regions.
The platform holder would pay their localization costs
to get the game released in those other regions.
It's a great deal for the developer because
now they get to launch in more regions.
And it's a great deal for the platform holder because
they get a regional exclusive for pennies on the dollar.
Now, there's two reasons why
this hasn't been done in the past.
The first is retail space.
If you are a platform holder you
don't want to be clogging up your section of
the game stuff wall with niche games,
much less paying to localize games
that'll never even be given space
on those already crowded shelves.
And of course the corollary to this was
you also didn't want to be printing discs
and boxes for those games.
But that problem is already basically solved.
Digital distribution is ubiquitous
and even the most die-hard fans of
physical media would prefer having the option
to buy digital copies of great niche games
that have been localized their region.
I mean, it's better than those games
simply never being localized at all.
Of course, there is still the issue of clogging up
digital storefronts and running into a Steam situation,
but part of that issue comes down to the fact that
most every console digital store
really needs a UX overhaul
and better methods of discovering new things.
Really if it turned out to be that big an issue
it would be pretty simple to just add one
more tab to the store called
Great Games From Around the World
and shove all of your localized
exclusive stuff into that section.
If one of them starts really taking off, then you can
feature it in the more prominent part of the storefront.
Which leads me to the second,
and arguably much more valid argument
against doing this, and the reason you don't see
as many games localized today as you might expect.
It's not that localization costs are prohibitive,
especially if you aren't localizing voice work;
the real reason is that, marketing these games to a
new region can often cost ten times as much
as the localization itself.
But does it have to?
For games that have already been
published and hyped in another region,
I would argue 'no'.
Now I admit that I might be on some shaky ground
with this argument, because I'm basically saying
that you have to trust your most avid
customers to actively keep track and pay
attention to what you're releasing in
their region, which, I know, that probably
sounds like a terrible idea to any major publisher,
but just hear me out for a second.
James imported the Korean release of Demon Souls
way before the official U.S. version came out
in part because he'd been a big From Software fan
from back in the King's Field days,
but also in part because
they had done a big Asian marketing campaign.
From had gotten Demon Souls reviewed
on a number of Asian region websites,
and in a number of Asian language magazines
Through the wonders of the internet
that regions marketing push
and news of the games positive reception
trickled down to people like James
This is the important difference I'm getting at.
not marketing a game to every new territory
you release in, isn't the same as not marketing at all.
When a really good indie game gets lost on Steam,
it's usually because there's been
no good marketing push anywhere.
No hype,
no developer interviews on sites with a lot of reach,
no community building on reddit, nothing.
But when you've already done a major marketing push
that's already out there, even though that
marketing effort may be in a language foreign to most
of the people in the new territory you're localizing to,
if the game's good, fans of that genre will find out.
They crave this stuff.
They will translate those interviews and those articles.
They will post those Famitsu review scores.
They will transmit that knowledge
through the player grapevine.
That's the nice thing about niche markets. They are
pretty ravenous for those weird games they love.
Now, will you get as many sales as you would
if you did a full marketing campaign?
Certainly not.
But as the platform holder localizing the game,
you're only risking the almost-negligible cost
of localization, and you'll still reach
some of the most passionate players
More importantly, you'll push some of them
that much closer to buying your console.
And these are the people who will be the
loudest voices and your most ardent champions.
They're probably the sort of players
who get asked all the time by their friends
'which console should I get?'
So winning those players over is worth a lot.
That's even worth the risk of losing the tiny localization
investment on most of the games you localize.
I mean, heck,
if I heard any one of you console holders say
'Alright, we're going to localize every crazy thing
that gets made for this console, so get ready.'
I would pick that system up in a heartbeat
just for the opportunity of trying
all those wacky games out.
Think about it.
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