Fans begin translating Type-0

[Skyblade]

Which is easier? Fully translating a game as best you can, and distributing it without getting in legal troubles? Or partially translating it enough to catch the owners attention and get slapped with a cease and desist, while showing them that there's still interest in this game over here, and possible getting an actual localization done?

They announce what they're doing because they want the game to be released. We already have word that the majority of the translation is done, it's just Square sitting on their butts not wanting to release it for some reason. The more attention the game gets, the better, and something to which Square has to respond with legal action like a Cease and Desist is attention that Square has to give.

How many such projects will Square have to shut down before they realize that this game has a market?

[Aulayna]

How many such projects will Square have to shut down before they realize that this game has a market?

I think they know it has a market. I think their concern is whether the market is big enough and in all honesty considering iOS/Android has a significant market share in western territories and the recent re-releases of PSN versions of PSone titles or HD remasters that are in the works it wouldn't surprise me to see Type-0 International/Final Mix get released in the future on a different platform than the fledgling Playstation portables.

[NeoCracker]

There has, to my knowledge, never bee a C&D issued over a fan translation. The only real legal issue that has yet to come up is with one of the original RPG makers, which the issue wasn't a translation, but the site linked to illegal downloads of the game itself.

There was also a group who got a C&D, but immiidately after it was announced they were being brought on to work on the official release. I forget the game, but the group was nonamelosers.

Then there was the instance of XSeed commissioning the fan tranlsation of an Ys game to offset the costs of bringing over such a niche' game series.

And, according to Wiki, "A popular belief in the fan translation community is that distributing only a binary patch, which must be applied to the full, original game, is legal. The reasoning is that the patch only contains the new data and directives for where it is to be placed, and does not have the original copyrighted material included in any form, and therefore it is useless unless the user applies it to a (copyrighted) ROM, the acquisition and legality of which they are left completely accountable for. This belief is untested in court. Regardless, the patch must still contain a translated script that is derived from the copyrighted script of the original, but this anti-software piracy attitude by the fan translation community may have convinced copyright holders to, by and large, turn a blind eye"

So basically, the legality of a fan-translation is largely up in the air, unless our resident lawyer has some insight on the nature of it.

I doubt Square will do anything about this unless they intend to bring it overseas themselves.

Edit: And on the note of Mother 3, not only is Tomato, the guy who did the fan translation, a working translator, but the people who developed Mother 3 both knew about the fan translation, and said that since there was no word of it getting an official launch, they were thrilled that it was being worked on as it meant more people would play it.

Any time I hear of a company catching wind of a fan translation for their game, I only ever hear that they are happy it's being done.

Edit2: The game involving No name Losers mentioned above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ef:_A_F...ale_of_the_Two.

[Spooniest]

I wonder if the game is any good?

[Roogle]

With or without fan translation I doubt SE will change their plans about the game anyways..

Right, I cannot see Square Enix changing its plans because of a fan translation. I am glad that someone is taking enough of an interest in the game to translate it. We missed out on some great games in the nineties and we were able to play them, still, because there were fans that were dedicated enough to translate the game. A translation is not an easy undertaking.

I think it reflects poorly on a company when a fan translation is the only way to play a game and the fans are paranoid about there being some kind of Cease & Desist Order. As someone mentioned earlier, Mother 3 was translated with the blessing of its creator who was thrilled that the game would receive a larger audience. I like to see that kind of support for fan works. I heard that there was a game a few years ago whose publishing company bought the rights to the translation and sold it in stores. I wonder what game that was?

[NeoCracker]

I believe it was one of the Ys titles.