Square Enix Crack Down on Fan Made TYPE-0 Patch

[Night Fury]

An amateur team of Final Fantasy and Square Enix fans working on a patch to translate Final Fantasy Type-0 from Japanese to English and Spanish have been issued legal threats from Square Enix to cease their project immediately.

Final.Fantasy.Type-0.full.592160.jpg

"Unfortunately I’m forced to remove my posts and pages related to the popular Final Fantasy Type-0 fan translation project. That’s right, certain game company thinks that threats and false accusations are the way to treat its biggest fans. For the time being I can’t answer questions related to this matter, but I’ll write a more comprehensive post about all this once I get the chance."

It isn't completely terrible news, as Type-0 has been confirmed for a western release. It is, however, a shame for the team who have worked hard on the patch but it is understandable that Square Enix want to keep their product under wraps for their own localised release.

What are your thoughts on this? Are Square Enix right to shut down the project?

[source]

[Loony BoB]

EDIT: Wait, is this just a translation and nothing more, or is the guy hacking the game and "releasing" it with English language? If the former, that's pretty low of SE. If the latter, I don't see a problem with it.

[Sephiroth]

What people always think of other people's legal and intellectual property.

[Ayen]

Saw this coming a mild away. I feel sorry for the group that has been working their asses off to make the patch, free of charge, while dealing with ungrateful fans telling them to "hurry up" more than I feel any kind of sympathy for Square. For the longest time it didn't look like Type-0 was going to get a Western release date, period. So the patch was the only way for fans to enjoy the game unless they wanted to learn Japanese. They could have at least been like, "Hey guys, thank you for showing your support. Since we'll be bringing this game over you don't have to continue with this project anymore." Instead of plain right threatening them. I sincerely doubt the patch being available was going to turn people off from buying the game. You know what is likely to put people off from buying the game?

This.

Edit: It's just a translation, BoB.

[Night Fury]

Yeah the threats worry me.

Still, it shows just how much the fans want this game! (I do hope it's not troute)

[Loony BoB]

Reading the comments in the linked page is painful. Definitely a few reasonable people on both sides of the debate, but some deleted comments here and there along with a lot of people raging at the reasonable.

So long as it's just a warning and, should Sky stick with closing down his end of things, it goes no further, then I don't see the problem. Hard to say what it is right now, though.

[Sephiroth]

Many Japanese games are released in the West after a long time and this is something someone must see coming. Not just translating/rewriting the text of something and bringing it out in public is also against the law. That is even written in instruction manuals of (certain) games.

[Ayen]

If the guy's post is any indication:

Unfortunately I’m forced to remove my posts and pages related to the popular Final Fantasy Type-0 fan translation project. That’s right, certain game company thinks that threats and false accusations are the way to treat its biggest fans

Sounds like more than just a warning.

Many Japanese games are released in the West after a long time and this is something someone must see coming. Not just translating/rewritten the text of something and bringing it out in public is also against the law. That is even written in instruction manuals of (certain) games.

Do other Japanese game companies take three years after having fans wait eight years and counting for a spinoff game that turned into a main numbered entry because it's been eight years?

I'm not going to argue the legality of the issue, because there's nothing to argue there, but it'd be nice if publishers could show more tact.

[Sephiroth]

Do other Japanese game companies take three years after having fans wait eight years and counting for a spinoff game that turned into a main numbered entry because it's been eight years?

I'm not going to argue the legality of the issue, because there's nothing to argue there, but it'd be nice if publishers could show more tact.

If you ask so, yes, there are multiple games that came out after years have passed. And if Kingdom Hearts Final Mix would have been translated and released you can be sure Square Enix would have done the same thing to protect their 1.5 HD ReMIX. I am not even sure how legal streaming Final Fantasy on Twitch is because the manuals say you may not publicly, no matter through which medium, show the copryrighted product. Though Twitch might be an exception as it is such a big thing now and probably means more future buyers.

[Loony BoB]

If the guy's post is any indication:

Unfortunately I’m forced to remove my posts and pages related to the popular Final Fantasy Type-0 fan translation project. That’s right, certain game company thinks that threats and false accusations are the way to treat its biggest fans

Sounds like more than just a warning.

"Threat" is the very definition of your standard C&D that gets given to anyone as a warning. False accussations is something we can't verify and is possibly a matter of opinion at present. Either way false accusations are unrelated to hard legal action such as being sued. I've yet to see if this is anything more than "Dude, take it off your site, no more." Hard to really judge without getting more information from Sky.

SE have sent a C&D to a lot of sites in the past and this really doesn't come across as anything shocking to me.

[Christmas]

Square could have handled it better with a gentle reminder or something instead of threats. As far as concern, some hardcore fans and the image of the company will be affected which is not beneficial to the company's cause.

EDIT: I think ToriJ nailed it.

[Formalhaut]

They could have at least been like, "Hey guys, thank you for showing your support. Since we'll be bringing this game over you don't have to continue with this project anymore." Instead of plain right threatening them.

Legality or no, I do think Square Enix could have been more softer in their approach. They have every right to make them stop the patch, seeing how they are releasing it to the West now (thereby making a patch redundant, essentially), but it's just how they've went about stopping it that isn't going to win them favors, really.

[Loony BoB]

I wonder how other large Japanese developer-publishers handle stuff like this? And also how Western developers deal with translations in other countries... although I imagine there is less income to be made in those kind of situations.

This seems like a fairly unique situation based on my brief research, in that they are translating a game for one console but the game is now being released on a different console in the language being translated to. Not sure I can find any kinds of precedent for this one.

[Ayen]

Do other Japanese game companies take three years after having fans wait eight years and counting for a spinoff game that turned into a main numbered entry because it's been eight years?

I'm not going to argue the legality of the issue, because there's nothing to argue there, but it'd be nice if publishers could show more tact.

If you ask so, yes, there are multiple games that came out after years have passed. And if Kingdom Hearts Final Mix would have been translated and released you can be sure Square Enix would have done the same thing to protect their 1.5 HD ReMIX. I am not even sure how legal streaming Final Fantasy on Twitch is because the manuals say you may not publicly, no matter through which medium, show the copryrighted product. Though Twitch might be an exception as it is such a big thing now and probably means more future buyers.

Main reason I ask is because the average Japanese game takes a year at most to come over, so three years seem a little long by comparison. That might be because publishers planned to localize it from the start, though. I can't remember how recently Square decided they were going to make an official English translation.

If the guy's post is any indication:

Unfortunately I’m forced to remove my posts and pages related to the popular Final Fantasy Type-0 fan translation project. That’s right, certain game company thinks that threats and false accusations are the way to treat its biggest fans

Sounds like more than just a warning.

"Threat" is the very definition of your standard C&D that gets given to anyone as a warning. False accussations is something we can't verify and is possibly a matter of opinion at present. Either way false accusations are unrelated to hard legal action such as being sued. I've yet to see if this is anything more than "Dude, take it off your site, no more." Hard to really judge without getting more information from Sky.

SE have sent a C&D to a lot of sites in the past and this really doesn't come across as anything shocking to me.

Ah. I have my definitions of "threats" mixed up, then. I still don't agree with a C&D being the first response in this case.

I wonder how other large Japanese developer-publishers handle stuff like this? And also how Western developers deal with translations in other countries.

I doubt many of them would be any better, to be honest. I know Kojima was pretty cool about a Metal Gear remake fans were working on a little while back.

[Sephiroth]

Main reason I ask is because the average Japanese game takes a year at most to come over, so three years seem a little long by comparison.

That is all nice but it doesn't void being protected by copyright and if I can read such things even in instruction manuals it should be easy to not get in trouble.