- Jul 30, 2017
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Kagura is working onHonest question. Is it really that not worth a japanese developer's time to hire a proper translator? I question it when it comes to developers that already have a place in the market and are known.
If only Kagura took a hold of this
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, which is also one of the dev's game.The reason why Japanese rarely hire translators for their games is different, depending on dev/company, but there are some pretty good reasons.
1. If the dev want to sell their games to a global market, then they'll have to work with a foreign publisher to produce a translated/localized version. In that way, they can sell their games uncensored, but it is also effectively giving the publisher a good cut of the profit. (it might not even a cut, but a one-time license only) Access to an uncensored version might also encourage Japanese players to buy from publishers rather than directly from the dev on DLsite. For smaller dev, they prefer not to do so, when DLsite sales barely break even for them.
2. English translator is not easy to come by in Japan. You can't just go on the Internet and ask "Yo, we want you to translate this porn games with fetishes that is illegal in 90% of the countries in the world", and will have to rely on close contacts and acquaintances. Even more so with small devs.
tl;dr For most small devs, hiring translators or working with publishers cost more than it potentially worth.