Analysis
We Chatted With Translation Professionals About Being Invisible In Persona 3, 4 And Other Games – Xbox
The arrival of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden on Xbox and, more specifically, on Xbox Game Pass was an occasion to celebrate for more than one reason; In principle, due to the inclusion from day 1 of the saga to the Microsoft subscription service and for what the arrival of these games represents on the platform.
One of the main attractions of these new editions of Persona is that, for example, Persona 4 Golden could be enjoyed for the first time in four new languages; Spanish, Italian, German and French. If you’ve ever played any of these titles, or any RPG for that matter, you’re aware of the sheer number of lines of text that the genre possesses, which means that behind every language there is a group of people who make the most of it. task of localizing that narrative content in different languages. This includes adapting idioms so that the text sounds natural, making the same jokes that were funny in the source language funny in the target language, rhyming totally different words so that a poem or song doesn’t lose its meaning, and countless other things. more things.
Locators, those essential people that nobody congratulates after a game
That group of people, call them localizers, translators or whatever you prefer, are the key to the success of the game in different cultures and contribute many hours of their lives to make it happen, usually dealing with very demanding delivery times and, in many cases, with a total absence of context, since there are very few opportunities in which these professionals access images of the game itself, much less demos and so on.
And maybe when you read this you think: “well, but it’s their job”, and I confirm that it is, and that if you ask them they would tell you that despite the many drawbacks, they love what they do, because they are people who they are fascinated by the world of videogames and that they feel a real passion for what they do, but this is no reason not to give them credit, in my opinion, quite the contrary. And just as it happens and has happened many times before, in Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden, this is exactly what happened, the entire brutal localization team from both titles conspicuous by its absence in the end credits.
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To understand the localization process of a video game, it is necessary to first establish which are the parties involved. In the first place, there are the developers of the title who want to take their product to other latitudes, for this they generally hire a translation agency that is in charge of providing them with all the linguistic services that are required and offers to bring the game to all the languages that are available. they need. This, I would say, is the most common case in AAA developments, although when we talk about indie studios, on many occasions, it is the localization professionals who work directly with the developers without there being an agency involved, which that avoids certain obstacles and gray areas in terms of accreditation.
katrina leonoudakis she was a localization coordinator for SEGA and was the first to point out that Persona’s various translation teams were not appearing in the credits even though they were scheduled to be there before she left the company. What happened between the release of her and the arrival of the game on the shelves is not very clear, but the result was what we already know: translators without credits.
Ignorance and bad intentions
From Xbox we had the opportunity to speak with Katrina and ask her some specific information about the omissions and about the basic problem:
According to an article published by Kotaku, Keywords, the agency in charge of Persona’s localization, blames SEGA (in this case) for not accrediting translation professionals, while in most cases it is the developers who say never having received relevant information from translation agencies. Who do we believe? Is there any chance that both sides will tell the truth?
Nobody wants to take responsibility, and both parties are technically right. SEGA asks Keywords for the information to put in the credits in a very generic way (“Send us your credits to put in the game”), and Keywords sends them a file with that information (which turns out doesn’t include the translators). Internally, Keywords tells translators that “it’s up to the developer to ask the agency for the names of the translators”; and this is something that I confirmed by speaking with several professionals who work in that agency.
SEGA reviews the file that was sent to it, asks for typos to be checked before including the information in the game, and assumes that Keywords did its part by duly crediting everyone involved. From the Keywords side there is a bad intention, from the developers side there is a lack of knowledge on the subject.
Why don’t translation agencies (mainly Keywords) want translators to appear in the credits of the projects they worked on?
To control the professionals who work for them. The linguists who do the translations for the agencies are freelancers who depend on the agencies for their work. Not putting them in the credits makes it harder for them to find work elsewhere, how can you prove you worked on a game if you don’t appear in the credits? By not being able to look for work elsewhere, other companies that may pay more cannot “steal” them into their ranks.
This keeps translators’ fees low as well as the chances that these professionals will go to another company that is looking for good linguists. In turn, it also creates a certain fear in translators of mentioning the projects they worked on or their employer, in case some kind of retaliation occurs from the company.
Why did it take so long for this situation to come to light?
Translators have been talking about the problem for years, you can search for #Translatorsinthecredits and you’ll see. Within the industry, people have been clamoring for years for translators to get their due credit.
Unfortunately, many of the uncredited translators are afraid to speak. In some cases, telling that they worked on a certain game violates the confidentiality agreement they signed with the company. Speaking out against a company they work for or want to work for in the future also jeopardizes their chances of getting a job. Because the industry is so unforgiving and it pays so little to be a translator, many decide it’s not worth the risk. That is why it is important that people who have a secure position, as is my case, speak up and be spokespersons.
Will the future be different? In the case of Pentiment, the heated and fair manifestations of the translators on social networks and other media helped the developers launch a patch that added the missing credits. Voices are necessary, and it seems that this case is further proof of that, since according to Katrina herself, Atlus and SEGA accreditation policy will change favorably in the future.
Now, in five years, will the industry still have the same problem? To this, Leonoudakis replies:
Unfortunately, until companies realize that translation companies leave translators out of credit, the problem will continue. Video game companies big and small need to be told about these predatory and immoral practices and production companies are taught to check the credits they receive and to demand the names of all parties involved as part of the contract with the translation agency. It is evident that these companies are not going to do it of their own free will because giving credit does not benefit them.
If you played Persona 3 Portable and/or Persona 4 in Spanish, and you enjoyed it as we did, you have to know that behind each sentence was the quality, ingenuity, passion and talent of Alba Anoria Ortuño, Alba Valle García , Alejandro Gómez de la Morata, Carla Morata Segrera, Carles Prieto Herranz, David García Abril, Emilio Ros Casas, Eva Ruano Maroto, Laura Feijóo Sánchez and Iván Magdaleno Macenlle while Alicia del Fresno Orellana, Almudena Segura Checa took charge of the review and Fatima Parejo Diez.
Little by little, the French, Italian and German localizers are receiving authorization from the agency to share their collaboration in the translation of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden, a little too late in my opinion.
Now that I have received the official authorization, I am pleased to say I had the honor to be part of the great French team who translated Persona 3 Portable. 🙂
Thanks to all those who raised their voice to see translators credited. #TranslatorsInTheCredits pic.twitter.com/uBRvSNBN7i
— Violaine Sauze (@ViolaineSauze) January 26, 2023
I want to thank Laura Feijóo and Katrina Leonoudakis, since without them it would not have been possible to compile all the material present in this article.
