Hi everyone, it's been ages since I've been on these boards but I'm desperate to hear others' thoughts on this.

Why are so many games lately only available in retail DVD versions in Germany? And why is it so hard to get information on whether a DVD version of a game is playable in English or not? Am I the only one who cares about this?

My facade has cracked to the point where I will buy a digital version if there's nothing else available, but if there is a retail version I can play, or if one will be coming out and it's just a matter of waiting for it, I want to get that one.

It's gotten to the point where I've ordered games from amazon.de and taken chances on whether I could play them or not. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose, and I hate it.

:(

Regards all.

There are a lot of game developer-producers in Germany. They have the advantage also of many adventure gamers there. So it is profitable to make DVDs for them.
They cannot release DVDs in other countries unless they have a contract with producers in those countries or get an international license. With the cut in profits, license hassle, etc - it is not good business.
There very few developers in NA. The dearth in producers of adventure games in NA is caused by bad management practice.

MaG, I agree with everything you said, but:

1) Why can't they put the English version on the DVD also? I guess no demand?
2) Why isn't there a relatively easy way to find out what languages are playable on a given retail release?
3) Why isn't there a relatively easy way to find out what plans there are for wider retail releases? (Maybe for this one the developers/publishers themselves don't know until they see what business the initial release does.)

1. Localizing costs money: location, tech personnel, studios, directors, voice actors, etc...
If text changes only - technical hours, language editors, etc...
2. Language is usually inferred at the box cover or if there is an English release - it is announced by the PR at English websites.
3. Again - monetary consideration. If the local release is not successful; then they will not move forward with it.

As you can see from the kickstarter or other funding requests; the costs of the changes-addition-music-graphics-etc are considerable.

Well, regarding #1, most of the time there is an English release (sometimes even at the same time as the German release), but it's download only. DVDs have a lot of space and usually there is room to include both versions, they just don't. :(

Thanks for the responses though.

Well, remember how they would refuse to stock adventure games in retail stores -- or if they did, it would only be a handful of older ones. They were only interested in stocking the top selling games -- which were not adventure games. Then they'd complain adventure games didn't sell for them. Of course people couldn't buy what the stores didn't have.

You might be interested in this article, first published in 2002 and still mostly true for adventure games (though casual games have started to replace action games as the biggest sellers).
***In the Shadow of the Monster: Adventure Games and Market Forces***

Thanks Jenny...again though, I just wish that if they are going to release a retail version, they include as many languages as possible on the disk.

Daedalic in particular is playing all sorts of games. The German gamers are up in arms because the downloadable releases don't contain the German version, and I'm annoyed that the retail version is ONLY in German...

They used to do that. There used to be "International" versions with several languages on the disc so it could be sold throughout Europe. That was over 10 years ago though. I think the companies that did that all went broke or were assimilated.

For awhile there was a UK seller on Amazon that sold a lot of games in English including Daedalic games. You had to be watching every day or you might miss them. However, I haven't seen this seller or any games on disc there anymore. I often thought of trying Amazon.De also but didn't know if I'd be able to or if they'd ship here.

Here is some hard-won information - Amazon.co.uk apparently will not ship video games to the US. Amazon.de will, but only if it's sold by Amazon itself, not from a marketplace seller.

Yup. Amazon.de will ship to the US (though they charge a lot for shipping) while Amazon.co.uk will not. I assume it's something to do with the licensing for English versions vs licensing for German versions.

For a very few games where there are few if any conversations, you can play the German version without much problem. But games like that are rare these days when there are more story-driven 3rd person games than 1st person puzzle-based games. Of course if you can speak German there's no problem at all.

Thanks for the link. That was an eye-opener!

I think this article has the right of it. The shift from "adventure friendly" to "adventure unfriendly" articles happened so fast in Computer Gaming Mags that there was no way the usual explanations made much sense. It puzzled me no end at the time, especially since this was in spite of big name adventure games (TLJ, Myst 3) that were still recent news back then. It looked like something ordered from someone on high (who owned the magazines perhaps and wanted to focus on action genres?)

There are still many adventure players in Germany And the German market is not only the 80 million people living in Germany, it is more like about 100 or maybe 120 million people, if you include the Austrian and the Swiss population as well....and the population of Tyrol as well. (part of Tyrol is now in northern Italy....)

There's a market then for adventure gamers in Germany and in Europe as well. Most Danes and Dutch people etc. do understand some German. As for the article, I haven't read it, but experience - and 15 years of playing videogames - have taught that what it says probably seems very true...

I remember being disconnected from the internet around 2000/2001, when I got connected to the internet again back in 2002, maybe early 2003, all had changed. A
lot of the smaller sites had disappeared or had been merged into the larger ones. Before 2001/2002, selling say like 100.000 copies of a game was seen as a succes, and selling 400,000 copies of a game was seen as a triumph. I can't say whether or not the shift from adventure games to action games was decreed from above on high. I do seem to recall though that Half Life and CounterStrike were big successes. And that means a lot to the people in power that decided what games are to be make...

If you prefer physical/retail releases there is a site that makes unofficial patches that converts euro releases (German,French,Russian etc) to English ones. You install the game from the original CD/DVD you bought and then apply a small patch and you have the English version.

Most of the times the English version of the game IS included in the CD/DVD but it is disabled or it's missing only a few files. For example, this guy released a patch that converts Mozart - The Conspirators of Prague in English with full English audio, English menu and English subtitles and the game was never released in English! Not even as a download!

The site is: http://shinji-nerd-life.blogspot.com/

Today he released a patch for the 1st Red Johnson's Chronicles game!

Thanks Monkuma

Ana

I found this site a couple of months ago myself but thanks for posting it - it is a great resource.

What about French versions? I buy all these games with supposedly all European languages included, but my computers and iPad will only install the English version without giving me a choice.

When I went back to the developers, they told me it would install in French only if I were to reset all my machines to French, which I am not willing to do. Argh!

I'm guessing if you changed the language, installed the game, and then changed the language back to English, the game would stay in the language you installed in.

It's not that difficult to change the language if you have an iPad.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2371

It's also possible if you have a computer with Windows XP
http://www.wikihow.com/Change-the-Language-of-Your-Computer-%28Windows-XP%29

But from what I've read, it's a problem with Windows 7 or Vista unless you have the Ultimate or Enterprise versions. Apparently there is the same problem with Windows 8. I've read about a "fix" called "Vistalizor" but I've also read that "fix" causes Windows to lose its activation so I wouldn't risk that.

But it shouldn't be difficult with IOS on iPad -- assuming changing the language actually works to make the game install in that language.

That sounds like a good idea! Any pitfalls to this?