Reeves: Euro Gamers Wait Because...

David Reeves

It's no secret to anyone in Europe that gamers in that territory have been shafted several times in the past. They simply didn't get a great title that was available in Japan and North America, and if Europe does get the game, it's not until way later. This has been an ongoing problem for years. However, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss David Reeves has a very simple explanation for this, and logically speaking, it does make sense.

According to Eurogamer, Reeves has said the problem is that there isn't "enough incentive for developers to work on multiple language translations during development." Hence, Europeans suffer delays and may never see a particular title.

"Well some developers would say they can do [translations during initial development]. Talk to Ted Price at Insomniac and he builds it in at the beginning. We're trying to educate all our developers to do that but it's something that's going to take a while," said Reeves. "But even if you talk to Guerrilla, Namco, Square Enix, they all do it in English to begin with and then think about localisation later. You're absolutely right, we should do it at the beginning. But they look at it like, 'How much can I get for a Dutch version of the game?' With PlayStation Store we could probably go in the UK almost day and date. But then what are the Germans and the French going to say to me? That I'm Anglo-centric."

The pitfalls and obstacles are quite obvious and we understand SCEE's position. And while this issue will never disappear entirely, even Euro gamers have to admit that things are getting better. Gaming has become so huge that most big publishers want worldwide simultaneous releases (GTAIV, MGS4, etc.), and the more that continues to happen, the more Europe will be on par with Japan and the US. ...but nothing is perfect, and what Reeves says is very true.

5/8/2008 Ben Dutka