To Square-Enix... "Why not Spanish?"

Good day everyone and specially Square Enix team, who are the receivers of the message.

I have one question, sorry for annoying you a little with this, but... There's something I just can't understand... Why is there no Spanish language in Final Fantasy XIV:A Realm Reborn?.

Well, I'm going to extend it a little. First of all, I have to say that I'm Spaniard, but despite that, my favorite languages are Japanese and English (I'm the typical Otaku that loves to hear japanese voices, and always watch anime with original spoken language, and just subtitles).

With this, I have to say that... Being a fan of Final Fantasy saga as I am, especially the games developed by Square-Enix (My first FF was FFX, I have played all the recent ones except XI.) such thing as language is nothing that will stop me from playing this awesome game that I am starting to like a lot.

Overall, the idea of a Final Fantasy MMORPG for me was just awesome... And I don't mind trying to start as a novice and without knowledge about the controls, region, classes, etc. I'm trying to understand all of this in English, doing the quests and so like that, I somehow manage to do it.

But... Not everyone thinks the same as me, I usually like to play MMORPG with my family, (Mum, brother... And some friends of the family), but they will not join me in this adventure because the game is not in Spanish, but that's not the only problem... Other thing is that how Square-Enix seems to completely ignore existence of Spanish community there, allow me to explain why:

- I'd understand it if the game would be in the native Japanese language and then the most popular language in the world(Not counting Chinese of course), English... But it was translated to other less popular languages! German is spoken mostly in Germany, just like French in France. While these languages are available, Spanish, that is officially the second most popular in the world, is not here! Not only the language is not here, even when I bought the game online I had to say that I was from UK!

- Is it because the game would need to have more servers? Personally, I don't really think it would be necessary. People of South American countries could keep connecting to North American servers even if their ping is higher, and the same here in Spain connecting to Germany, UK or France located servers... So, I doubt such a big effort would be necessary to include the language.

- About the money that would have to be spent for contract with good group of Spanish translators... I doubt it would be too expensive for company like Square-Enix so that they couldn't afford it... Also it would be a good investment! (Probably even, with all respect to people of those countries, a better investment than paying for German or French translators) The fact that it's being second most popular language means that a lot of players who doesn't know english could finally join the game, Square Enix is losing a lot of money they could earn just by paying a good team of translators. Think about the thousands or maybe even millions of people interested in the game, but not buying it because of not having possibility to play in their native language!

- I don't think I'm speaking here without good arguments, or lying, feel free to check everything about Spanish language in this page of wikipedia (English version), you'll understand the great extent that this language covers (Unlike others that are almost limited to their country). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language


In short, I am communicating a message seen through two points of view:

My point of view --> As I already said... I'm a fan of this saga, and I really like and want to play this game, I already downloaded it and I'm happy with it... I can... Even play it solo, alone, without my family and friends following me, even if it is sad, but I'll still be enjoying it.

The point of view of many Spaniard people --> It seems for them that Square Enix just hates us, or at least ignores our existence... Because of all the reasons I wrote above. Why are they making such strange decisions? Is it that they don't like hispanic community?... It makes no sense.


Here is my question and hope: "Will we have someday Spanish language support for the game?... I hope so"
Here is the question of all the Hispanic Community: "Why is there no Spanish language?"

Thanks for taking the bothering of reading this message, I apologize if the message is not fully understandable because this is not my native language after all, also, I apologize if someone felt offended here in similar way we felt when noticing the available languages of the game.
Finally, I wrote the message in this section because there's no Spanish forum, and I wrote the message in English, also, I wanted to use suggestion and feedback section, but couldn't due to level of my character. I hope that won't be a problem with the forum rules.

Regards.

http://makeameme.org/media/created/h...you-qmbtt8.jpg

It's because the languages are represented by their first letter, and, correct me if I am wrong, but both English and Spanish start with an E. So as you can see it is just impossible.

It's been stated that Spanish might be added in the future but, honestly, I think SE totally forgot about it. They don't seem too concerned about adding other language options. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.

The game should be in one language and one language only, Klingon.

I think the decision has something to do with SE company structure and previously established experience in working in certain countries and translating to certain languages. Their first MMO FFXI was available in English, French and German as well. Those are also the three most spoken languages in EU. I would imagine they're using same resources to translate to English, French and German in XIV than they do for XI.

Servers aren't the reason as all servers are located in either Tokyo (JP) or Montreal (NA, "EU").

I hope the expand the game into Spanish. I've run into several Spanish speaking players and was quite dismayed at not being able to assist them even the slightest.

Japanese and English is the basics for this game.
If I am correct German and French are something they have to do due to laws in some regions. And the french one is probably a Canadian law (Quebec)

Would be nice for the Spanish community to have it too, but they have to study how much more profit they would have versus the cost.
If they invested in "less popular" it is because they get enough return in income.

The riches of the world belong to 5% of the planet (sadly not me :) ), being a majority doesn't mean it has the money.

You have my support to have a Spanish translation.

Really doubt they ever add any new language to game , not because that's hard for SE , but if they add for example Spanish , there will just other Language speakers group pop up and start Blowing forums ; ;

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Adrian74

- I'd understand it if the game would be in the native Japanese language and then the most popular language in the world(Not counting Chinese of course), English... But it was translated to other less popular languages! German is spoken mostly in Germany, just like French in France. While these languages are available, Spanish, that is officially the second most popular in the world, is not here! Not only the language is not here, even when I bought the game online I had to say that I was from UK!

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You need to consider the number of games sold to people who speak a certain language, not the number of people who speak the language in total. Yes, a lot of people in the world speak spanish, especially in central and southern america, but those people don't buy many games. On the other hand the people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (for german) or France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada (for french) do.

Thanks everyone for bothering to read the whole post, comment and replying. I hope more people will read this and also comment.

Thanks to your replies I decided to check on the internet a little to find the reasons Square Enix could have for not translating Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Sadly, I think I just found the reason, just as some people said, and it is shown on this map: http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top...uter-game.html

Still, it would be nice if someone of the staff would read at this, confirming that, or giving any other reason. Because in the way it is, it seems as if Square Enix doesn't care about their fans, but only about their money. I understand that profit is a basic thing in business, but still... Completely alienating fans who don't know languages other than Spanish (Why is it like that: http://baltimoreschool.es/why-is-it-...learn-english/) isn't very nice thing for a company to do.

Regards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thaliss

[...]If I am correct German and French are something they have to do due to laws in some regions.[...]

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As far as Germany is concerned, there is no law or something like that. But we are used to have everything translated and synchronized, be it TV series, movies, books or whatever. They know they reach more customers if they translate the entire Game so it is all about sales in the end.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thaliss

Japanese and English is the basics for this game.
If I am correct German and French are something they have to do due to laws in some regions. And the french one is probably a Canadian law (Quebec).

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Yeah, it definitely has to do with Canadian law. If I recall, to be sold here in Canada, it needs to have French included as a language. Multilingual Act or something like that.

I have a co-worker who is from México and is a hardcore WOW player for past 7 years. When I told him about this game, he seemed interested, especially when I told him how one character can do all the roles in the game. When he researched it and found out it wasn't available in Spanish, he was crushed. He wanted to give it a try, but the language was going to be an issue. In WOW, he had to join the Spanish servers in Europe to play. The United States does have an abundance of Spanish speakers, so I don't see why not have it in Spanish as well.

It is possible that maybe that study's result is the way it is, because of the languages available for games. How many games do you know also come in Spanish? I don't know any. If there are barely any games in Spanish, why would you buy something in a language you don't understand? It can also be about income. Maybe South Americans tend to be a little on the poor side and can't afford to play video games. I don't know.

Give it some time. I'm sure the United States will start requiring English and Spanish within the next few years. We already have most things translated into both languages (food packages and other packaging, 1-800 numbers, certain signs). I'm not saying stop the fight, rather I'm trying to give you a small light at the end of the tunnel. :)

All the interviews I've seen from SE about spanish language added to FFXIV, say yes in the future, but cite difficulty in dialect/colloquial translations. I mean most other languages have colloquial differences, but Spanish has a ton, and its one of the most widely spoken languages, where other languages with huge colloquial differences may not be as widely spoken. Its just a lot more effort on their localization team than it is for any other languages they've done that's for sure.

If the light would come.... I would start another character, no doubt, and probably all those who play with me. Because we skip all the scenes, quest dialogues and other story things that may would make the game more enjoyable. It is true that at the end the quests are go kill x mob, go speak with x guy...But not all of them, and I'm sure that those who have the game in their native language doesn't skip the quests dialogues, at least the first time they do it.

I'd be glad if someone from the Square Enix team would give us the information in this thread about if it is being planned to translate the game to Spanish or not. I'll try to post a link to this thread in suggestions forum, that is where it should be, but probably I won't be able to do so because character's level or something.