Capcom on Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localization, Revelations spelling error, and more
Game Informer has published a new interview with Capcom’s SVP of planning and business development Christian Svensson.
In the interview, Svensson discusses Mega Man Legends 3, noting that the fan involvement “turned out to be a double-edged sword”, “still an open discussion point”, the situation behind the spelling error on an initial batch of Resident Evil: Revelations copies, and more.
Head past the break for some of Svensson’s comments. You can find more chatter relating to the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 here.
Svensson on the the timing behind the Resident Evil 6 announcement (boosting Revelations sales)…
“That would be the conventional wisdom. However, we don’t think conventionally. We thought it would actually raise the awareness of all things Resident Evil, and as it turns out it did. Our preorders for Revelations and Raccoon City were both helped on an upward spike with the announcement of Resident Evil 6. The pre-orders for Resident Evil 6 are off to a fantastic start. The best start a Resident Evil game has ever had.”
Svensson on catering to new and old Resident Evil fans…
“I think Revelations did a good job of appealing to both audiences. There are classic elements in that game. I don’t think it’s at all an impossibility. I won’t get into the details too much about what the Resident Evil 6 team’s intentions were because we’ll talk about that more at Captivate. I think they’ll say the same thing, and that is part of the fun is figuring out how to scratch the itch of both audiences.”
Svensson on Double Fine’s Kickstar project being somewhat similar to the Mega Man Legends 3 project…
“I’m very happy for Tim [Schafer]. If anyone deserves that kind of love and support it’s certainly those guys. They make great content and I’m really happy they get to do that.
“However, I think they’re one of the very few people that could pull this off and get that kind of support. They are a developer that doesn’t necessarily have the capital to self-fund so the need is there. And as a result people are happy to open their wallets and support them. I think that if a publisher that has capital were to try this, I don’t think the PR and fan reaction would be quite as positive.
“I’m not saying there aren’t some people that would. I think there are loads of people for specific brands that would open their wallets to demonstrate support for any amount. I’m not convinced companies like EA, Activision, or Capcom could ask fans to fund dormant franchises. That’s a challenging prospect, I think.”
Svensson on whether or not he would change anything in the decision-making process of Mega Man Legends 3…
“The transparency and involvement from the fans, it turned out to be a double-edged sword. In the end it’s still something I want to do more of. I don’t think we as an industry do enough of it. Being that transparent, unfortunately, opens the wounds much greater when something bad happens. I wouldn’t have changed that.
“As for the decision to not move forward with the project, I’d prefer to not comment on that.”
Svensson on Ace Attorney Investigations 2 in North America…
“It is still an open discussion point. I’ll never say never, but I also won’t say it’s going to happen. I haven’t let go of that bone, and I hope the fans are still patient with us.”
Svensson on why games made today still have difficulty being translated and brought over to other countries…
“There’s no one reason. Sometimes it is a lack of localization resources available at that particular time. Sometimes it is a budgetary issue or there are no developer resources. Teams have moved onto something else. There are a million reasons and it varies project to project. The thing to remember, fans want quality work. They don’t want shoddy QA and localization work. For that to happen it takes the original team and a lot of care and love in the localization of those projects.
“For Ace Attorney, localization there is not just straight translating the text. People think it’s all about plugging it into Google translate. That’s not what it is. It’s not easy to do in five or six languages. It’s a lot harder than people think it is.”
Svensson on the recent spelling errors in Capcom games/trailers/etc…
“For Resident Evil: Revelations, I can’t even tell you how many people looked at that package and approved it. Nintendo of America, Nintendo Japan, ESRB, I don’t know how many people internally, and our guys in Japan. I can’t come up with an excuse for it. It just happened. We’re not happy about it.
“There are new processes that were put in place that involve people outside the company. We’ve redefined who has final say over packaging. I’m cautiously optimistic we won’t be seeing this happen again. It’s embarrassing. I can’t really sugarcoat it.
“There are only about 90,000 units that have the misprint. If you’ve got it and it’s shrink-wrapped, that’s a new special edition, that’s our new strategy. [laughs]”
