Heart of Winter - European release

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Great to hear our American cousins have been shipped the game, but why is the release for UK (and I would assume rest of Europe), always lagging at least a month behind? (UK 23.3.01 last time I checked).

Very frustrating for PC games since same software! I can understand it for games that require convertion for format reasons, but I believe I'm right in saying that there are no different requirements for PC s/w?

If it is for production reasons I'd be worried. Anyone can cut a CD in no time at all with a CDR, I'm sure these can be spewed out at a fair rate of knots using the proper equipment.

Only upside I suppose is that it'l be a month before I buy another game I won't have time to play to finish for months. Still haven't started BG2 which has been hanging around my place for 3 months.....

Rant over.

 

Hi Viking -

I can't say this is an answer to your question, since I've been unable to find any actual verification that this would cause a delay, but here goes: in 2000 the US Trade Representative placed the EU on the Priority Watch list under section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. Section 301 is essentially built in to protect intellectual property, copyright, and patentable things.

This might theoretically slow exports of software of all types. It doesn't exactly explain why exports to specific nations within the EU would be slowed, but that's my best guess. Press release about section 301 actions for 2000 can be found here:
http://www.ustr.gov/html/special.html

Could also be the packaging...?

I'm bored enough to track this down, so expect further posts.

 

I hadn't considered that UK might actually get a wholly differently presented product to the US version.

AFAIK they don't bother correcting the spelling etc for English rather than American spelling, but I may be wrong there, he says, franticly searching for the box

For you other Europeans out there, do these games actually get translated at all? (manuals, packaging etc. I'm sure they would not actually translate the game itself.) When I was last in Norway, the only editions I saw looked exactly the same as the UK ones from the outside, with all writing in English.

 

Ironically enough with all that piracy in Eastern Europe and espesially Russia, most games are completely translated in Russian, including voices, dialogues etc... And strangely enough the Russian version sometimes come out before the English version, in fact for some games the English version never makes it to the Russian market at all, which dissapoints a lot of people who would prefer to play the original...

 

Just checked this morning, and fair enough, they do actually "translate" the original manuals etc into English spelling from American (Unless they are trying to educate the American market into proper English? ).

Didn't have a look at the game itself to see if they do change the written stuff, but the voices have a definite American "twang" though, so at least they don't go that far.

At least it gives me another 3 weeks to finish IWD, since I've still to re-do some of Chapter 6, having carelessly lost one of the six badges! The problems of having Chaotic dwarves in your party......

 

There have been cases in the past (eg Fallout 2) where they actually changed the game for the UK, they took out the children so you couldn't shoot them. This then screwed up any quests involving children!
Hopefully they aren't doing that anymore.

 

Looks like I'm flogging a dead horse at this point, but for the record (and on the record!):

"Game localization takes a few weeks to complete for foreign countries."

-Heather Greer of Interplay.