D&D 5E WotC will not allow translation of D&D NEXT.

Mistwell · Jul 3, 2014

Nevermind...my point was already made by others, and they did it better than I did.

pogre · Jul 3, 2014

Why do people find it so unbelievable that Hasbro or even WOTC has deemed certain foreign markets not worth their time? Licenses require time and effort, and from what others have posted about the situation in the German language editions, Hasbro or WOTC was not satisfied with foreign sales numbers.

I'm sorry to come off as "Learn ya' some 'merican or get out!" But honestly, this is a company that is not scrambling after every dime - they have shareholders and they want a substantial return.

I for one have no doubt that JH has it absolutely correct.

GSHamster · Jul 3, 2014

I think WotC has moved translation in-house.

There was an announcement today that some of their MTG columns will be translated and published simultaneously in multiple languages:

Additionally, next Monday, July 7, we're launching the first week of a more localized DailyMTG.com. Starting on Monday and going forward, three columns [per week] will be translated into Japanese, German, French, Italian, and Spanish and simultaneously published with the English versions

Source: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/times-they-are-changin-2014-07-02

If they have the capability and willingness to do that, I think it's likely that they would use the same resources to translate the RPG side of the business.

pogre · Jul 3, 2014

GSHamster said:
I think WotC has moved translation in-house.

There was an announcement today that some of their MTG columns will be translated and published simultaneously in multiple languages:

Source: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/times-they-are-changin-2014-07-02

If they have the capability and willingness to do that, I think it's likely that they would use the same resources to translate the RPG side of the business.

That would be great. I hope you are right.

Mirtek · Jul 3, 2014

pogre said:
Licenses require time and effort,

Does it? Once you have a contract with a partner in a country he's doing all the work and you only need to check the monthly royalties payment. You don't even need to specifically negotiate if you don't care that much about getting into a certain language. Just put up a general license draft and all local publishers can either take it or leave it. No special exceptions for anyone.

pogre · Jul 3, 2014

Mirtek said:
Does it? Once you have a contract with a partner in a country he's doing all the work and you only need to check the monthly royalties payment. You don't even need to specifically negotiate if you don't care that much about getting into a certain language. Just put up a general license draft and all local publishers can either take it or leave it. No special exceptions for anyone.

Yep, it really does. Years ago when I practiced law (I'm a recovering attorney

) we had a business we did a number of licenses for - it was never as straightforward as it seemed on the surface.

I hope GSHamster is right that WOTC/Hasbro plans to move it in house.

Blackwarder · Jul 3, 2014

pogre said:
Yep, it really does. Years ago when I practiced law (I'm a recovering attorney ) we had a business we did a number of licenses for - it was never as straightforward as it seemed on the surface.

I hope GSHamster is right that WOTC/Hasbro plans to move it in house.

So what about all the other languages in the world? Why not let local publishers do it, Especialy for the smaller markets? Good for them if they want to publish for the bigger markets but what about other markets?

Warder

Cherno · Jul 3, 2014

The same reason as why most countries don't have dubbed versions of Hollywood movies. Localization costs a lot of money, and with RPGs which are very niche and possibly have to be printed as well, this might not be profitable when looking at the possible sales from it.

Jan van Leyden · Jul 3, 2014

Blackwarder said:
So what about all the other languages in the world? Why not let local publishers do it, Especialy for the smaller markets? Good for them if they want to publish for the bigger markets but what about other markets?

It still means work for someone at WotC/Hasbro. The licensee usually has to pay the licensor a percentage of the sales. Add a fixed sum, probably used as agreed minimum like in "you owe us 5% of your sales, minimum 10,000$ per year (note: numbers completely made up!)

This money has to cover the expenses on the licensor's side and then some. WotC/Hasbro can probably drill down their expected expenses, which are more than the cost of a phone call "Do it, dude!"

Additionally they'd been handing out their baby into the hands of a stranger. What about quality control of the tranlsation and the books? How can they enforce a timely release? Can they stipluate which products are to be released? And so on.

On top of that you probably have company limitations or guidelines for such projects as well, which can turn such a project into a nightmare best avoided.