Paul Farquhar
Legend
Hardly a recent development...
D&D 5E "The Future of D&D is International" (Inverse article)
LordEntrails
Hero
It just seems to me that stating "international" or that they are taking the game "worldwide" is like saying "I put gas in my car" (or charge the batteries).
Of course they are. The only other option is to limit their own profits and profitability. Not that they have maximized their market penetration within the USA, but there is nothing inherent about D&D that is localized to one place. Hence the market has always been worldwide. It's just a matter of funding & managing international expansion.
As for localization, I'm all for D&D in as many languages as possible. But their is a real cost to doing that, whether teh people that are doing it are WotC employees or a third party. Maybe a business might be willing to subsidize such a cost, but apparently WotC is not. That leaves 3 choices; 1) pay the higher price and show that translations are a good business investment and provide justification for more products to be translated which will drive down the price as the risk becomes less and competition arises. 2) Don't pay the higher prices and justify the high cost due to low success and high risk. 3) Try social pressure to get WotC to subsidize the costs and then hopefully justify their investment by helping them to sell lots of translated books.
Of course they are. The only other option is to limit their own profits and profitability. Not that they have maximized their market penetration within the USA, but there is nothing inherent about D&D that is localized to one place. Hence the market has always been worldwide. It's just a matter of funding & managing international expansion.
As for localization, I'm all for D&D in as many languages as possible. But their is a real cost to doing that, whether teh people that are doing it are WotC employees or a third party. Maybe a business might be willing to subsidize such a cost, but apparently WotC is not. That leaves 3 choices; 1) pay the higher price and show that translations are a good business investment and provide justification for more products to be translated which will drive down the price as the risk becomes less and competition arises. 2) Don't pay the higher prices and justify the high cost due to low success and high risk. 3) Try social pressure to get WotC to subsidize the costs and then hopefully justify their investment by helping them to sell lots of translated books.
LordEntrails
Hero
Unless that library is digital... *G*
That is a very interesting article. I remember when 5e first came out, there was a lot of talk about "trans-media" products and business model, which kind of died down after a while. This may be one reason why; they are getting better at reading their customer base and expanding it into new or newer markets. While they have always done some international in the past, particularly Europe, it seems that they have vast, largely untapped, market there that they are taking noticing. Having dealt with internationalization sometimes in the software industry, I would image that this will be a new challenge for them, as their product may be quite expensive to internationalize and market; especially if they want to keep the sticker price down.
The ENWorld tradition.
L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
Parmandur
Book-Friend
This is 2019, much of this is out of date in the middle of the booming tabletop gaming industry. And you are dead wrong about China: see, for instance, "Ice Fantasy" or "Monster Hunters" among many, many other counter examples. All of the big Chinese movies of recent years are very Sci-Fi/Fantasy.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Wait ... are you saying I should believe what they say, instead of my own fevered hopes and speculation?
DRAT! That takes, like, 95% of the fun out of the internet.
Reality is frequently disappointing.
Don't forget that, in addition to translation, re-formatting will be needed in the case of languages like Japanese and non-simplified Chinese.
As someone who loves languages, I shudder to think of the WotC translator who might have to translate every book into Japanese (multiple scripts), Arabic (Abugida), and Russian (Multiple different ways to say one thing depending on context, and I mean a lot of different ways).
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