D&D General D&D No Longer In Portugese

WotC today released the following statement, as Portugese-language sales have not been enough to warrant their continuation. Some products will continue to be available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.

We are making the difficult decision to halt Portuguese product later this year.
We will continue to release D&D products in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.

On D&D Beyond they provided a little more detail.

Dungeons & Dragons is a global game that we strive to make as accessible as possible to our wide and varied audience. However, we’ve also had to confront rising costs and shifts in global demand, even as D&D continues to grow.

Portuguese language product sales have not kept pace with rising costs across the board, which means that we are making the difficult decision to halt Portuguese product later this year, after the following three planned books:

• Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons
• Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
• Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

We will continue to release D&D products in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. While not all products will be available in all languages, or at the same time, we intend to focus on these six languages.

 

[Otrebor]

Here in Brazil, in the mid-90s there were translations of systems other than D&D, such as World of Darkness (mainly the basic books on Vampire, Masquerade, Werewolf, the apocalypse, Mage, and the clanbooks, etc.).
D&D received the basic books, Karameikos, Forgotten Realms (and Undermountain), until the responsible publisher at the time canceled the translations (before they released Ravenloft).
During the 3rd ed era of D&D, the core books and some settings were released (Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft 3 ed, Dragonlance 3 ed), and some supplements.
But they were always late translations... very late, generally.
There was even a situation where, practically right after one of the 3 ed class books was released, WotC announced the 3.5 books, making the newly released translation obsolete.

Currently, WotC itself was in charge of translating the 5th edition books (after a conflict with 2 Brazilian publishers who tried to obtain the translation rights).

Here we have some national systems (Tormenta, Paranormal Order, and my unknown Imaginaery).

I haven't followed the systems other than D&D, but translations are rare. I know there is a translation of Call of Cthulhu and Mutants & Masterminds, but I'm not aware of World of Darkness and others currently.

The fact is that RPG books don't sell very well in Brazil. The value of the dollar against the local currency (Real) makes books very expensive, even those translated.

The books written and published here also do not have a very affordable price, and this, combined with the lack of habit of Brazilian players in purchasing books, makes everything more difficult.

I'll use my case as an example, I launched my system in English and Portuguese at DTRPG, and although far from being a success, the English version sells absurdly more, even though the Portuguese version is sold at a lower price due to the exchange.

The same thing happens with the D&D books that I release on the DMs Guild. Books in Portuguese sell around 1 in 30 compared to English, even though they are cheaper (the only exception was one of the launches I participated in, Weathermay's Survival Guide to the Mists), where sales were close.

Recently I released some Planescape material... sales in English were reasonable. In Portuguese there were no sales.

Sorry for the long text, but in short, I believe the problem here is a mix of 3 factors:

• The price;
• The lack of habit of buying books (many prefer to resort to piracy, and believe that it is not worth investing in the hobby);
• The delay in launching;

Thanks for that info! I found that true down in Brazil too, especially the trio of delayed printing, mistakes in translation, and ridiculously high price in Real. But there is a huge gaming community down there and the market could be tapped into if people wanted to dedicate to building a base over quick profits. I'd love to see your gaming material in portugese, where can I find it?

 

[Mistwell]

For Spanish games, I just assumed most people were playing Aventuras en La Marca del Este (Adventures in Eastern Mark). That game looks pretty incredible to me.

 

[LAbaddon]

Thanks for that info! I found that true down in Brazil too, especially the trio of delayed printing, mistakes in translation, and ridiculously high price in Real. But there is a huge gaming community down there and the market could be tapped into if people wanted to dedicate to building a base over quick profits. I'd love to see your gaming material in portugese, where can I find it?

I have an indie system (Imaginaery RPG) at DrivehturRPG:

DriveThruRPG

Some Ravenloft books, released by the Black Feather project at DMs Guild:

Dungeon Masters Guild -

And books for other D&D settings, also on DMS Guild, but almost all of them in english:

Dungeon Masters Guild -