Gale Force 9 Comments On Brazil Translatorgate

In the wake of Brazil Tanslatorgate, Dungeons & Dragons licensee Gale Force Nine has made a statement regarding the dispute between Fire on Board and FMR about the rights to translate D&D 5th Edition into Portuguese for he Brazilian audience. They have put translation plans for Brazil on hold pending an investigation. As yet, WotC has issued no comment.

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Gale Force Nine Comments on D&D Localizations

Gale Force Nine has been working for over a year on our plan to publish localized language versions of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS fifth edition products. Throughout the process, we met and considered many partners around the world based on the same criteria: a passion for the material and a commitment to deliver the complete plan. We wanted to offer every country the entire D&D fifth edition experience and the partners we have chosen to work with will be doing just that.

Currently, we are speaking with all parties involved in Brazil to sort out the situation. Our goal is to ensure fans can enjoy the products in their local language of choice and we are committed to supporting those fans and their community. As such our product release plans for this market are on hold until we ​fully investigate and ​hopefully resolve th​is issue. We apologize to D&D fans in Brazil for any delay this may cause but we’ll do our best to have a solution in place soon.

John-Paul Brisigotti
CEO Battlefront Group
GF9 is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Battlefront Group

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[ChapolimX]

If they really want to improve sales for B&M stores, they should refuse to sell to Amazon.

That would make the game out of reach for many customers around the world. In my area I can find some of the books in big bookstores. But the price is higher and the stores aren't friendly at all. So, I buy from Amazon.

 

[Guest 6801328]

And there are still some things that would basically bring in a lot of money, but WoTC won't allow: like PDF versions of books.

It really never does cease to amaze me the confidence with which people will assert opinions about how somebody else's business works.

 

[Morrus]

That would make the game out of reach for many customers around the world.

Indeed. I have no local store. I have to use Amazon. Not selling via Amazon would make it a very local hobby. And this site probably wouldn't exist as I'd not have seen any D&D books since the 1990s.

Given the collapse of local game stores worldwide (yes, please tell us how you have 42 gamestores in your street!) not selling on Amazon would be a horrifically stupid decision.

 

[Henry]

I'm fast becoming an old man, myself, the only difference is when I play Pathfinder, I pack my dice, pen, paper, and all of 2 lbs. worth of iPad in my bag and go to a friend's house to game. When I play 5e, I have to pack my dice, pen, paper, and 20 lbs worth of books to go do the same - and that's only like 6 books so far (3 core, whatever adventure hardcover, volo's guide, and sword coast). Much further along, and I say screw D&D, it's not worth the hassle. PDF isn't a matter of theft or copyright violation, it's a matter of the vendor satisfying my market need, and me rewarding them with money for it.

 

[LordEntrails]

E...
We've also got a lot of data on how PDFs and epubs and things affect book sales, and the answer is exactly what anyone familiar with media purchases would have predicted: If you give away the full text of a book completely free, hardcopy sales increase. This is why Baen has a free library of complete books you can download, and has had it for years. It's why authors make special deals with Baen to get their books there even if they're published elsewhere; it increases sales....

I don't think you're right about Baen. I just spent some time checking out there free library. It seems like what they give away free are one book in a series or one or two books per author (if any, popular authors I checked had no free books), not the entire series or by any means probably even a majority of their books.

So sure, giving away an intro book to a series or to an author is nice, and I'm sure it leads to more sales, of those books that aren't free. i.e. You read a book in the Ring of Fire series and like it, your more likely to buy the other books in the series.

This is, imo, exactly what WotC has done with the free Basic Rules.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm fast becoming an old man, myself, the only difference is when I play Pathfinder, I pack my dice, pen, paper, and all of 2 lbs. worth of iPad in my bag and go to a friend's house to game. When I play 5e, I have to pack my dice, pen, paper, and 20 lbs worth of books to go do the same - and that's only like 6 books so far (3 core, whatever adventure hardcover, volo's guide, and sword coast). Much further along, and I say screw D&D, it's not worth the hassle. PDF isn't a matter of theft or copyright violation, it's a matter of the vendor satisfying my market need, and me rewarding them with money for it.

I agree, but even PDFs are old media now. D&D Beyond is much more promising IF they offer a solution where I can access the content offline and IF the pricing is right.

 

[volanin]

It really never does cease to amaze me the confidence with which people will assert opinions about how somebody else's business works.

Don't mind that... assertions are second nature to my internet persona!

 

[Shasarak]

It really never does cease to amaze me the confidence with which people will assert opinions about how somebody else's business works.

Selling stuff makes you money; its not rocket science.

 

[Capn Charlie]

Selling stuff makes you money; its not rocket science.

You'd think so. Right now my wholesaler lists Volo's at 26.97 (my price to pay, as a store), plus some shipping, handling and COD fees, usually, call it a round up to 28. Amazon however, has them for 25.14, with free shipping and no sales tax. It is cheaper for me to order one off of amazon than to "steal" one off of my own shelf. Not really a way to realistically sell this competitively, just beg people to give me money for instant gratification or to support the local shop, might as well have a march of dice jar on the counter, at that point, it isn't a business.

 

[thzero]

It's still a mystery to me how it took them 2 years to even start translations.

They didn't have the Linguistic skill, of course.