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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[painted_klown]

I seriously cannot believe for one second that people having a digital copy of (insert media here) would lead them to buy more physical copies of (insert media here).

It hasn't been true for music (remember things called record stores?), movies, or video games. It's not true for books, magazines, newspapers either.

I love D&D. It's a game that I enjoy playing. If WotC had released the rules on an etch-a-sketch that couldn't be erased, then I would still love the game. Saying that more people would like D&D if it were released in PDF format is like saying that if you pressed Miley Cyrus onto vinyl record, it would be the next Dark side of the Moon (or White Album for you Beatles fans). The point being is that the format of the delivery system doesn't make the content better. Showgirls is a terrible movie on DVD and BD, just as The Godfather is a great movie on VHS, DVD, and BD.

Sure, PDFs may get it into more hands, but WoTC has already given us the FREE basic rules as PDFs and an SRD! If you cannot glean enough enjoyment from those FREE products, then go buy the books, or play another game, and lets not kid ourselves here, those who really want PDF copies of the 5E books have already obtained them illegally. For me, The REAL "solid evidence" would be "How many of the users with illegal PDF files have actually purchased the physical copies of all the books they have?" I'm guessing (as there is no real evidence to point to) that far more players have the illegal PDFs than have purchased the physical books.

Maybe it's because I am an old man, and I really enjoy collecting physical media (I still buy CDs even), but I cannot understand the outrage over WotC not having PDF copies of all the 5E books for sale. I have not found the PDF copy of any book to be better, faster, or more convenient than having a book at the table. RPG books usually require some flipping through pages to find stuff, especially when rolling up characters and such. Heck, I find myself using multiple bookmarks in my PHB when rolling up a character, to easily flip back and forth between sections of the book. Either I'm a total luddite, or simply an old geezer, but the physical book is always better in every situation that I have ran across.

 

[mangamuscle]

I seriously cannot believe for one second that people having a digital copy of (insert media here) would lead them to buy more physical copies of (insert media here).

It does. The sketchy part is about increasing sales at B&M stores, unless they provide some type of incentive (reward points, free tables to play, etc.) it is more comfortable to just buy your dead tree copy at amazon or OBS. So it makes sense B&M would feel like they are being back stabbed by a friend (hey, it comes with a bonus as the top story acknowledges) if a big company like wotc sells thru the internet, which they do since you can get a 5e copy at amazon (and OBS has started selling new prints of old books), so not selling pdfs does not make much difference imo.

 

[Morrus]

The evidence certainly seems to suggest otherwise for video game stores. Or video stores. Anybody remember Blockbusters?

https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/25/gamestop-to-shutter-150-stores/

I'd be really interested in seeing [MENTION=61529]seebs[/MENTION] solid evidence otherwise.

 

[Leatherhead]

Blockbuster died because of Redbox. They could have survived in a post Netflix world, but the kiosks are what shut them out of meatspace. They just had nowhere left to compete once someone figured out how to eliminate the overhead of running a their own storefront.

On the other hand, brick and mortar stores provide a physical location to play games, which is becoming more necessary in today's crowded cities. It's not like you can run over to a book store and bust out some dice in the coffee shop. So they still have another area of potential growth.

Gamestop has a series of problems related to corporate policy that make it annoying to shop there: The "Cycle of life" and forcing the clerks to upsell magazines, pre-orders, previously used games, and useless peripherals. Some days I would rather even shop at a store like Walmart (which is a very bad thing). Physical video game copies still have demand. Consoles still suffer from limited storage and horrible download times (which can be mitigated by your isp selection), and collectors are more popular than ever. Heck, retro game stores are starting to become popular now.

 

[SunGold]

Maybe it's because I am an old man, and I really enjoy collecting physical media (I still buy CDs even), but I cannot understand the outrage over WotC not having PDF copies of all the 5E books for sale. I have not found the PDF copy of any book to be better, faster, or more convenient than having a book at the table.

Cool, but..."that's just, like, your opinion, man." I don't understand why anyone does karaoke or puts cilantro in their food (heathens), but here we all are.

I'm not even particularly into PDFs, but off the top of my head:

1. Pricing. They're cheaper, and not everyone has infinite cash to throw at elfgames.
2. Portability. There was a convo on Gamerstable (a podcast) a while back about how glad they all were for PDFs, since it meant no more dragging ridiculously heavy backpacks full of books to each others' houses every week. Whether you're at your weekly game night, sitting in a coffee shop, or far from home at a con, you can now carry your entire games library in one hand.
3. Accessibility. Backlighting, the ability to zoom, etc., can be a significant help to the visually impaired.

Really though, the reasons for wanting PDFs are irrelevant. All that matters is that people want them.

My comic shop has some sort of deal with comiXology (Amazon's digital comics company) that gives the shop a comiXology storefront, so they get a cut of the profits when you buy through it. I'd like to see WotC do something similar with game shops. Customers get the digital products they want, the FLGS still makes money, and WotC both makes money and helps sustain B&M stores.

 

[Morrus]

My comic shop has some sort of deal with comiXology (Amazon's digital comics company) that gives the shop a comiXology storefront, so they get a cut of the profits when you buy through it. I'd like to see WotC do something similar with game shops. Customers get the digital products they want, the FLGS still makes money, and WotC both makes money and helps sustain B&M stores.

It exists. It's called Bits & Mortar. Many publishers are signed up to it.

 

[SunGold]

It exists. It's called Bits & Mortar. Many publishers are signed up to it.

Isn't B&M just for providing the PDF of a physical book you've already bought?

Like I said, not particularly into PDFs.

 

[Mirtek]

I remember how 3e and 4e were translated only in a couple of months after release. I don't know how these contracts are made, but i'm pretty sure the major investment comes from whom is traslating, due to the license and all the translating and distribution expenses goes to the licesee (I guess).

That was due to long running partnerships with local publishers dating back from 2e.

Early into 4e WotC burned a lot of bridges by making unrealistic demands and canceling licenses, killing every foreign language version out there in the process. So they had to start from scratch finding new partners (or convincing their old partners to work with them again) and with the skeleton crew that WotC has become, they likely did not have the capcities to do so earlier

 

[mangamuscle]

My comic shop has some sort of deal with comiXology (Amazon's digital comics company) that gives the shop a comiXology storefront, so they get a cut of the profits when you buy through it. I'd like to see WotC do something similar with game shops. Customers get the digital products they want, the FLGS still makes money, and WotC both makes money and helps sustain B&M stores.

It is more feasible that One Book Shelf (drivethrurpg/rpgnow/dungeonmasterguild) offers that kind of deal for the same reason comixology does instead of Marvel and/or DC, they can offer a wider selection of titles, not limited to any one company and including many WotC titles.

 

[SunGold]

It is more feasible that One Book Shelf (drivethrurpg/rpgnow/dungeonmasterguild) offers that kind of deal for the same reason comixology does instead of Marvel and/or DC, they can offer a wider selection of titles, not limited to any one company and including many WotC titles.

That would work too.