Why do not you support other languages?

[kittyue]

I am so angry, I think the user of FM 2012 like me having thousands!We come from china or japan or turkey and so on.

I paid $29.9 for FM2012 at steam,i like this game, i think many people who come from china or the others like me.The Key is we all paid!

Maybe this people can more than that some one of your language support to the state.

You must know that we are your customers!

Don't Reply me with English,i can use English like this,i don't know more.

我是中国人，我只会这么些英文，你们有什么权力限制其它语言的使用？！

[afced7]

The money it would cost to translate the game into those languages probably outweighs the amount of money they would make from new customers who would buy the game due to it being in their own language. Sorry its in English but this is an English only board.

Its also rather interesting that you're Chinese and have bought a copy of the game, since its unavailable to buy either in boxed form or from steam in your country.

[kittyue]

You don't know!In china some one who like this game has been translated.we can use it before FM 12.1.

but FM 12.1 FM 12.2.2 and so on,we can't use this!

[kittyue]

Now SI do "Limit"!We don't wish SI to translate,but we help ourselves.

[PPPPPPPPPPPP10]

according to this you can buy boxed FM 2012 from outside of China and activated it through steam... but then again OP said that he bought the product through online steam so... it maybe lost in translation or maybe... the alternative ;p

" Region Availability - North Korea, Hong Kong and China:

Unfortunately, we cannot distribute Football Manager 2012 in these countries.

You will not be able to find a boxed copy of Football Manager 2012 in shops or buy the game from digital distribution retailers operating in this country, including Steam.

However, if you would like to play this game, you can activate a boxed copy of the game (purchased from another country) and play the game on Steam.

We hope this information is of use. Please do not hesitate to contact us again for any query related to our products. "

[kenytea]

I hope SI to do something for chinese game fans,because the game have a lot of fans in China.They love this game.This game has very big market in China.

[FrazT]

As always this is a commercial balancing act. If and when the size of the market indicates that the costs involved in translating into another language will be outweighed by the sales, it will be considered, as long as there are no license restictions in that country.

[ruixi111]

in this truly global society, everything is "internationalization" "diversification". If i was the boss of SI I will definitely hire a Chinese guy who speak good enlish to to make a chinese version, may be only take less than 1 week and won't cost alot. im sure this will open up the potential market.

come on this is a country with 1.6 billion people... Why do we so care about a <snip> language issue, this is not a technical problem.

not smart at at all!

[FrazT]

ruixi111- I have edited your post this time- please watch your language on these forums next time.

[snootyjim]

Is he saying that before the 12.1 patch they could use fan-made translations and they no longer work in 12.1 and 12.2?

That's what I'm getting from post #3 and #4.

[g00n]

hire a Chinese guy who speak good enlish to to make a chinese version, may be only take less than 1 week and won't cost alot.

As someone who has worked in translation, I can assure you that translating an entire game of this magnitude will not take less than a week.

[RaYgU]

i am a hong kong guy,i also angry too!!

i trust if SI still block unoffical language, SI will lose above ten thousand customers in fm2013 at china.

china,chinese, is a big market, hope SI reconsider about that !!

[cknzzw]

We all want the Chinese version of FM. We already have the translation version which was free and made by a translation group in our country, and we all pay for the game. Why do you have to ban it? You can earn more money, and we can play Chinese version FM. It's a win win! I hope that FM2012 will have a Chinese version in origin. If not, please do not try to stop us to translate it by ourselves. Thanks SI!!!!!!!!!!

[Barside]

The official market for FM in China is zero (iirc the game is banned by the Chinese authorities), it cannot be sold there & any copies of the game in circulation are technically illegal imports.

Asking SI to financially support a translation is no different to privately importing a car to a country that the manufacturer has no presence in & then complaining that you cannot get the car serviced at an approved garage. - That one was just for you, Kriss.

[cknzzw]

The un-authority thing was because that SI didn't credit that Tibet belongs to China PR, and also Taiwan. It's political problem. I don't know why SI did so. It's just a game. Does SI really want to lose such a big market due to the political problem?

[FrazT]

Just to clarify that SEGA are the game distributors and SI are the developers.

[afced7]

Probably, if only for the sake of realism. Taiwan play football matches, therefore they're in the game. If the Chinese government can't handle that-tough.

[ruixi111]

As someone who has worked in translation, I can assure you that translating an entire game of this magnitude will not take less than a week.

well it was just a assumption, if one guy take lone how about 100 guys, im sure there are thousands volunteers (acctually the Chinesization group is already exist). is it really a problem for a large population country?

[ruixi111]

i bought FM2012 on steam online in Canada, no one cares if it is banned or not, just make a chinese language version, Lots of people (include overseas) will need it/ agree?

[cknzzw]

The problem is not whether Taiwan team is in the game, but Taiwan is Chinese Taiwan or only Taiwan. These are all political problems. If SEGA cares about the Chinese market, they can use Chinese Taiwan in Chinese version. and use Taiwan in other languages version if they want so. Political problems shouldn't be a problem in this global-popular games.

[ruixi111]

i hate political problem. it just a game ... sigh

[FrazT]

i hate political problem. it just a game ... sigh

Most people will agree with this so please keep politics out of the discussion.

[stardust]

I bought two key in steam(one as a gift for a friend),and now,I can't play it in my own language.If this continues,I will no buy FM13、14、15……
shame on you SI

[kittyue]

according to this you can buy boxed FM 2012 from outside of China and activated it through steam... but then again OP said that he bought the product through online steam so... it maybe lost in translation or maybe... the alternative ;p

" Region Availability - North Korea, Hong Kong and China:

Unfortunately, we cannot distribute Football Manager 2012 in these countries.

You will not be able to find a boxed copy of Football Manager 2012 in shops or buy the game from digital distribution retailers operating in this country, including Steam.

However, if you would like to play this game, you can activate a boxed copy of the game (purchased from another country) and play the game on Steam.

We hope this information is of use. Please do not hesitate to contact us again for any query related to our products. "

i said i paid it on steam and i play it,but why limit?

My steam ID is kittyue too！

[Barside]

Maybe SI should work on an Esperanto translation.

[kittyue]

me too，I'm too stupid to pay it($29.9),but can't play it in my own language

[afced7]

I'd be interested to know if SI have actually blocked people from doing their own translation or whether the patch just messed up the translation that already existed.

[kittyue]

As always this is a commercial balancing act. If and when the size of the market indicates that the costs involved in translating into another language will be outweighed by the sales, it will be considered, as long as there are no license restictions in that country.

but the Problem is not translating! Some one of us translating it,but limited by SI!

[kittyue]

As someone who has worked in translation, I can assure you that translating an entire game of this magnitude will not take less than a week.

but this work have finished!!!

[cknzzw]

I'd be interested to know if SI have actually blocked people from doing their own translation or whether the patch just messed up the translation that already existed.

SI blocked us from doing Chinese translation from patch 1210. Then after about one month, our translation group finally worked out. This time, patch 1221 updated a new approach to block us... I don't know why...It should have been a good chance for SI to have more (in fact more than can be imagined) players all over the world. But they eventually...

[kittyue]

SI blocked us from doing Chinese translation from patch 1210. Then after about one month, our translation group finally worked out. This time, patch 1221 updated a new approach to block us... I don't know why...It should have been a good chance for SI to have more (in fact more than can be imagined) players all over the world. But they eventually...

so i think,SI will tell us,don't buy it stupid chinese...that it why i am so angry

[dieu]

Sorry, but China is not such a big market that you claim. China has one of the biggest software piracy rates in the world.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cr...re-piracy-rate

Would it be worth the cost to translate it? I am not so sure.

[stardust]

Sorry, but China is not such a big market that you claim. China has one of the biggest software piracy rates in the world.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cr...re-piracy-rate

Would it be worth the cost to translate it? I am not so sure.

truely,China has one of the biggest software piracy rates in the world.
But,the translate Will not cost SI a penny,we translate it ourselves for over ten years!

[afced7]

I'm fairly sure there's a legitimate reason why they're blocking your attempts to translate the game, they might be worried about people fiddling about with their intellectual property, or they might be worried about piracy rates as dieu suggests. That, after all, is why they didn't include Turkish as a language.

[milnerpoint]

Same reason they dont let the Russian version use the English language setting. Piracy.

[stardust]

Sorry, but China is not such a big market that you claim. China has one of the biggest software piracy rates in the world.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cr...re-piracy-rate

Would it be worth the cost to translate it? I am not so sure.

China has one of the biggest software piracy rates in the world.
And,China also has the lagest population in the world.With economic growth,More and more Chinese people to spend more money on PC games,especially in 80’s and 90's generation

[Ackter]

http://community.sigames.com/showthr...Forum-Language

Please note that as the vast majority of our users are English speaking that we ask that you post in English. This will enable the community to discuss your post or to help you out if you are asking a question.

Bear in mind we do have local language forums for Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish where this rule clearly would not apply.

Repeated breaches of this rule after being advised by an admin or moderator will be dealt with - potentially forcing us to issue warnings or infractions.

[Justin66]

FM2013 if no Chinese version I'm sure I won't buy!!!!!!!



STEAM, the largest on the FM group is FM Chinese group！！！！！！！！！！！！！

[stardust]

Same reason they dont let the Russian version use the English language setting. Piracy.

Well said!

[ynson]

We've paid for the game. Please do not stop us playing FM in Chinese!!!

ni you quan li bu kai fa zhong wen ,dan shi wo men ye you quan li zhi chi dao ban.

[kittyue]

Sorry, but China is not such a big market that you claim. China has one of the biggest software piracy rates in the world.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cr...re-piracy-rate

Would it be worth the cost to translate it? I am not so sure.

i said i paid!steam id is kittyue

software piracy,that is not my Problem.And FM 12.2.2 tell me how to Piracy？！！！

if you can,you can know how many people paid it come from china from steam!

and you can see this market.

i said too,We do not need your translation，we done it! SO it is not worth Problem!

And who are you!

[Kriss]

The official market for FM in China is zero (iirc the game is banned by the Chinese authorities), it cannot be sold there & any copies of the game in circulation are technically illegal imports.

Asking SI to financially support a translation is no different to privately importing a car to a country that the manufacturer has no presence in & then complaining that you cannot get the car serviced at an approved garage. - That one was just for you, Kriss.

A rare one that Barside, an appropriate car analogy

FM isn't sold in China by Sega/Steam but pirated copies are sold commercially there on a huge scale, a very messy situation which I'm sure they'll steer well clear of.

[cknzzw]

Sorry, but China is not such a big market that you claim. China has one of the biggest software piracy rates in the world.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cr...re-piracy-rate

Would it be worth the cost to translate it? I am not so sure.

I don't doubt what you said. I also support antipiracy. But the fact is that FM2012 did well in antipiracy. No one can play FM2012 (especially after patch 1210) without paying for it. Many Chinese appeal here for Chinese version are all the customers who have paid for the game. The piracy rate in China is high. But the population in China is also huge. Maybe there is 80% piracy rate in China. But 20% of Chinese people can be 200M people. If SI still does good in antipiracy technology like this year, China will be one of the biggest market in the world!!! Remember! We all support antipiracy! No one will play FM2012 patch 1222 OR even care about it if he didn't pay for it!!!

[FrazT]

Enough of this- get back on topic or the thread is closed

[Miles Jacobson]

There's quite a bit of misinformation in here, so thought I'd clear a few things up.

Firstly, the game is no longer banned in China as far as I know.

The reason for no official Chinese translation is the same that is given for many other countries - we do not sell enough games in China to justify the cost of making a translation. Because of the huge amount of text in the game, it costs a lot of money to not only translate, but also test the translation, for any country. We have a set threshold internally of when we'll start looking at official translations - our sales in China are way off this target, unfortunately.

We'd love nothing more than to be able to translate the game into every language in the world, but also have to do cost benefit analysis, and the number of extra sales that would be gained according to experts in the market in the territory are also nowhere near where we'd need to be to justify the cost.

As for unofficial translations, we don't offer support to these, nor have suggested they are possible. Nor am I allowed, legally, to comment on this subject any more than I have done already - hence the message I sent out on Twitter the other week about how I won't talk about translations on Twitter any more. I/we can't talk about them here either.

[johnny9427]

In 12.0.4 i buy the genuine of FM,it must has Unofficial to make the chinese. This was Reason of support why make me to buy this game.
If you haven't intend to make you can entrusted to Unofficial form to do this.
Just do not make something limit! It can make more player to buy genuine,Just like me.

[Barside]

A rare one that Barside, an appropriate car analogy

My moment of glory is gone, thanks Miles.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

The official market for FM in China is zero (iirc the game is banned by the Chinese authorities), it cannot be sold there & any copies of the game in circulation are technically illegal imports.

Asking SI to financially support a translation is no different to privately importing a car to a country that the manufacturer has no presence in & then complaining that you cannot get the car serviced at an approved garage. - That one was just for you, Kriss.

From what I can make out he isn't asking SI to fork out on a translation, in fact if SI did what he asked then they would actually spend less money on programming new ways to stop them translating it.

[kentuto]

i m a Chinese too.i also paid for fm2012. hopo you guys solve the language problem as soon as possible.'cause the key is you guys only need to let us can make our translate and do not ban it.i think is not difficult.
its really hard for lots people to play fm in english...

[Ackter]

From what I can make out he isn't asking SI to fork out on a translation, in fact if SI did what he asked then they would actually spend less money on programming new ways to stop them translating it.

If it's a legal issue, as Miles suggests above, then their hands are simply tied - they have to do whatever is legally required of them.

[johnny9427]

I want to say,if now not have unofficial translations,it must be not like this now more use chinese user to buy this game.
Just like me,if SI can make chinese translations,i must buy genuine in FM2013,FM2014 and more...

[lovesyb]

We've paid for the game. Please do not stop us playing FM in Chinese!!!

[pigfacemonkeyman]

If it's a legal issue, as Miles suggests above, then their hands are simply tied - they have to do whatever is legally required of them.

I'm finding it hard to come up with a reason why this would be a legal issue, I can't believe there are laws that force companies throughout the world to use resources putting in place means to stop people from certain countries translating the language used in their product into a local form.

[Ackter]

As neither of us have the knowledge to back it up, and SI have their hands tied talking about it, it's a bit pointless discussing it.

[lzytank]

We've paid for the game. Please do not stop us playing FM in Chinese!!!

[Barside]

Are all these first time posters the same person?

Not sure if toy chucking is the right way to go on this, maybe a nicely worded email/letter to Sega asking for clarification is a better option.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

As neither of us have the knowledge to back it up, and SI have their hands tied talking about it, it's a bit pointless discussing it.

Not for the guys who unfortunately feel the need to blind me with huge red letters it isn't.

[Ackter]

Are all these first time posters the same person?

Not sure if toy chucking is the right way to go on this, maybe a nicely worded email/letter to Sega asking for clarification is a better option.

Nah, they'll be from an SI community forum just backing up the points that they all feel.

[Barside]

The spam a board 'I am Spartacus' approach.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

The spam a board 'I am Spartacus' approach.

Not feeling very generous today then.

[Barside]

As I eluded to a few posts up the Chinese community have reached an impasse where no further comment can be made by SI on a public forum, the only option remaining it to privately contact Sega (legal or consumer affairs) to ask for a clarification on the issue.

[stemlfc]

As a translator in several languages, I can tell you that a game with this magnitude would take a long time to translate, code and test. You're looking at some serious money being spent on a translator or a team of translators. It evidently, from a back-seat opinion is not economically viable in any stretch of the imagination.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

As a translator in several languages, I can tell you that a game with this magnitude would take a long time to translate, code and test. You're looking at some serious money being spent on a translator or a team of translators. It evidently, from a back-seat opinion is not economically viable in any stretch of the imagination.

Are you deliberately trying to sabotage your chances of work?

[Ackter]

Translations are a nightmare to QA as well - every language requires a separate QA cycle to make sure it's all working correctly.

The amount of time I've spent playing FM in Dutch, for example, is crazy. Though it was worrying that I was still able to navigate around successfully without actually understanding a word of it :/

[antimosq]

I'm a Chinese player too but I'm personally fine with both the English version and older patches so not really a crisis for me... Still some nagging:

- The anti-piracy comment is clearly not the point since a) SEGA/SI have done a good job blocking the pirate efforts in the most recent patches so most players, Chinese or not, have paid for the game, and b) a large number of Chinese players are not able to play the game in English, so blocking fan-made translation work will force them to use potential pirated versions - which effectively supports piracy.

- It's even more ridiculous to conclude that this has anything to do with politics. FM is just a game and should not be worth much political attention from those messy authorities. So long as the games doesn't literally say that it supports Taiwan as a separate country and kill all Chinese, it will not be banned in China.

- It all boils down to financial feasibility. Miles has made it very clear that FM is not earning enough money from China. And I assume if one day China becomes one of the main revenue streams for SEGA/SI then all these translation/politics/piracy arguments will become bull shizzle. A corporation will for sure find its way to clear up all this crap if it stands in the way of profitability. The problem is, for a market that a) is not huge yet but represents substantial growth potential, and b) English version cannot be easily used and accepted, blocking fan-made patches would effectively kill the whole market. In my opinion if SEGA/SI have any strategic planning in mind, they should take the middle-ground approach - neither support translation nor block fan-made work. The market will grow by itself and once it hits the internal threshold, release official translation and further boost local presence.

Wow that's a lot of words... Anyway, China is a huge market that SEGA/SI should not neglect. What they're doing right now is not helping themselves.

[Robben16]

Hi guys,

I have been a super fan for FM since cm0304 era. Actually, in China, there is a very famous FM fans site called Ballpump. Every year after new version of FM was released, Ballpump will call for some volunteers who can speak good English to translate the game compeletly for free. People who participate the translation project earns not even a penny. Why do they want to spend all their spare time to do something that gives no economic return? I am saying this not because I hope SI do the same thing (translate the game for free). I know that is not realistic for such a big company. But why not try to contact the leader of the translation group? Why not try to cooperate? The group has been working on FM translation since 2001. They are super experienced in dealing with the translation, every year's Chinese version FM was well translated. The translation is compelete, accurate and funny (what? funny? trust me, it is ). Anyway, all I mean is that it will not cost SI much to do the official translaltion if they can cooperate with Ballpump, since works like coding, translating and debugging has all been done by Ballpump. I'm sure Ballpump will more than happy to do the official translation for SI if SI agrees to make Chinese the 13th officially supported language.

Thanks.

[maverick_woo]

The problem is that if you localize a game unofficially, you have to hack it first, which in a way totally violated the ToU. I suggest SI try to localize the game into zh-TW and release the version in Hong Kong which is a good way to avoid the censorship in China. Or if SI would like to do a zh-CN version, send me a message, i have some resources to do it.

[Brian Shanahan]

SI are a company that have morals. I'd rather have my favourite game made by a company that has morals and a lower revenue stream to the extent that I'd pay more for it, than to have it made by a company that ditches its morals for a bit of filthy lucre.

But remember it is the CCP banning the game not SI refusing to sell there.

[Tez01979]

- The anti-piracy comment is clearly not the point since a) SEGA/SI have done a good job blocking the pirate efforts in the most recent patches so most players, Chinese or not, have paid for the game, and b) a large number of Chinese players are not able to play the game in English, so blocking fan-made translation work will force them to use potential pirated versions - which effectively supports piracy.

- It all boils down to financial feasibility. Miles has made it very clear that FM is not earning enough money from China. And I assume if one day China becomes one of the main revenue streams for SEGA/SI then all these translation/politics/piracy arguments will become bull shizzle. A corporation will for sure find its way to clear up all this crap if it stands in the way of profitability. The problem is, for a market that a) is not huge yet but represents substantial growth potential, and b) English version cannot be easily used and accepted, blocking fan-made patches would effectively kill the whole market. In my opinion if SEGA/SI have any strategic planning in mind, they should take the middle-ground approach - neither support translation nor block fan-made work. The market will grow by itself and once it hits the internal threshold, release official translation and further boost local presence.

These are proberbly the two reasons why they don't make chinese translations and the legal side will be attributed to piracy. This is why games companies can't get round piracy because someone out there will always look to do so no matter the situation. Translations, use of steam, origin etc. Best thing to do is roll with the punches and hope the markets speak for themselves and purchase the game legally. Don't understand though why game companies don't put virus code in games that if pirated would break the game simple solution all round.

[Neil Brock]

Miles has addressed this here - http://community.sigames.com/showthr...=1#post7678193

We won't be making any further comment on this issue so I'm closing this thread now. Thanks.