Working Designs officialy dead...

[Taskmage]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

I worked with Gearbox on the Brothers in Arms games and Ubisoft was their publisher. There's one notable scene in the game where the soldiers are pinned into a trench with overwhelming gunfire and can hear tanks rolling in. Death seems certain. When they start getting shelled, one guy just loses it and jumps out of the trench with his pistol and starts firing wildly at the tanks, shouting "You want me? F*CKING TAKE ME!"

Well, when Ubisoft translated our game to Italian, the original intent behind the line was completely lost. In Italy, Leggett's last words are "You want me? F*CK ME! TAKE ME!"

[Macht]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

I worked with Gearbox on the Brothers in Arms games and Ubisoft was their publisher. There's one notable scene in the game where the soldiers are pinned into a trench with overwhelming gunfire and can hear tanks rolling in. Death seems certain. When they start getting shelled, one guy just loses it and jumps out of the trench with his pistol and starts firing wildly at the tanks, shouting "You want me? F*CKING TAKE ME!"

Well, when Ubisoft translated our game to Italian, the original intent behind the line was completely lost. In Italy, Leggett's last words are "You want me? F*CK ME! TAKE ME!"

LOL, omg that is one funny translation error. Making the guys last words sound like something out of a pornography movie.

[Caspian]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

On the other side you have Final Fantasy VII, with typos and grammatical errors galore, and Sony Computer Entertainment America couldn't even get the name of one of the most important characters correct.

Which character would that be?

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

That's the big secret GrandMom?

And when did I say there was a big secret?? >.<

[DakAttack]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

Aeris, right? I remember they always published her name as Aerith in Japanese magazines. They pronounce Sephiroth as Sephiros though, so I can sort of see where the mix up would come in.

[Taskmage]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

One point for Impaction.

Aerith Gainsborough (Japanese: エアリス・ゲインズブール, Earisu Geinzubūru) (formerly Aeris Gainsborough and originally Aerith Gainsbourg), is a fictional character from the role playing game Final Fantasy VII, and one of the main playable characters. She fights with a metal quarterstaff; however, her physical attacks are relatively weak, and she is better utilized as a mage. Her Limit Breaks are used to heal or protect the party. In the original Japanese versions of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, she is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto; in the English version of Kingdom Hearts, she is voiced by Mandy Moore.

Aerith is often referred to as "Aeris," due to the incorrect transliteration of her name in Sony's English translation of the game. The official Romanization was "Aerith" from the start (as can be seen in the Japanese instruction manual and other official printed materials). The problem may have originated due to the fact that the foreign sounds "s" (as a stand-alone consonant) and "th" are both represented in Japanese syllabery by "su" ス, or it may have been a deliberate aesthetic change on Sony's part. The correct spelling was subsequently used in the English translation of Kingdom Hearts, spoken by Leon (aka Squall Leonhart), but it is never heard. "Aerith" may be based on the Hebrew name Erith, "flower", which makes sense considering her association with flowers; and also "Earth," due to her ability to commune with the Planet.

[Macht]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

And when did I say there was a big secret?? >.<

I was disgusted when I heard the news about WD. There is a lot more to this story than the public knows. What a huge blow to every RPG lover.

Sorry but bolded section to me just came out as a secret.

Secret n. - Something kept hidden from others or known only to oneself or to a few.

You said that "There is a lot more to this story then th epublic knows", if the public doesn't know then that qualifies as a few.

So you basically did say secret, just because you didn't use the word doesn't mean your sentance didn't lead to the same statement.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

Sorry but bolded section to me just came out as a secret.

Secret n. - Something kept hidden from others or known only to oneself or to a few.

You said that "There is a lot more to this story then th epublic knows", if the public doesn't know then that qualifies as a few.

So you basically did say secret, just because you didn't use the word doesn't mean your sentance didn't lead to the same statement.

Macht, did you even read the article!?? I was stating what they quoted Ireland of saying. >.< "Sony has made it clear that they do not want the details of their dealings with any publisher made public." So if you have a beef, take it up with Ireland.

[COSMOS]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

I just have to wonder about sony at times. With the next gen war around the corner you would need quality developers on your side. Im a little nervous in Irelands facanation with 360 RPgs... could he start developing for them? O.o

[bungiefan]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

While I did like many of the WD games I tried, they did make some unnecessary changes to the games at time, Sillhouette Mirage being one of the most pointed out. I did like how they released games with pack-ins, like Japan often gets, but they'd usually only release a game that way if they did it, with no less expensive option if you didn't want the pack-ins.

Anyway, I've heard another side to the situation, saying what WD's standard operating procedure was with handling games, and what hit them with Goemon that caused them to have to shut down.

I've heard it has been their standard practice since they localized games on Sega platforms to get permission from a Japanese company to localize their game, but to not go to the company running the console in our region to get a license to release it until they were at least halfway done with localizing the game. That sort of comes off as them saying "you have to let us release this game here because we've already sunk so much money into it", and it seems that SCEA finally had it with such a small company trying to bully them into giving a license so they said no to Goemon's PS2 release. If WD couldn't handle the funds for working on more than one game at a time, they should have been going to SCEA for approval for a license to release the game before starting work on it, especially with SCEA's perceived past attitude to certain types of games.

I do feel bad about the situation, but it seems that there are more companies popping up lately that could offer the type of handling of games I did like from WD. Nippon Ichi of America is one such of them that looks promising, when they aren't just releasing NI games here.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

If WD couldn't handle the funds for working on more than one game at a time, they should have been going to SCEA for approval for a license to release the game before starting work on it, especially with SCEA's perceived past attitude to certain types of games.

This way of doing things is what hurts the quality of games. If SCEA has their way, only high profile games would be on the shelves. Games based on movies, tv shows, anime, etc. and sequels to games would be the main fare to pick from. Oh wait! That IS whats happening! There is so little innovation in the industry that it makes avid gamers want to cry. 2D still works but not according to SCEA. (Interesting that people are homebrewing 2D for the PSP or cracking the OS to play SNES games.) They want to impress the public with graphics and not gameplay. The initial WOW! factor is what they need to get their duds off the shelves. WD would think outside of the box and for that I applaude them!

[bungiefan]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

I'm not saying I approve of SCEA's way of doing things, because I don't. That's part of why my first PS2 was a Japanese one, and most of my games are Japanese imports. I'm sick of SCEA's restrictive policies and lack of good hardware support or hardware quality.

It's just that when you're such a small company, as WD was, and you've got such a company in charge like that, it's not a good idea to do things that would tick them off and result in decisions that give your company more hardship. I like that they considered the fans so much, but it ended up costing them the company, which isn't good for fans in the long run.

[Sadeira]

Re: Working Designs officialy dead...

well that bites. i just wish that they could've been able to pull a profit pushing games for the the ds or gba. nintendo has absolutely no qualms about 2d games on their handhelds. whereas sony wants 3d everywhere, including on the psp

Nippon Ichi is sortof a kindred spirit.

to be more accurate, nippon ichi is not in the same spirit as wd. whereas wd ported games from japan over to the u.s., nippon ichi is actually a developer. prior to makai kingdom, i believe, nippon ichi's games were being released stateside through atlas to mitigate the risk of localizing their games. however, once nippon ichi's games gained popularity, they cut the middleman, atlas, out and localized games themselves. starting with makai kingdom.

in the case of nippon ichi, atlas would be more kindred to working designs.

on a side note, atlas ported over magna carta: the tears of blood. one of the best, if not THE best, ps2 rpgs to come out in 2005. of course, that's my opinion.