Drakensang Online - Interview, "Too few people bought Drakensang"

This issue really isn't one of culture but rather potential. I can see why they thought doing it in German first made sense, since the license is very popular in Germany, but they really needed to ask themselves of what their best chance of maing the game profitable was. Maybe they felt it was German, but IMO, since the majority of the population that plays Western style RPG's is speaks English as either a first or second language, I can't see why anyone would not try to cast that net as wide as possible.

blatantninja said:

This issue really isn't one of culture but rather potential. I can see why they thought doing it in German first made sense, since the license is very popular in Germany, but they really needed to ask themselves of what their best chance of maing the game profitable was. Maybe they felt it was German, but IMO, since the majority of the population that plays Western style RPG's is speaks English as either a first or second language, I can't see why anyone would not try to cast that net as wide as possible.

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Actually, I think it's very much about culture.

Germans have been focusing on their own language VERY insistently, for a long time. Almost as moronic as the French

I honestly think that's simply how they work over there, and it would be a major undertaking to focus on english first. Not that I understand why, but my guess is that their entire underpinning and infrastructure is set up to work only with their own language.

DArtagnan said:

Anyone willing to open their eyes and see what we're paying as a world society, because of the language barrier - should realise how insignificant the price of learning a new language would be.

Then again, most people enjoy life better with their eyes closed.

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We're getting there Dart. Thankfully most European countries are teaching English now to all their children, it's the official language of air traffic and the unofficial language of the internet. It's the Chinese I'm worried about, hopefully Hong Kong's influence on their culture can help English grow in the Far East. For better or worse, England's 19th century imperialism and the US' post WWII territory & army bases around the world have helped push us towards a single language.

Here in the US they're really pushing Spanish but that's mostly xenophobia of the Mexican immigrants. Unfortunately I picked French, a lot of good that does me, can't speak to the Mexicans and can't play games only published in German. And before you ask, I'm too old ( and lazy ) to learn another language.

LuckyCarbon said:

We're getting there Dart. Thankfully most European countries are teaching English now to all their children, it's the official language of air traffic and the unofficial language of the internet. It's the Chinese I'm worried about, hopefully Hong Kong's influence on their culture can help English grow in the Far East. For better or worse, England's 19th century imperialism and the US' post WWII territory & army bases around the world have helped push us towards a single language.

Here in the US they're really pushing Spanish but that's mostly xenophobia of the Mexican immigrants. Unfortunately I picked French, a lot of good that does me, can't speak to the Mexicans and can't play games only published in German. And before you ask, I'm too old ( and lazy ) to learn another language.

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I have no desire to learn another language, but you have to sacrifice for the greater good.

Thing is, most people don't see it as an issue - because they don't understand how HUGE a problem it is to not be able to understand one another. It's like they think it's a minor thing.

I guess they've never tried being in a relationship, and saying something wrong to the other person - and that's using the SAME language

Well, assuming men and women hear the same things when words are spoken, which I doubt sometimes

I already understand three languages and that will have to do.

If we think about the language issue, then we should see the root of the problem, which is German people who generally speak very bad or no English at all. All the movies are dubbed to German (yuck!) which doesn't help the situation either. Unlike here, where the most people do speak English, even though it's not our native language.

DArtagnan said:

Anyone willing to open their eyes and see what we're paying as a world society, because of the language barrier - should realise how insignificant the price of learning a new language would be.

Then again, most people enjoy life better with their eyes closed.

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Here in Germany there are some prejudices.

One of them is that : Americans don't care about the rest of the world. Therefore they do not see any need to learn other languages.

I believe it would be very nationalitic to insist on one's own language. And that is easier, the bigger and the more powerful one's own country is. Talking of domination. Talking of Colonies.

To have only ONE language there would be the ULTIMATE sign of domination over others. Because language = culture. You just can't translate certain words without their cultural meaning included.

You see it any time you see foreign words wandering into science. Geology and Archaeology are FULL of German and Italian words. Music almost CONSISTS of Italien terms.

And now you want that all to be erased in favour to THE ONE LANGUAGE, and that shall of course be English, not Spanish or Portuguese, for example, and that, although the number of speakers with Spanish as their own tongue isn't small either. "But they're inignificant to the power of the English language" you might say and then say that you wouldn't say it, because of course I have taken you totally wrong, which is an easy way to get out of things: Just by saying "You took me wrong. I have nver said that", with an very definitive will to ignore something that is called a CONTEXT.

Dude, you've never been studying at University Geology, Archaeology or Music, just as examples. You've never been studying Maya culture. Someone with eyes so much closed wouldn't have any chance in these areas.

But of course they are irrelevant to this discussion here, as you will soon claim. ("Of course !")

DArtagnan said:

I guess they've never tried being in a relationship, and saying something wrong to the other person - and that's using the SAME language

Well, assuming men and women hear the same things when words are spoken, which I doubt sometimes

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True. And not laughing about it at all.

Alrik, you will never learn to focus on the issue at hand. You will always focus on me as a person, because you don't like me. I probably hurt your feelings at one point, which I never ever intend to do.

I simply speak my mind, with zero intention of hurting others - but I also like to speak plainly and without "covering" things up. You're not the sort of person who responds well to that, and as such you won't ever appreciate what I'm about. You probably think I'm arrogant, because I have faith in my opinions.

I don't blame you for that, and I can assure you - you're not alone.

But, I am what I am.

Just stop interacting with me, and all will be well

One of them is that : Americans don't care about the rest of the world. Therefore they do not see any need to learn other languages.

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Doesn't the same apply for Germans too?

DArtagnan said:

Anyone willing to open their eyes and see what we're paying as a world society, because of the language barrier - should realise how insignificant the price of learning a new language would be.

Then again, most people enjoy life better with their eyes closed.

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DArtagnan said:

I have no desire to learn another language,

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Interesting. Both these statements from the same person.

Ergonpandilus said:

Doesn't the same apply for Germans too?

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I think it applies to all major lauguages ("Im big so I dont have to care about others"). Those from minor language cultures are then forced to learn all the major ones.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Interesting. Both these statements from the same person.

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Did you read the last part of the sentence, after the comma?

Again, you're unable to focus on anything but your dislike for me. That means you can't even read without seeing things in the worst possible light.

That makes you uninteresting in the extreme, and either you stop interacting with me - or you go on ignore. Whatever you prefer.

zakhal said:

I think it applies to all major lauguages ("Im big so I dont have to care about others"). Those from minor language cultures are then forced to learn all the major ones.

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Well, luckily not all, just English usually.

Ergonpandilus said:

Doesn't the same apply for Germans too?

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I can't say, because I'm not the "norm" here. I'm an alien anyway, have always been.

But in my local newspaper of Cologne we get international politics, for example, and nature catastrophies. We we quite well informed about the Russian burning of the woods, that Mr. Putin had not long ago dissolved the agencies which would have been able to fight these wood burnings ... We know about Mrs. Palin bing one of the front figures of the "new conservatives" in the U.S. ... Now the newspapers are filled wih articles about the flood(s) within Pakistan and the chances it gives for Taliban to recruit new people from the masses of people whio are angry against the slow (if at all) re-acting government, which is rather interested in itself than in helping the people out there.

Today's newspaper I have nere (the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" has a sjhort ote about fights within Somalia, Berlusconi talking with the Chief of the "Lega Nord", an assassination on a pipeline in Turkey, 1/3 of a page article about Urane in Moldawia, Iran/Persia testing a new improved missile ... Yes, I think I can say that I'm informed about a few bits here and there, and everyone who regularly reads the newspapers is, too.

Okay, I don't want to bash you, but you are our German "representative" here.

So is there a single news site in German that does support more than German only language? And how many films have you seen in English? Are there any in movie theaters without dubbing?

Dhruin said:

Technically correct, I'm sure. Net result: failure. Spending almost nothing maintaining an English website and sending out a few English PR's might have created some international awareness they might have leveraged into an international deal. I get PRs from dtp pretty regularly on their point-and-click adventure games, so I know someone is capable of writing an English press release.

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Yes, the result is failure. There were a lot of English PRs on Drakensang 1.5 and Divinity 2 early on. Then they got fewer and fewer.
It seems their long term strategy of internationalization through RPGs has failed. As a result they canned Drakensang 2, pulled out of the Divinity 2 add-on and have no other RPGs besides the Venetica PS3 port in the pipeline.

I'm pretty sure it was a bad mistake not to aggressively jump onto the DL bandwagon years ago. The retail market for niche product gets smaller and smaller every year. 9 years ago Gothic already had similar problems.

Sir_Brennus said:

I don't think an international release woud've changed a bit. The DSA licence is big in DACH and BeNeLux countries. The game has to make its money there. An international release only produces costs (localisation and marketing) and needs an international publisher that takes the majority of the sales income. And especially overseas a success is not guaranteed. The DraSa series would've never been anything more than a niche product similar to the Gothic games, because it is too "special interest", too european. And you simply can't afford to compete with the marketing monsters that Bioware and Bethesda are.

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Good point. Somebody needs to invest a 6-digit sum into the loca. Nobody will do this before he has a clear idea how to get his investment back, and something on top.

That said I am at a loss why River of Time failed commercially in Europe. I even bought the personal edition for an insane amount of money and I thought these editions sold well.

A sad thing indeed.

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My personal opinion:
RoT had a bad title (too melancholic), and the whole project was misconfigured. They were sitting between the chairs, and marketing was unable to create enough demand. RoT was much too expensive (in development) for an add-on - but many people thought it was only a better add-on, which is of course not true. So either call it "Drakensang 2" and make an expensive game or imply it's a stand-alone add-on and make sure development is cheap and fast. Spending millions on DraSa 1.5 turned out to be a bad idea.

KasperFauerby said:

A real shame that german developers always develop their games in the german language.

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You overlook that Germans aren't good at speaking or writing in English. Everybody learns the language at school. That's enough to get along, but using it professionally is something different.
Plus, I think, it's a publishing problem. How would they justify the additional costs of developing in a foreign language, especially if it's unclear how or if the product will reach the foreign markets? It's perfectly natural to take the easier money and higher margin in the home market first, if there is no big international partner for a simultaneous release.

The devs who can go for multi-language ASAP. See Crytek (through EA), Blue Byte & Related Design (Ubi daughters), Piranha Bytes (through Koch Media), Spellbound (though JoWooD / Dreamcatcher) and especially all those browser game devs.

edit: Venetica was developed in English first. There is still no English publisher.

Ergonpandilus said:

So is there a single news site in German that does support more than German only language? And how many films have you seen in English? Are there any in movie theaters without dubbing?

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Spiegel Online has an English edition. Other big newspapers translate a couple of more important articles here and there.

Bigger movie theaters usually show one movie per week in original language with subtitles. That's a service for the allied troops and their families. DVDs usually include English though. But why would the general public be interested to watch a film in English if they can watch it in German?

Agree with Gorath.

The major issue is non-existang marketing. And by marketing I mean interviews, international interviews to big gaming magazines or websites. Those generate a lot of hype. But now even the English forum has gone pretty much dead.

Still, if it's already a second game, there shouldn't be any (or that many) issues with international publishing, but it seems to be even more difficult this time.

But why would the general public be interested to watch a film in English if they can watch it in German?

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Well, it's really a matter of opinion, but here in Finland nothing is dubbed, excepts kids cartoons etc. And even though there is Finnish dubbing for some animations like Shrek, I still rather have it in original language. But that also works for other movies than English movies, like German movie Stalingrad and Das Boot must be watched in original (German) language. But with subtitles of course.

Dubbing sucks, even translated subtitles sucks most of the time, since many things translates badly into other languages. It's not how the creators has envisioned it. If i want to see a movie i don't want some other douchebags representation of voices or translation of jokes or whatever. As a last resort it's better than nothing though.

Ergonpandilus said:

Well, it's really a matter of opinion, but here in Finland nothing is dubbed, excepts kids cartoons etc.

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Not really opinion. Culture and market size. The German market is so big that the investment in a loca is generally worth it. The people have gotten used to consuming everything in German.
Small countries get English versions because expensive locas would be economically unfounded.