ATLUS in problems? Is it the end of the company?!

[outlawauron]

seiya19 said:

outlawauron said:

Only one of the Namco DS titles was localized because no publisher wants to pay to cost of licensing to release it in the US. I'm glad Atlus released Endless Frontier as it's my favorite DS title.

And yes, the European branch does support it a lot better, if only that meant something to me. Considering the Wii isn't region free (I know you can mod it to be so), I couldn't buy these Europeans versions if I wanted to. Also, Sony doesn't get flack for not localizing because they allow and work with other companies to assist in these localizations. Not to mention that none of them were developed internally with Sony except for Ore no Shikabane, which is a shame. Look at Fatal Frame 4. Published by Nintendo in Japan, but Nintendo has said that they have no plans to localize it here in the US. Ok, that's fine, then let another company do it. They're not even willing to license the IP to someone else in order for it to be released anywhere else. >_>

I don't know if Namco was open to the idea of licensing Xenosaga I-II to another publisher... They clearly don't let anyone get their hands on Tales, and there's many other DS games from them unlocalized. I think it's more of a case by case basis with them. Besides, I don't see how that exonerates them (or others) from the responsibility of deciding not to localize the game in the first place. And given how Nintendo did end up localizing all 3 "Rainfall" games anyway in the US with the help of XSEED, there's no difference here. Singling out one publisher when all of them have unlocalized games doesn't seem fair to me.

Fatal Frame 4 is certainly a special case... The IP is not owned by Nintendo as some claimed (recently confirmed by how some of the older games were re-released on PSN), the game was not developed internally by Tecmo (Grasshopper Manufacture did it), and the rumors point to it not being localized because of a dispute between Nintendo and Tecmo as to who should pay to fix the bugs of the original JP release. Spirit Camera did got localized though, and the remake of the 2nd game got released in Europe.

In any case, the fact that these Fatal Frame games exist in the first place is thanks to Nintendo's funding, which was one of my points from before. While I obviously agree with your criticism regarding the lack of a US release and a region-locked platform, the games still exist, and Nintendo should still get credit for them (and the EU localizations) in this context. And I rather have the games be created and not localized than not existing at all. Like, for example, how Sony refused to fund a sequel to Folklore offered by Game Republic...

By the way, another alternative you have to circumvent the region-lock is through emulation... If you have a PC that's good enough, of course. And in case you (or others) don't know it already, both Soma Bringer and Fatal Frame 4 have fan translations. And if I remember correctly, someone was working on one for Zangeki no Reginleiv.

Sony gave them another chance with Coded Soul on PSP. It's a shame that more weren't made, but they weren't made because no one bought them.