This is really the worst excuse for not localizing a game I've seen. 

It's not because the games aren't making money, not because this, that, and the other, it's because they don't have enough staff.  There are ways around that. Instead of releasing a Tales of game yearly, Namco Bandai could localize a game.  Localization takes for less capital than development does, so they might just make more money in multiple regions than development costs for a game that's only released in Japan. 

Also.  Outsourcing.  There are a lot of localization studios.  XSeed, Atlus USA, NISA, first party localization studios.  Outsource the localization.  In interviews, XSeed and NIS both have stated they've negotiated with Namco Bandai to localize the Tales games for the west only to be turned down each time.  XSeed and NIS offering to localize means that Namco would have received money for publishing rights for that specific game in the west, so no loss, they'd only have gained money.

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/10/25/tales-team-simply-doesnt-enough-staff-localize-every-game/

So just make a deal with Sony's new localizing team or w/e they are called...

One of the comments from the source:

"The thing is, even if someone other than Namdai handles the localisation, it is the game's development team that has to handle all the coding. I presume that is what Baba is referring to; they can't dedicate enough staff for that task in order to localise all the games. We've already had past examples of games (such as Ace Attorney Investigations 2 and Grand Knights History) that weren't localised due to development staff having moved on to other projects and thus being unavailable to code in localised text.

Theres issues with the code too. For instance, a lot of the american translators don't know how to code. And coders in USA don't often know how to speak japanese. Coders comments are likely in Japanese and use phrases even good translaters wouldn't know the exact meaning (or they don't leave comments at all :P). Coders also have tendencies some of which are bad even if they are speaking in the same language.

It would make sense for Namco Bandai to have a few extra people hired that work with the localization teams if giving out the source code is a big deal. And they expect to have a constant stream of games that need to be localized. And, make it a priority for the developers to make the code easy to insert different text for different countries localizations.

It's not black and white, but it's still a fairly flimsy excuse. If Carpe Fulgar can make some money doing Recettear, surely they can get a solution going even if they get a  low IRR which is not what you want when you're a big corp even if it "profits". It would appease fans and have a chance of growing the franchise which could lead to more profits down the road even if say the Vita localizations would net them a very low return.

Some companies hate money.

"Where there's a will, there's a way" in this case there is none. I think Bamco should dedicate themselves to localizing their games, especially the most wanted ones.

I mean they went and localize something like End of Eternity but not Tales of Hearts R or Innocence R (both where on the NDS to begin with). Madness.

Edit: I think I got the game wrong End of Eternity is Resonance of Fate by Sega. What the heck was that game where the groom became a dragon? Dang it! I forgot now I am not even sure it was Bamco. lol!

Come on Sony, do what you do best. Treating 3rd party devs like they deserve to be treated

just either translated the text and sub it or let it be handled by another party willing to bring it over...it just seems like this company hates western currency; didn't X-Seed want to help bring over some Tales games and Namco said no....

if you want your games to succeed in the west Namco YOU NEED TO MAKE AN EFFORT!!! don't just through you game to the west then conplain when you don't get your desired sales....

Then hire more staff.

Easymode.

Companies tend to be very particular about outsourcing their code. Falcom wouldn't let XSEED touch their Ys code, I seem to remember reading somewhere.

So it's an issue of Baba's team not being big enough. Which I do kind of understand, actually.

As Nem & I were discussing in the Vita thread, though, Tales of Innocence R & Hearts R were developed by 7th Chord. Though I'm sure Namco has the code now, they had no problem outsourcing it to make the game - so they should have no problem outsourcing it for the translation.

I hope Sony comes in to sort out this mess, really, because it's pretty clear these games aren't going to come across by themselves.