Okay I live in the UK and for years now I have been subject to the most annoying/irrational/stupid release policies ever, and this year is no different.

I just want to know why, thats all, why games (most JRPGs) come out in europe nearly a year after they do in Japan or America. This year the most annoying example has been Tales of Vesperia. I have been waiting a very unfair amount of time to get it, and still am waiting. Star Ocean isn't as bad, the wait is only two months, but I say only because the standard is that of games like Tales. I remember other games, like FFX which I waited almost a year to play after its japan release,  the list goes on.

The question is why do companies do this? I personally can't see the logic of it all, if the only reason is because its a JRPG made by a japanese company, then thats not good enough. These policies are silly.

Rant Over

Localization I would guess. Europe Pal region is not just UK but I do feel for you.

Some probable reasons:

1) Europe is a much more fragmented region than ie. Japan or NA, and requires more effort with things like localized translations, marketing, bureucracy etc.

2) Since most big gaming companies are either japs or yanks, the games are naturally released in those regions first.

3) Non-European gaming companies just don't give a fuck about the European/Australian market.

I'm more inclined to go with the third option than the other reasons.

to expand on #1. With a fractured market it takes a lot more money to get the games on the shelves. If you can spend less and put it on US shelves, you can get a small feel for how it might do in europe (small, as only the UK is really like the US in terms of game tastes). So companies may be using the US as a testing ground for the game before translating the game into 8 or so different languages.

anyways, get Little King's Story, it comes out in Europe first

Yea but brits dont do that. Look at GTA, Little Big planet, Fable 2, they all came out in the US first

Still I can understand the translation thing, as far as europe goes with JRPGs

and also dont have distribution places in europe.and they have to use a another publishing company.
namco bandai uses atari
capcom uses ubisoft(i think)

Europe should just adopt English as a uniform language.

^^
Not so easy: written English is quite easy, speaking decently enough to be understood is moderately difficult, but listening comprehension can be very difficult, particularly if who speaks slurs his speech. English has a lot of monosyllabic words, so once you miss one syllable you often miss an entire word. Abundance of semivocalic sounds make things even worse.

^^ Yup. If anything, Europe should adopt German - while it's hard to learn at first, its grammar is quite consistent, unlike English which is not only hard to speak, but has exceptions up the bum.

Then again, a single official European language is a stupid idea in itself.

@nordlead: I'll get that one when I have the money and time to play it - I have at least ten games on my to-buy list already, and I just got it down to nine (Sam & Max S1).

I cannot agree with the third reason. I think most of them must give a fuck about the European/Australian market since they do very well want and need the money from these regions.

[offtopic] The idea of a common European language is completely ridiculous. But I guess a discussion about this topic would require a new thread. [/offtopic]