Nintendo, like many other companies, does not list translators in the subtitles of its games. In the case of the Japanese company, the names of people from third-party companies are regularly missing. In addition, translators sign a contract that does not allow them to talk about their work on specific titles for ten years, which also harms them professionally. Game Developer magazine describes the situation.
One source claims he first worked for Nintendo, which earned him a spot in the end credits. He eventually left the Japanese publisher and worked on its games through companies Localsoft And Keywordsno one knew about his contribution.
“It’s hard to say how much it affected me professionally. It’s possible that more translation agencies would have approached me if my name had appeared in all these big Nintendo games. But who knows?” he muses.
Authors have no right to refer to their work in any way.
“Nintendo has a policy of not listing third-party translators’ names on game titles, which also prohibits us from listing those titles on our resumes,” another translator said, adding that the contracts include ten year non-disclosure agreement (disclosure agreement). So the authors can’t refer to their work in any way. The game developer has the contracts available and confirms their contents.
Translation companies are not preventing the problem, but are, in the opinion of many, going against it. “There is an endless blame game between agencies and clients. I think clients don’t care, and it is in the agencies’ interests to keep their suppliers, us translators, in limbo,” said one respondent. Neither Nintendo nor the agencies Localsoft and Keyword commented on the current findings.
The problem of non-presentation of translators is solved quite often. Let’s name the titles of recent times Star Wars: Jedi: Survivor, Spider-Man 2 or Baldur’s Gate 3In the latter case, Larian Studio corrected the situation after notification.
Source :Indian TV
