European Release Dates

[richasr]

Can anyone tell me why, when it comes to computer games (and films for that matter), that Europe get shat on from a great height? it seems to me that we always get things last, films are worse for this but I'm more bothered about the games. For example Rock Band; released November 20th of last year and EU release date is somewhere in May (9th?), that's a gap of 6-7 months.

I've never known the reasons behind this, does anyone?

Note; I didn't think about it when originally posting but we don't ALWAYS get everything last, we're just left behind with the rest of the world at the best of times.

 

[Strafe Mcgee]

I think Australia are even worse off than we are. They're much stricter on age ratings for games and I think someone on here said that they weren't gonna be getting the new Smash Brothers until next year. But the Rock Band delays are major suck- one of my mates traded in about 7 of his games, thinking he'd be able to get it promptly about three months ago...

 

[Watershed]

It was originally to do with converting from NTSC to PAL format, changing the frame rate from 60hz to 50hz, that kind of stuff. But thats less of an issue now, so I don't know.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

With Rock Band in particular, I wouldn't be surprised if it had to do with problems in getting the peripherals, I believe that already happened with the Canadian release.

 

[sammyfreak]

It might just be an issue related to production and prioritising. Sometimes they cant produce enought games to go around (or they underestimated the sales) and they have to choose were to release it, since the american market is larger then get first dibbs.

 

[JakubK666]

Because a majority of Americans and government treat Europe as "that place beyond Mexico"?

FYI PS3 came out in Europe 5 months later than in US. Guess what you Japanese fuckers! PS3 is a piece of shit which nobody wants to buy and it's even outsold a fucking Wii in a 4:1 ratio.And hey you wankers deserved it for not giving a shit about Europe!

Maybe PS4 will stand a chance if you don't release a half-assed shit version half a year later!

Anyway back on topic...America doesn't give a shit about Europe..


PS: Just came off an Xbox Live session, sorry if it is too ranty.

 

[The Reverend]

Its all about conversion to PAL, translations (French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Flemish, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Swiss.. you get the point.) That, and Games companies just hate Europe.

 

[freetogoodhome]

I don't think it's a problem with not having enough copies or having to convert it to PAl. Many of the games are in the store before release date in america but they're not allowed to be sold until weeks after.

You'd think that the developers would want their game to be released at the same time everywhere but apparently europe and australia aren't cool enough to get them at the same time as the americans and japanese

 

[Frapple]

Rock Band was because of the faulty hardware the US received, they've started from scratch for Europe.

 

[Gormless]

Seriosly I dont get it either. Some games like, say for example, Odin Sphere doesn't have a language option other than English or Japenese and it shouldnt take more than a week and a half these days to convert a game for pal territories. So why then did odin sphere take nearly a year to arrive here?! (picked it up last week)
Then theres Smash Bros. Some one explain to me why the first one over here had a 7 or somthing month delay? It's not like the thing had a whole lot a dailoge or voice acting to translate. Even now we have a 3 month delay on the new can any body give a reasonable explination for that? I mean c'mon this is Nintendo! Its not they cant afford to splash out a bit on speeding this up!

 

[richasr]

Ive known quite a few people in the past that have either bought a console in NTSC format from other countries in order to get the games at the same time as Americans, or they have 'chipped' these consoles so that they can still get them early, albeit a long time after foreign releases.

I like the fact that GTA4 is a world-wide release; such a big and hugely anticipated game should not keep certain people in the world waiting while others can enjoy it for weeks.

Then again it is actually developed this way for that very reason, and I suppose bigger companies can afford the mass development.

 

[Shamtee]

Before a game get released in Europe we need the pal setting and the game to be in many diffrent lauguage, the pal part not the troble it just getting the traslation and voice acting right.
Then again if they game doesn't go great in America, or America doesn't like the look of a japanese game chances are we'd never see it, even if it'd go great here. Main thing I'm sad about is that a lot of game made in Europe are sent to America first leaving us to wait again...

 

[Anniko]

Before a game get released in Europe we need the pal setting and the game to be in many diffrent lauguage, the pal part not the troble it just getting the traslation and voice acting right.

Even then they usually don't get it right. They get lowest bidder voice actors and never sync it up right.

 

[JakubK666]

Remind us once again what is the difference between PAL and NTSC and why they were made?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_lockout

They WANT to release it in US first and they purposely stop us from importing games. A bunch of bastards they are.

And the language/voice acting argument is the biggest bullshit I've seen since my lab was a puppy.

If that's true, then shouldn't the game be released in UK at the same time as in US, huh?There's no need to translate the game, no matter how much some people despise US-English.

 

[richasr]

Remind us once again what is the difference between PAL and NTSC and why they were made?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_lockout

They WANT to release it in US first and they purposely stop us from importing games. A bunch of bastards they are.

And the language/voice acting argument is the biggest bullshit I've seen since my lab was a puppy.

If that's true, then shouldn't the game be released in UK at the same time as in US, huh?There's no need to translate the game, no matter how much some people despise US-English.

That's a good point, despite how selfish it may sound (if you were arguing that is), but the UK at least should be able to get the game earlier than we currently are.

It'd be great if we could get some publisher's comments about why they do this sort of thing.

 

[Necrohydra]

I wonder if it's not just NTSC/PAL that's to blame here, in terms of formats and encryptions. Movies have region codes on them that basically say *you can only watch this DVD in North America*. I wonder if there is the same sort of code encryption on games.

EDIT: This is alluded to in the wiki article posted by Jakub, but I should go on to state that NTSC/PAL and Region codes are two different things. Region codes serve no purpose other than to limit what areas a DVD (or game) can be played. To answer your question, Jakub, NTSC and PAL are two different video formats. If not converted, playing NTSC on PAL will result in black bars at the top and bottom of your screen. Not sure on the transfer rate differences.

 

[Vortigar]

Oh, those region lockouts are software based, you can switch most DVD-players back and forth a few times. There are some tools out there to disable region lockouts on a pc's dvd player. It's all so companies can sell more distribution licenses.

And that latter thing is probably the problem with releases, legal issues. ESRB only rules in America, about every European country has its own rating entity that needs to go over the game. Transalations need to be done, which all require different companies per country. But then comes the really icky part, getting all the different publishers together to release them on the same date, organising shipping with all the cross-border taxes and regulations that differ per country, and since the EU release is usually a single day for every country in it we all have to wait for the slowest common denominator (whoever that may be, I have no idea, Germany perhaps?).

Btw. We get a few games earlier here. King of Fighters XI for PS2 was out for over a year in the EU before hitting the US (courtesy of Ignition Ent.). There are also a few games that are never released stateside, Singstar had two iterations in Europe before crossing the pond I believe. But compared to the lot that never cross the other way that's a small percentage. At least its easier to import games from America to Europe than it is the other way around.

pps. (JakubK666) Need a reason to buy a PS3? Because you're sure you can get ALL the games, as they made them region free. I think that's part of the reason why the 360 is nowhere near in the stranglehold position it has in America, because MS thought it was funny to region lock the thing again and personally I'm tired of getting shafted, so with a PS3, if a game comes out for my system anywhere, I know I can always import it. And the system coming out later didn't really bother me, as I planned on waiting for VF5 anyway.

ppps. Playing an NTSC game on a PAL TV will create a black and white picture with scanlines and can create sound problems, not just some bars, most games become practically unplayable.

 

[Necrohydra]

ppps. Playing an NTSC game on a PAL TV will create a black and white picture with scanlines and can create sound problems, not just some bars, most games become practically unplayable.

Ah, thanks for the correction. Like I said, different video formats.