Tales series producer Hideo Baba recently took part in an interview with Siliconera’s Cheng Kai regarding the Tales series, including the upcoming Tales of Symphonia Chronicles. One of the topics that was brought up was the localization process. More specifically, which titles are chosen to be brought to international markets and which ones end up getting glossed over. Hideo Baba states that the main reason why games like Tales of Hearts and Tales of Innocence weren’t released internationally is because the studio is currently understaffed.
So when considering which titles can be localized to be released in the Western market, our first priority are the flagship titles, such as Tales of Xillia. After that, our second priority are remake titles or all-star titles.
Because the number of development members we have on staff is very limited, it’s not possible to localize every single Tales title. So we have to pick and choose when deciding which parts of the Tales series we would like to bring out to the rest of the world outside Japan.
Hideo was also asked if any mobile titles like the upcoming Tales of Link would see an international release. He stated that it’s possible, but it won’t be easy.
There is some possibility that future Tales social or SNS (social network services) titles on the iOS and Android platforms may be released overseas. But I think, if we want to do that, we would want to release the game at the same time [all over the world] – not only in Japan but also simultaneously overseas.
The current existing [smartphone] titles are developed in conjunction with companies like GREE and Mobage, so it is very difficult for Namco Bandai to decide to release these kinds of existing social titles in Western markets.
You can read the full interview for yourself here.
