A game like this, where you can experience so much story and a lot of talking, it needs a fully localized version in the country where it is offered.
If you think it's not so bad, you can install the game in a foreign language you don't know and play it that way, preferably without knowing it by heart. Take a new title and install it with foreign language to understand the situation. Set a suitable subtitle and then read yourselves tired in the evening of the day and the immersion will easily break 30-50%.
You then turn off the spoken sound at the end anyway, because that only disturbs additionally while reading.
It is also a sign of the quality of a studio, if you can rely on the fact that you get such a role-playing game in your native language. One saves here at the wrong end. The people who know little or no English, for them it is a relief to simply follow the game and you dive much better than if you have to translate everything and possibly even quickly, because the flow just runs through, etc.. I do not say so therefore. Try it out for yourself with the example as I described it and realize how much you lose from the game experience with it.
The dubbing in a German version, can also be gladly added via patch.
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Nambia, are native speakers, not to mention Hungry and Romania which have a lot of German as a second language citizens.
Yep, pretty big demographic (sure I missed some people). I myself had to fall back on college German to communicate in Hungry.
The amount of spoken language is just too much to dub. If you dub a (AAA) game you want it to be of good quality, equal to the original. Otherwise it would break immersion even more than having trouble reading the subtitles, at least in my opinion. The German dubbing industy is good, but therefore also expensive. So it's financially just not feasible i guess, even after release.
Die Menge an gesprochener Sprache ist einfach zu viel. Wenn man ein (AAA) Spiel synchronisiert will man es auch in guter Qualität haben, so gut wie das Original, sonst ist die Immersion meiner Meinung nach noch mehr gebrochen als wenn man beim lesen der Untertitel nicht immer hinterher kommt. Die deutsche Synchro-Industrie ist ja meistens recht gut und deshalb auch teuer. Folglich ist das finanziell einfach nicht machbar denke ich. Auch nach Release des Spiels wird es sowas wohl nicht geben.
Eh... as sad as it is for the rest (and most) of the world english is the universal language of every aspect of our social life. It's kind of a must nowdays, but I do agree that not everyone might be capable to learn the language on a level that allows to freely access media.
Could they do a full dub into another language? Probably, not likely as it takes a lot of time, even more money and finding the right talent. I'm also for general fairness in accesability, so if you dub your game you should dub it for all the languages supported. That cost even more though
On a side note - I always hated dubs made in my language, they always hire known faces from the movies or whatnot and more often than not they do a shit job and I can't help but see the actor not the character. Always prefer the original spoken language even if I don't understand it, becuase you can't mistake emotion behind words. Those are the voices the creators had in mind, and dub actors *always* shove their "artistic vision" instead of sticking to the role they are given.
As a member of small nation, who have to usualy wait for 5+ years in order to get at least subtitles (7+ to get decent ones) to anything ... if ever in the first place.
I think this isnt bad idea.
Go to some recording studio, find out what it will cost, make a collection, contact people who will be willing to record it ... and then when you will it all done, contact Larian with proposition. Im sure most people would give up somewhere around step two.
While D:OS 1 and 2 are certainly great games, I've barely played them due to the lack of a German voiceover. BGII is my favorite game of all time and it's fantastic that a capable development studio is reviving this brand. However, after my experience with D:OS 1, I won't be buying BGIII without German voiceover, and I'm absolutely sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. I am patient. It would be absolutely ok for me if a mediocre German voiceover would only be released 1-2 years after release and I would even pay money for a German voiceover DLC, but without German voiceover I won't play this game.
How is this a waste of money? If it will have a German Dub, tons of Germans, that wouldn't if there is only an english version, would then buy it. I'd played the shit out of PIllar's of Eternity or DOS 2 if it had a German Dub. But English Dub und German Subs are pretty annoying and breaks the immersion for me. Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 had a German Dub, not even close to every text, but it's still better to have a bit German Dub in there than nothing.
As a Dutchman, I grew up with Subtitles for everything, but we had the ZDF just as the BBC.
And holy crap is German dubbing the worst, I can't believe the Germans are still rooting for this.. I guarantee you that if you're not [yet] too comfortable with listening to a foreign language, subtitles are the way to go. That way, you still do justice to the original acting and writing- and properly learn a second language to boot. It's a *lot* cheaper, too.
Other game studios do it. Look at Bethesda games for example. Or Witcher 3.
I'm not sure if I would buy BG3 if it doesn't have a German Dub. I really dislike the English Dub of most Fantasy RPG's. I can't take all those corny Shakespeare dialogs seriously.
As a Dutchman, I grew up with Subtitles for everything, but we had the ZDF just as the BBC.
And holy crap is German dubbing the worst, I can't believe the Germans are still rooting for this.. I guarantee you that if you're not [yet] too comfortable with listening to a foreign language, subtitles are the way to go. That way, you still do justice to the original acting and writing- and properly learn a second language to boot. It's a *lot* cheaper, too.
I mean, come on, fellas.
I think that dub is okay. Keep in mind that dub is almost 40 years old
Other game studios do it. Look at Bethesda games for example. Or Witcher 3.
Nowhere near close in terms of amounts of dialogue involved AND part of a genre with a far larger audience appeal (unless BG3 will become the turning point). It's not a coincidence that you have so many developers suddenly whining a bit that BG3 is "an anomaly rather than a new standard" and you didn't hear the same complaint being made for the titles you mentioned.
Quote
I'm not sure if I would buy BG3 if it doesn't have a German Dub.
Oh well, that's easy to solve then. Don't buy it, because it doesn't.
[quote=Agent_Ste]Other game studios do it. Look at Bethesda games for example. Or Witcher 3.
Nowhere near close in terms of amounts of dialogue involved AND part of a genre with a far larger audience appeal (unless BG3 will become the turning point). It's not a coincidence that you have so many developers suddenly whining a bit that BG3 is "an anomaly rather than a new standard" and you didn't hear the same complaint being made for the titles you mentioned.
BG3 might would have a far larger audience with dubs other than the English one.
I think that dub is okay. Keep in mind that dub is almost 40 years old
Well. I'm old too, lol. And I remember what the real actors sounded like. To me, this is a disgrace. I'm *really* glad B.A. isn't in this scene.
Kidding aside, I didn't speak English as a kid - when the above was on TV. I could watch this perfectly with just subtitles. Our games don't have translations, subtitled or otherwise; our country is way too small to put that sort of cost on it. And yet, I played games just fine, in fact - it's the primary reason my skill at English today rivals, or even equals my Dutch.
I... Just have trouble with the aversity Germans have to learning a second language, I suppose. I'd get it if the Witcher 3 was only in Polish or something. That's not a language that comes up very often. But in this day and age, everyone should learn to speak at least basic English. The whole world speaks it, Germans should, too. The rest of the world certainly isn't going to speak German anytime soon.
That way, you can just turn on your subtitles and experience the writing and acting the way it was intended, not by some phoned-in translation.
I... Just have trouble with the aversity Germans have to learning a second language, I suppose. I'd get it if the Witcher 3 was only in Polish or something. That's not a language that comes up very often. But in this day and age, everyone should learn to speak at least basic English. The whole world speaks it, Germans should, too. The rest of the world certainly isn't going to speak German anytime soon.
That way, you can just turn on your subtitles and experience the writing and acting the way it was intended, not by some phoned-in translation.[/quote]
I speak and understand English pretty decent, but it is more appealing to hear the dialogs in your mother tongue. Also like I said, the English dubs of fantasy RPGs are often pretty corny, like they are actors in a 18's century theatre
Well, aside from The Witcher, I don't think I ever have played an RPG that was dubbed *into* English. And, I think in that series, only the first one was actually written in Polish, the rest was dubbed *from* English. I could be wrong. Still, English VA in Witcher series was *excellent* imo.
Oh, hang on. Yeah, I've had he old games that were translated from Japanese, by the Japanese. Those are awful. All your base are belong to us! LOL. But that's just writing, those weren't spoken.
Still, I most certainly disagree. That's like saying Shakespeare is best in the original Klingon. If they dubbed this -or any other - game into Dutch, I'd spend the weekend in the Cotswolds and download the UK version. Now that I think of this, I might actually visit that again.
And this goes for other languages, too. I watch Scandinavian Crime thingies sometimes. Admittedly, they stare in the distance mostly to solve crimes, so not much talking going on... BUt I only understand a tiny bit of it. I'll take the original performance over anything other, though. Just like how I'd watch Der Untergang strictly in German. I couldn't imagine that being dubbed... eww, no. It's an insult to those that made it, if nothing else.
We talk about personal preferences here, but I still think dubbing it to different languages would bring in more money than it costs. Many folks are way more comfortable when games/movies are in their language. In the USA they even remake movies, so they don't need subtitles.
I am comfortable with subtitles myself, when I don't understand the language, but it's pretty irritating for me, when I hear them speak in English but read it in German. So when I played PoE for example I just turned off the English Dub.
I sincerely think you underestimate the amount of VA that's recorded for this game. They mentioned roughly the runtime of Game of Thrones in cinematics. Thousands of interactable NPC's. How many more Germans do you reckon will need to buy it - besides the ones that will buy it regardless - to offset that cost? Nah.
Edit: On top of that, German uses *way* more words than English to convey the same message, as it is a far more literal language. That would mean that many scenes would have to be reworked, just to get timings right and everything. It's a *huge* job.
And yeah, Americans make movies off of foreign movies - because the rest of the world consumes American movies. No one outside the German speaking world sees Commissar Rex.
Always the same old bullshit story about language learning. If I want to do that, then I do it differently and above all more practically and not with texts that I read faster than the English synchro has finished speaking... And then the dice rolling on top of it.... But the latter is a game mechanic one have to come to terms with.
The main reason for the native language always remains "immersion" and that's what this is about, not non-Germans trying to talk one out of it. Leave this thread alone and then play in English. And yes, of course, there are also unsolidary Germans. They are full of arrogance and language skills and hence argue the same way. But please stop with well-intentioned advice. There are (also) Germans who have a hard time learning English or still can't (sufficiently), so they are never represented here in such a forum and this thread gives them a voice. Whether the whole thing is successful is secondary for now.
The suggestion was in fact, to stop dubbing entirely and to learn to use subtitles. You get used to it, you learn something useful and before you know it, you can turn them off entirely.
It's precisely the dubbing that keeps the Germans back.
I understand your point of view, but this is a huge amount of work, because if BG3 uses German voice acting, then it means Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, etc. Because larian has to treat all players equally.
I won't even bother with the thread anymore, but as a last pointer: the fact that the developer is from Belgium and STILL they aren't releasing the game dubbed in THEIR native language should tell you all you need to know.
The suggestion was in fact, to stop dubbing entirely and to learn to use subtitles. You get used to it, you learn something useful and before you know it, you can turn them off entirely.
It's precisely the dubbing that keeps the Germans back.
Nope stop derailing it, the bottom line from the OP is clear:
Originally Posted by a.g.letters
The dubbing in a German version, can also be gladly added via patch.
Originally Posted by liuyuncangye
I understand your point of view, but this is a huge amount of work, because if BG3 uses German voice acting, then it means Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, etc. Because larian has to treat all players equally.
And you have my solidarity for that. If you look at the link to my first answer on page 1, we also had a first approach to funding the German dubbing. Of course, everything is still weak, but at least we are not only clamoring for something, but also thinking about how we could best make it happen.
Originally Posted by Tuco
I won't even bother with the thread anymore, but as a last pointer: the fact that the developer is from Belgium and STILL they aren't releasing the game dubbed in THEIR native language should tell you all you need to know.
We are well aware of that. There are also German companies like Minimi Games that release Shadow Tactics and now Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew in English only. But that should not be an obstacle to advocate for German dubbing. If I'm not totally wrong, full multilingual dubbing is only available for MMORPGs anyway, with mobile games replacing them more and more as well. But I don't know anything about mobile games.
As a Dutchman, I grew up with Subtitles for everything, but we had the ZDF just as the BBC.
And holy crap is German dubbing the worst, I can't believe the Germans are still rooting for this.. I guarantee you that if you're not [yet] too comfortable with listening to a foreign language, subtitles are the way to go. That way, you still do justice to the original acting and writing- and properly learn a second language to boot. It's a *lot* cheaper, too.
I mean, come on, fellas.
Yeah, I agree, German dubbing is the worst and I say that as a German. I mostly watch movies and series in English same with books and videogames. I don't think, a German dubbing for this game is doable. Plus as someone pointed out, if German gets dubbing , other, more common languages ( like Spanish for example) should get dubbing too and that would not only financially ruin Larian, but also take years to do - even for only one language.
Ich spiele grundsätzlich nur Spiele die eine deutsche Sprachausgabe haben. Boykottiere deswegen auch den Gamepass von Microsoft, weil ich nur gezielt Spiele kaufe die eine deutsche Sprachsusgabe haben. Denke die KI wie zum Beispiel Chat GPT 6,7 oder 8 ... wird das Problem in wenigen Jahren lösen und sowas in kurzer Zeit komplett vertonen ... Die Ki Entwicklung wird unglaublich schnell voran schreiten ...
Ich spiele solange Cyberpunk 2077 und The Wichter 3 mit deutsche Sprache und warte bis Baldurs Gate eine Sprachausgabe in Deutsch hat. Ein so großes Spiel wo man so viel Zeit verbringen kann, spiele ich niemals ohne deutsche Sprachausgabe ....
As I understand Germany really likes their dubbings (including assigning specific VO actors, to cover specific movie starts), so I can understand how for someone not used to subtitles it might be a bigger obstacle than for others.
I detest (polish) dubbings in movies, but I used to enjoy those for animated films - less so these days, when I am way out off touch with jokes or references a Polish translation might use. As cinematics barely sync with english VO, I think other languages could work well as well. That, however, still would be a massive undertaking, on top of what is already an insanely ambitions amoung of VO. Not an unreasonable request, though I don't expect for Larian to even seriously consider the suggestion.
Originally Posted by rodeolifant
Well, aside from The Witcher, I don't think I ever have played an RPG that was dubbed *into* English. And, I think in that series, only the first one was actually written in Polish, the rest was dubbed *from* English. I could be wrong. Still, English VA in Witcher series was *excellent* imo.
I do believe that is correct. From what I understand translation of W1 into english was very dodgy - especially before the Enhanced Edition. It seemed to work well for them - I played Witchers1-3 in polish and I haven't sensed it feeling off at any point.
Interestingly, games seem to shy away from a "lector" style translation - a neutral VO on top of original. I don't know if it's mainly a Polish thing, but in television most films are translated like that. Personally, I think it works rather well - gives you the original performance underneath, while providing translation at the same time. The only time I have seen it applied in games, was Polish VO for Stalker. Maybe it's too weird for mass market, by to me it really enhanced the grim, easter eurpean feel of Stalker.
edit: If two overlapping eastern european languages are too much for your delicate ears, here is a bit of Die Hard2 with the lector to illustrate the idea. On a side note, those being usualy TV cuts, they tend to omit a lot of vulgarities. It can be hilarious at times. I am sure it is very werid for Western audience, but I do wonder how many european countries use this type of translation, and if it would be valiable for some european markets. I will always prefer subtitles if needed, but for those needing VO, this could be an interesting option if full dubbing isn't a possibility.
Interestingly, games seem to shy away from a "lector" style translation - a neutral VO on top of original. I don't know if it's mainly a Polish thing, but in television most films are translated like that.
Ah, yeah, when I said German redubs are the worst, I meant that figuratively. In truth, Polish redubs are the worst, lol.
Originally Posted by Odieman
Maybe you should learn English instead? Countries who dub movies and games really baffle me.
That, but even more so - one learns best through exposure. This redub culture is literally *keeping* the people from learning another language.
Interestingly, games seem to shy away from a "lector" style translation - a neutral VO on top of original. I don't know if it's mainly a Polish thing, but in television most films are translated like that.
Ah, yeah, when I said German redubs are the worst, I meant that figuratively. In truth, Polish redubs are the worst, lol.
Polish redubs can be pretty darn bad. That reminds me of a time, when I accidently bought a ticket for dubbed Attack of the Clones. What a double whammy of awfulness.
I saw that in Luxembourg City, actually. And whilst I *am* used to subtitles, subtitles in three separate languages at onceI find quite difficult, too. I tend to read everything, even if I can just understand the movie's audio.
I... Just have trouble with the aversity Germans have to learning a second language, I suppose.
Lol, what do you think about French people then, who really hava an "aversity" to learn a foreign language, especially English?
In my opinion English speaking tourists are doing pretty well in Germany. If ordering something in English all the German staff will understand you, even cashiers in supermarkets usually don’t have a problem with basic English. Many Germans speak decent English in my opinion. F.e. I've been to Italy lately for vacation and I really can't say the same about Italians. Most (southern) Italians even in tourist locations like the Gulf of Naples, Bari or Sicilly don't speak good English.
But as a major nation in Europe we tend to enjoy some privileges smaller nations don't. Just as the French, we expect Hollywood movies or Netflix series and such to have a dubbing in our language. I don't have a problem watching a movie in English (my English surely isn't perfect, but good enough), but it's way more convenient watching it in German.
Anyway concerning BG3 I can understand, that a German dubbing might be simply too expensive for Larian and not economically reasonable, despite the rather large group of German native speakers (at least for European standards not so much for worldwide ones, though).
Ohne entsprechendes Audio (egal ob deutsch, spanisch, französisch usw.) geht in meinen Augen die Immersion eines Rollenspiels verloren. Man möchte ja ganz und gar in die Welt und das Geschehen eintauchen, das mitlesen stört dementsprechend.
Wouldn't certain donation levels be possible to enable localisations into other languages? Yes, even an Obsidian with a strong backer only offered translated texts in Pillars of Eternity, but you can always do better. The first step is to raise money for the narrator. Followed in the next step by "Dark Desire" and so on.
if it is possible, that larian open kickstarter or something like that, for the money, for german voices, then i definitly want to spent money. for me, i can enjoy the game 100 % , only, when the Language is in the native language (German) i hope so, Larian opens his heart and give the kickstarter feature a chance.
I'm reasonably sure that like in other games, any German VA would be so far below the English VA in quality that I wouldn't want to listen to it after playing with English VA. Also, the translations of terms and names of D&D worlds are sometime really stupid and at the very least unauthentic.
So, while I would like to play BG3 in my native language, I have yet to find a game where both the VA and the translation are satisfactory. TW3 did the translation very well, but some voices were just not very good. I would not expect German VA for BG3 to be different.
more dubs would ofc be nice but dubbing is a long and expensive thing to do, so i understand why they are not doing it. They have over 2 Million words to dub thats a huge amount...
Why games are never translated in Hindi? They have more inhabitants than China nowdays.
That’s a good question. If I had to guess, maybe it’s an issue of disposable income? But that can’t be it because there are millions of Indians who can afford to play BG3. Most Indians I know also speak English tho, but that might be because they’re international students or immigrants.
If this game is getting ANY dub, it would be more economically viable to get a Spanish, French, or Chinese dub long before a German dub.
Hmm, I think it's a decision about how much money another language version would generate in revenue. The pure distribution of a language only helps to a limited extent. Purchasing power and demand is probably the more important reason.
And there is a reason why there are so many (good) dubbings in german language...
I must say I was surprised that this AAA title was only released in English. When I finished the intro, I was already very disappointed. I know English - use it every day, but it lacks the ease of play, immersing me in the world becomes difficult. Do somebody know how good you have to be in English to be able to dive into the game. C2?
