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[Wild Card]

You just can't have that long a delay in today's market. When players in one country are just getting a new version while Japan's already on the next revision, it's awful.

Is there any proof for this though, it's not like we haven't seen arcade footage for a year. They also seemed to do just fine using this formula for all their other iterations, unless those sales have just tanked I don't see why the change.

 

[kewlmyc]

I cannot believe that anyone would legitimately be upset about a fighting game now having dubbed voices for a portion of its extra content. Yes, I'm well aware of how big the story portion of Arc's games are, but that comment still stands.

I'm also increasingly annoyed by how entitled a lot of fans of J-gaming are. Hey, want to go back to the early days of getting niche Japanese games over here that I lived through? Things are utopia right now compared to how it used to be. If lack of dubs or digital-only releases mean we get more games more timely than we would otherwise, good.

Yeah, it's shocking that people would be disappointed in the fact that the final chapter in a story arc, that is at least 90 hours long over the course of multiple games, wouldn't feature the voices they've gotten used to over the 6 years since the story started.

I'm still getting it and I actually agree with Aksys' decision, but I can see why a lot of people who only play the games for the story, which is quite a sizable portion of people, wouldn't be interested in this release. It's a catch 22 for Aksys at this point. They were gonna piss people off either way.

 

[black_vegeta]

Meh, I don't play fighting for the story mode anyways. Getting the game faster, fine by me.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Good, they should be focusing limited resources in a more effective manner than spending money on a dub that the majority of players will ignore and switch to JP voices anyways.

 

[Wild Card]

Yeah, it's shocking that people would be disappointed in the fact that the final chapter in a story arc, that is at least 90 hours long over the course of multiple games, wouldn't feature the voices they've gotten used to over the 6 years since the story started.

I'm still getting it and I actually agree with Aksys' decision, but I can see why a lot of people who only play the games for the story, which is quite a sizable portion of people, wouldn't be interested in this release. It's a catch 22 for Aksys at this point. They were gonna piss people off either way.

Yeah but in this case it wouldn't have been anything new, like KOF and netcode, Arcsys and delays.

 

[Pejo]

I wonder if the actual fighting voices will still have english dub. Not sure after 6 years I can mentally prepare for whatever INFERNO DIVIDER! is in japanese.

After some thought, this really bugs me. I loved the VA's selected for the dub.

 

[SoundPulse]

I can believe it. Shit happens in production. Perhaps multiple voice actors are unavailable, perhaps they looked at the financials and decided that a dub really didn't make a lot of sense. Perhaps a little bit of both. For a fighting game like this, it would be imperative that Aksys get the game at asap, lest a good chunk of their audience decide to simply import the game. A six month delay would be pushing it, let alone an eight month long one.

It sucks, but them's the breaks.

 

[Lupin the Third]

stop, just stop using that word. Companies arent magically entitled to peoples moneys just for releasing a product. People have wants and expectations that have to be met, and if a company doesnt meet them they wont get that money

its the same bizarre shit when a PC version gets a fuck awful port and someone says "you should just be happy it got ported"

To be fair, historically a PC game can be unofficially modded or patched post-release, though it might be difficult (Denuvo might make it nigh unto impossible in the future, though). But fans would almost never port a console game to PC on their own in the first place. Whether an awful PC port is worth it to their audience to pay the money they ask for it is another matter.

Consumers are absolutely entitled to complaining and refraining from buying a product that does not meet their standards. Money in particular talks, after all.

But if recent series sales are no longer justifying a dub, or perhaps the demand for quicker NA release has been more vocal than the demand for a dub (not that we, as the public, could possibly know these facts), then it's kind of unfair to make Aksys out to be so wrong here. They cannot be everything to everybody and it does not make business sense to throw good money after bad, especially on the relatively niche product that the latest BlazBlue is. It's okay for you to be upset, but it is also good to look at it from their perspective.

 

[JayEH]

I wonder if the actual fighting voices will still have english dub. Not sure after 6 years I can mentally prepare for whatever INFERNO DIVIDER! is in japanese.

After some thought, this really bugs me. I loved the VA's selected for the dub.

the same thing.

 

[Drilbit777]

Nah, I think I'll keep using it, because that's how I feel about the fandom at times. I've seen fans who would rather the game not come out than come out under the exact specifications that they want.




Things change, unfortunately. The situation now might not be the same as it was before. The quantity of voice work that needs to be done could be much larger. The fanbase may be shrinking. Too many people may be waiting to pick up the game cheap. Fans might be getting tired of Arc milking their fighters. Every game doesn't come out under the exact same conditions.




I've got no problem with people being upset/disappointed over this announcement. I just think the people need to keep perspective on the situation. It's a fighting game, with a heavily Japanese anime slant, that then has a secondary-to-the-fighting story mode, and it'll still have voices just not in English. If that's all it takes for you to drop the series, that's kind of sad to me.




Okay, look, when my hands typed "I cannot believe" earlier, that was probably a gigantic lie. XD

You're not exactly being considerate of other people, in fact you're kinda coming off as a dick.

People have every right to be upset considering the other blazblue games got dubbed and now this one isn't. Japan has already had central fiction for about a year now so it's not like getting the game faster isn't gonna change things and akys is just cutting it out to save costs

 

[Nyoro SF]

Is there any proof for this though, it's not like we haven't seen arcade footage for a year. They also seemed to do just fine using this formula for all their other iterations, unless those sales have just tanked I don't see why the change.

My guess is that multiple trajectories have come into play.

CF will have the longest story in the series.
CF has more characters than ever, with a ton of extra voice work that has to be done on top of additional lines from all the existing characters. I believe the new characters for console are Izanami, Nine, Hibiki, Naoto, Es, and Mai.
Sales are either stagnant or reducing. I think if they were going up we would've gotten a press release.
ASW has taken back localization duties from Aksys to cut costs (Aksys still publishes).
ASW aggressively trying to move people into the digital space with very big preorder bonuses (though I don't see one for CF like a demo).

These all point to something just finally breaking and the dub just became too much.
Game industry heads can feel free to correct my guesses.

 

[Garlador]

Accordingly, a lack of a dub makes me go from picking it up at launch to getting it discounted 6-8 months later.

... Yeah, same here. I mean, I understand, but I would definitely have chosen to wait for a dub and, in fact, will continue to wait for a dub. Even if there are no plans. Because I greatly enjoy the dubs of the prior games.

 

[AWizardDidIt]

I totally understand if there were legit business reasons behind this decision and I actually feel a bit bad for Aksys if it was a matter of just not being able to afford the time/money required to get those VAs in the studio but unfortunately this is pretty much a deal-breaker for me in terms of a first day buy.

I'll probably check it out when it goes on sale down the line (or comes out for PC).

 

[Noi]

I've got no problem with people being upset/disappointed over this announcement. I just think the people need to keep perspective on the situation. It's a fighting game, with a heavily Japanese anime slant, that then has a secondary-to-the-fighting story mode, and it'll still have voices just not in English. If that's all it takes for you to drop the series, that's kind of sad to me.

I obviously can't speak for everyone, but Blazblue is story first, fighting game second to me. Releasing the game without a dub, which lots of people have loved over the years, is equivalent to releasing the game with no voice acting at all. There's a lot of small details like mid battle dialogue and character exchanges at the beginning of matchups that I'm going to completely miss out of because of it.

I really don't think being upset that the main reason why I support this series is being directly affected by the decision to not dumb the game makes me entitled at all. I'll just take my money and go support someone else instead.

 

[Wild Card]

My guess is that multiple trajectories have come into play.

CF will have the longest story in the series.
CF has more characters than ever, with a ton of extra voice work that has to be done on top of additional lines from all the existing characters. I believe the new characters for console are Izanami, Nine, Hibiki, Naoto, Es, and Mai.
Sales are either stagnant or reducing. I think if they were going up we would've gotten a press release.
ASW has taken back localization duties from Aksys to cut costs (Aksys still publishes).
ASW aggressively trying to move people into the digital space with very big preorder bonuses (though I don't see one for CF like a demo).

These all point to something just finally breaking and the dub just became too much.
Game industry heads can feel free to correct my guesses.

Perhaps they shouldn't have made that shit anime, but honestly that thing was so low budget maybe the awareness for it would have brought people in, but at the same time I don't know why you would be enticed by something of that quality, so that's all up in the air.

I also feel like it's crazy they would still be needing to cut back. They have all the revenue streams, arcades, merchandise, $60 revisions, DLC, extend editions, and I'm sure there's others I'm not thinking of. So maybe sales really are declining.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Perhaps they shouldn't have made that shit anime, but honestly that thing was so low budget maybe the awareness for it would have brought people in, but at the same time I don't know why you would be enticed by something of that quality, so that's all up in the air.

I also feel like it's crazy they would still be needing to cut back. They have all the revenue streams, arcades, merchandise, $60 revisions, DLC, extend editions, and I'm sure there's others I'm not thinking of. So maybe sales really are declining.

revelators sales werent very good, but that could also be attributed to the decision to not dub it. Hard to say without Aksys and ASW's data, and even then those won't tell the whole story

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

revelators sales werent very good, but that could also be attributed to the decision to not dub it. Hard to say without Aksys and ASW's data, and even then those won't tell the whole story

Revelator sales being down compared to Sign can't really be pinned to a lack of dub alone, especially since IIRC the lack of dub was kept pretty tight to their chest up to the release. Fighting games almost always see diminishing returns upon expansions and the like.

Sales basically just taper off until it's really the diehards who keep buying. I feel pretty sure that BlazBlue is in that boat right now that it's settled into its niche and the newness has worn off.

 

[TWILT]

Super disappointing to hear. I bought Revelator anyway new because the rest of the game was good enough to offset the lack of a dub (and I didn't think it was particularly good anyway). I'm admittedly not huge on BB, but the dub was always my favorite parts about the game. I guess I'll just wait till it goes on sale then.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Revelator sales being down compared to Sign can't really be pinned to a lack of dub alone, especially since IIRC the lack of dub was kept pretty tight to their chest up to the release. Fighting games almost always see diminishing returns upon expansions and the like.

Sales basically just taper off until it's really the diehards who keep buying. I feel pretty sure that BlazBlue is in that boat right now that it's settled into its niche and the newness has worn off.

hard to say for sure since I dont have confirmed numbers, but from what I've seen revelators sales were much worse than the usual FG dropoff. Granted the reasoning could be anything, the lack of dub could actually have been meaningless to the sales drop, I just mentioned it as a possibility.

Its hard to get any hard numbers on niche japanese games sales and player habits. Anecdotally it seems like the vast majority of people playing ASW games that have had dubs use them online, but thats not very helpful. Xseed and Atlus have talked about dubs being very important to reach good sales numbers, however xseed partially attributed that to retailer refusal to stock undubbed games. Atlus didnt give any real details.

Blazblue sales have been pretty healthy, definitely higher than guilty gear despite having much smaller showings in the competitive gaming community. I think that says a lot to the value players place no the story mode and single player in blazblue. How much of that could be attributed back to the dub is unknown.

So my guess is they figured theyd just milk the extra profits from not dubbing as they expect stagnate sales.

 

[DangerMouse]

Accordingly, a lack of a dub makes me go from picking it up at launch to getting it discounted 6-8 months later.

This. Woulda rather waited 6 months. Now I'll either not buy or buy it cheap. Good choice there Aksys /s. I really liked the BlazBlue cast a lot so I'm not really okay with this. They're also recognized as good enough that even Funi ponied up and got most of them back for the anime.

 

[IronLich]

If people wanted to get the game earlier, they can... through importing the game. Like who wouldn't at this point aside from the people wanting to support the English release?

Is Arcsys really that fucked when it comes to money? They're practically #2 on the fighting game arcade scene. You'd figure they would have spent the extra cash and work on the English dub side by side with the Japanese release like they did with Xrd. It just boggles the mind.

 

[DangerMouse]

I obviously can't speak for everyone, but Blazblue is story first, fighting game second to me. Releasing the game without a dub, which lots of people have loved over the years, is equivalent to releasing the game with no voice acting at all. There's a lot of small details like mid battle dialogue and character exchanges at the beginning of matchups that I'm going to completely miss out of because of it.

I really don't think being upset that the main reason why I support this series is being directly affected by the decision to not dumb the game makes me entitled at all. I'll just take my money and go support someone else instead.

Yup.

 

[djplaeskool]

That's unfortunate.
BlazBlue has some great VO work.

 

[Narroo]

You just can't have that long a delay in today's market. When players in one country are just getting a new version while Japan's already on the next revision, it's awful.

Previous games had simultaneous releases or close to it, and those had the best localizations. It wasn't until they started cost cutting that the delays because of the 'localization' became 6+ months long.

So everyone who's saying that it's fine because at least we get the game sooner and that's great for competitive parity: No.

Arc Sys is more than capable of releasing a dubbed game shortly after the JP version of the game; they've done it before.

AND, the games are ususally exclusive to JP arcades for a year anyways, so the competitive scene already has a head-start anyways.

The dub, in principle, does not need to be cut so that they can release the game six months earlier.

 

[Garlador]

Previous games had simultaneous releases or close to it, and those had the best localizations. It wasn't until they started cost cutting that the delays because of the 'localization' became 6+ months long.

So everyone who's saying that it's fine because at least we get the game sooner and that's great for competitive parity: No.

Arc Sys is more than capable of releasing a dubbed game shortly after the JP version of the game; they've done it before.

AND, the games are ususally exclusive to JP arcades for a year anyways, so the competitive scene already has a head-start anyways.

The dub, in principle, does not need to be cut so that they can release the game six months earlier.

Dropping truth-fire here.

It's a cost-cutting measure and nothing more. They've proven themselves capable of making this happen in the past and have just given up the effort, time, and resources for it. And that sucks.

 

[Narroo]

Dropping truth-fire here.

It's a cost-cutting measure and nothing more. They've proven themselves capable of making this happen in the past and have just given up the effort, time, and resources for it. And that sucks.

At best: They're probably waiting until the JP version of the game is done before handing the game off to localizers, rather than working in tandem with them. That can potentially cause staggered releases: If the translators don't get the game until two months before the JP version releases, they can't really do much, can they?

But that's the fault of the studio. It's a organizational fault were the overseas versions aren't thought about during development, resulting in long lag times. There are developers out there that can - and do - work with their localizers as they work on the game to minimize delay time.

Also, I suppose with a November release date, they get holiday money.

 

[Rutger]

Previous games had simultaneous releases or close to it, and those had the best localizations. It wasn't until they started cost cutting that the delays because of the 'localization' became 6+ months long.

So everyone who's saying that it's fine because at least we get the game sooner and that's great for competitive parity: No.

Arc Sys is more than capable of releasing a dubbed game shortly after the JP version of the game; they've done it before.

AND, the games are ususally exclusive to JP arcades for a year anyways, so the competitive scene already has a head-start anyways.

The dub, in principle, does not need to be cut so that they can release the game six months earlier.

I get what you are trying to say, but the amount of work needed to dub these games has only increased since the days of BBCT's 12 character roster + some side characters.

I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, perhaps it was still possible to pull of a close localization, but there are certainly some new issues compared to then and they can't just do exactly what they did before.

 

[Narroo]

If people wanted to get the game earlier, they can... through importing the game. Like who wouldn't at this point aside from the people wanting to support the English release?

Is Arcsys really that fucked when it comes to money? They're practically #2 on the fighting game arcade scene. You'd figure they would have spent the extra cash and work on the English dub side by side with the Japanese release like they did with Xrd. It just boggles the mind.

I'm not sure how credible ******** on this end (and they don't include digital sales) but they estimate sales to be USA: 130,000, JP: 140,000 (take it as an estimation.). I'd like to see real sales statistics, I doubt they'd ever release them.

 

[Vitacat]

Aksys has turned into such a shit company.

I will never buy anything they publish anymore. They lost me with the ZTD fiasco.

Luckily there are many, many games and publishers these days to pick from.

 

[Order]

The dub for this series is great tho

 

[Wild Card]

I think it is folly that Arcsys would believe that a dub of guilty gear is the same as Blazblue. One not selling very well, or people not caring should not mean it also applies to the other. The GG dub wasn't very good and was also the first one in the series, which is why you didn't see nearly as much outcry then as compared to this. People have had 9 years to grow with this franchise, and it's always had a dub, so it's a big part of it. The importance of dubs to GG is not the same as BB, and it seems arcsys may have misread that. Doesn't BB outsell GG as well? Like in Japan and the US?

 

[Garlador]

The dub for this series is great tho

I'd actually argue it's the dub that kept me coming back. For a story that's so overtly "anime" to the nth degree, the cast didn't just make it work, but they really OWNED it and made it their own. I was thrilled when they kept those same voice actors for the actual anime as well. It felt authentic.

I've endured some really terrible dubs before. Blazblue's was one of the absolute best.

 

[Narroo]

I get what you are trying to say, but the amount of work needed to dub these games has only increased since the days of BBCT's 12 character roster + some side characters.

I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, perhaps it was still possible to pull of a close localization, but there are certainly some new issues compared to then.

Yeah, but not six months worth of work. CS:Extend had a good 6 month delay despite only adding minimal content. (1 new character, plus 3 extra story segments.)

The meat of the translation effort would go to story mode and that's pretty much the same as ever. Heck, the last game might have had a slightly shorter story mode than usual since it was a linear story.

The cast is much larger now, meaning that battle dialogue would take longer, but that's still pretty small compared to story mode. And honestly, by now, they should have a system in place. We're five games in. Per line, it shouldn't be as hard to translate now, which should at least take the edge off of the extra characters.

 

[DVCY201]

Was going to wait for the Extend version anyways, but that's unfortunate to hear

 

[R_thanatos]

Well i've always played this game with the japanese dub , so this decision doesn't affect me.

At least , Aksys is clear about it.. that much i like . if you can't dub something just say so and why.
Even if it's disapointing for those accustomed to the eng dub , at least the info is there.

isn't that right Atlus , *wink , wink* ?

 

[Curry-Hakase]

It's unfortunate but this is a fighting game first.

 

[Uraizen]

Six to eight months? Fuck that.

I'm with Aksys on this one.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Nah, I think I'll keep using it, because that's how I feel about the fandom at times. I've seen fans who would rather the game not come out than come out under the exact specifications that they want.




Things change, unfortunately. The situation now might not be the same as it was before. The quantity of voice work that needs to be done could be much larger. The fanbase may be shrinking. Too many people may be waiting to pick up the game cheap. Fans might be getting tired of Arc milking their fighters. Every game doesn't come out under the exact same conditions.

Aksys has been dodging this question for weeks. They deserve to get called out on it. And yes, people have every right to be upset, when you set a precedent for releases and then just suddenly stop doing it. Imagine if Persona 5 or FFXV wouldn't be dubbed because of budget. It's typically expected for mainstream games. Hell, SCEA wouldn't even publish games that had no dub for a while, in the PS2 era.


It's all about the bottom dollar. That six month claim is straight-up bullshit.

 

[s_mirage]

I obviously can't speak for everyone, but Blazblue is story first, fighting game second to me. Releasing the game without a dub, which lots of people have loved over the years, is equivalent to releasing the game with no voice acting at all. There's a lot of small details like mid battle dialogue and character exchanges at the beginning of matchups that I'm going to completely miss out of because of it.

I really don't think being upset that the main reason why I support this series is being directly affected by the decision to not dumb the game makes me entitled at all. I'll just take my money and go support someone else instead.

I concur absolutely. I play Blazblue primarily for the characters and the story, and this is the equivalent of getting into a show only for the entire cast to be recast in the final season.

 

[Stuart444]

Fucking Bullshit...

This annoys me so much, The final of Ragna's story, that has been dubbed since the start is not getting dubbed for the final story arc.

Just bullshit...

 

[R_thanatos]

It's unfortunate but this is a fighting game first.

Six to eight months? Fuck that.

I'm with Aksys on this one.

I feel the same.

A fighting game has no chance these days without a simultaneous release. I don't want a dead online. Despite all claims of the contrary , it is a fighting game first

 

[Stuart444]

They could easily add it as DLC or fuck, just say "We'll add it later in an Extend release" which you know will fucking happen because it's Arc System Works.

The fighting game first crowd will buy both. The dub crowd will buy the DLC or the extend version.

Everyone is fucking happen then.

edit: They also kept quiet for months on this despite repeated attempts to get answers. A number of us people who like the dub are probably pissed at that as well considering it's been an expected feature for quite some fucking time now.

At least they finally came out with it before the release if that counts for anything but all of this is bullshit to me.

 

[MaximumSpider]

Gonna miss INFERNO DIVIDER

 

[Hubb]

I feel the same.

A fighting game has no chance these days without a simultaneous release. I don't want a dead online. Despite all claims of the contrary , it is a fighting game first

We aren't getting a simultaneous release anyway. They haven't set a date yet, but it seems like it is going to be November. So at best 1 month late, and at worst 3 months late.

 

[cj_iwakura]

We aren't getting a simultaneous release anyway. They haven't set a date yet, but it seems like it is going to be November. So at best 1 month late, and at worst 3 months late.

Watch it take 6-8 months anyway.

 

[Pejo]

Here's a point to ponder. If Aksys were to start a kickstarter strictly for english dub, with no stretch goals etc, would you contribute?

Back when Kickstarter first started getting big, these are the kinds of things I imagined it would eventually be used for.

On one hand, it'd be a great way for fans to voice how important the dub is, on the other hand, other pubs would look at it as a way to cheapen their localization process for all games in the future. Not sure how I'd feel about it.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Here's a point to ponder. If Aksys were to start a kickstarter strictly for english dub, with no stretch goals etc, would you contribute?

Back when Kickstarter first started getting big, these are the kinds of things I imagined it would eventually be used for.

On one hand, it'd be a great way for fans to voice how important the dub is, on the other hand, other pubs would look at it as a way to cheapen their localization process for all games in the future. Not sure how I'd feel about it.

I could put about $5k in

 

[cj_iwakura]

Here's a point to ponder. If Aksys were to start a kickstarter strictly for english dub, with no stretch goals etc, would you contribute?

Back when Kickstarter first started getting big, these are the kinds of things I imagined it would eventually be used for.

On one hand, it'd be a great way for fans to voice how important the dub is, on the other hand, other pubs would look at it as a way to cheapen their localization process for all games in the future. Not sure how I'd feel about it.

On one hand, I would, but on the other... dangerous precedent.

Their comment on the PSN thread sure backfired. "Would you really want to wait six-eight months for a dub?" Lots and lots of "yes I totally would"

 

[zerokoolpsx]

Its pretty sad its not gonna have any dub, but it is what it is. I guess it just wasn't worth the cost to them.

 

[Wild Card]

Here's a point to ponder. If Aksys were to start a kickstarter strictly for english dub, with no stretch goals etc, would you contribute?

Back when Kickstarter first started getting big, these are the kinds of things I imagined it would eventually be used for.

On one hand, it'd be a great way for fans to voice how important the dub is, on the other hand, other pubs would look at it as a way to cheapen their localization process for all games in the future. Not sure how I'd feel about it.

Future DLC or Kickstarter I'd be sure to contribute.