what you need to know
- Starfield is an upcoming Xbox and PC exclusive from Bethesda Softworks, creators of Skyrim and Fallout 3 and 4.
- Heralded as a new era for Xbox exclusive games, some fans lament the lack of clarity on localization.
- Microsoft has lagged far behind the Sony PlayStation and other platforms when it comes to language localization, and fans are coming together to call for Starfield regionalization.
Criticism of Microsoft’s (lack of) localization for Xbox games is back on the horizon.
Starfield is an upcoming Xbox and PC exclusive from Bethesda, known for games like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Many hope that Starfield will symbolize a new era for Xbox exclusive games, where much of the success has depended on titles like Age of Empires, Flight Simulator, and Forza, among a few others. Microsoft hasn’t had much luck with its action RPGs of late, but there are positive signs of change.
Bethesda’s Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush launched to a great deal of praise, and Obsidian has been working full steam ahead to deliver hits like Grounded and Pentiment. Still, fans are eager to see what a mega-blockbuster from Microsoft and Xbox would look like, and Starfield could be.
Set in a space future, Starfield is described as a “NASApunk” title with reality-based space technology, set in a diverse and complex simulation for which Bethesda is typically known. However, some fans are already expressing their disappointment, hoping that they will once again be banned from a localized version.
Last week, fans in the Middle East began demonstrating for a localized version of Starfield, launching a Change.org petition to that effect. At the time of writing, more than three thousand signatories are actively requesting some form of Arabic localization.
The Starfield Steam page suggests that the game will not be localized into Arabic, even with subtitles, which could leave out hundreds of thousands of potential players unfamiliar with English or any of the other supported languages. According to Steam, Starfield will ship with English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese dubbing. Still, it will feature subtitles in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese.
I think most users would agree that having voice-over dubbing in every language can be prohibitively expensive, but surely having the text translated and localized in major languages like Arabic is much more reasonable.
Windows Central socket
Once again, the situation draws criticism of Microsoft’s middling efforts to globalize its presence on Xbox. I’ve written about poor Xbox localization investments before, and while things have improved slightly in some cases, Microsoft is still way, way behind where it needs to be.
What is maddening is the inconsistency. Some games, like Hi-Fi Rush, got a full Arabic text localization, but it’s still an outlier. Despite Microsoft’s interest in courts in Southeast Asia, we still see Microsoft games completely ignoring the full Korean localization as well. Ultimately, it’s a chicken-and-egg scenario in some cases, where Microsoft and its subsidiaries may feel it’s not worth the investment to localize games for specific regions where Xbox’s footprint is small. But how do you expect to grow in those regions? without location?
There’s one more area where PlayStation has traditionally done much better than Xbox. Location. They always support more languages in first party games than Xbox. pic.twitter.com/mLXchz1YOjMarch 11, 2023
A flagship game like Starfield should come with as wide a localization as possible, covering all major languages in all economies where the game is planned to be sold. Otherwise, the message Microsoft is sending boils down to “we don’t care about your region,” which is absolutely no way to grow and gain favor with your efforts to compete. Starfield is very likely to end up on many of the best Xbox games and best PC games of 2023 lists. Shutting gamers out of the fun over something like localization betrays Microsoft’s slogan “When everyone plays, everyone plays.” we won”.
We have reached out to Bethesda for comment on the location of Starfield, but have yet to receive any response.
Starfield launches on September 6, 2023 for Xbox and Windows PC. The game will also launch directly into Xbox game pass.
A big thank you to @jassem73 for advice
