There is this difference in release dates when it comes to films and games that really bothers me. Films are usually "tested" in their country of origin before being released in any other country. As most of the films landing in our cinemas come from the US, we're used to having to wait for quite some time before they're shown here. This has got a bit better in recent years; some of the films have even had their world premiére here before the US, but there's still quite a gap between release dates on many films. It's the same with computer and video games. American-made games are released in Europe up to half a year later. Why? Because they have to be translated (and some minor trouble with the local worker's unions ;-).) I have a suggestion. Up here where I live we're a bunch of eager Norwegians with a good enough knowledge of English for us to understand any game and film you throw at us. Really. Hardly any games get translated here, this is for the Germans, French, Spanish and Italians who for some reason refuse to learn English or something. From what I hear, an increasing number of younger-generation French and Germans (at least) are getting quite annoyed with this, including the bit where they dub most films. So why don't you just make your games and release the usual English version at the same time around the world; then those who still don't know any English could wait the usual amount of time while the rest of us can enjoy a great (?) game at the same time as the Americans do. I'm so tired of hearing about how great a game is when I still have to wait for many months before I'll be able to check it out myself. Argh. Electronic Arts have realised that unless they release The Sims 2 at the same time in the US and Europe there will be riots in the streets. They lost a lot of money on their Sims Online game because they let Europeans beta test the game for weeks and months before the release and then decided to wait with the European release for another few months. The Euro players were furious. Once again the Americans would be able to build their little empires for a long time before unleashing the Europeans, making it a lot harder for us to enjoy the community. A lot of us grew impatient and went for other games instead, never to return to the Sims Online community which could have been so great. The impatience grows in us every day, though, and let's face it, many Europeans download films and games from the 'Net because they're tired of waiting. I think the manufacturers and producers are shooting themselves in the foot here. Yes, of course a lot of people would still download things from the Internet, just look at the popularity of certain P2P (filesharing) programs, but not such a vast number of people like now.

Now, about the region system on DVD's...

Current track: José Gonzalez - Stay in the Shade

Labels: computers, film, gaming, linguistics, Norway