Cancellation of the russian language and CA politics

[BagaturSasha]

Hello friends!

I think, some of us already know me
My name is Alex, my main proffession is writer.

I am half-russian, half-ukrainian. Since 2021 I have been a member of the Russian Writers Union (before the dramatic events in the Ukraine), the author of several books, essays, and also the team leader of the project on my own sci-fi world for the old game CnC Generals Zero Hour.

I would like to talk with you. Maybe you will agree, maybe no.

But the situation with the cancellation of russian culture and language now is too bad.
I have sent the special message to CA and explained them one thing - regime is not a nation, is not a culture or language
And the whole language can`t be the culprit of this disaster.

But CA didn`t answer
And i decided to publish my articles about my opinion.

https://www.twcenter.net/forums/entr...support-the-CA
Here you are the thread in the Blog here.

If you have some words, please say it.
But i think, you`re thinking the same. Because ministry of the Great Britain was right.
Russian culture and language haven`t got connections with regimes.

And CA must change their politics.... Sometime.

Regards Alex

[Akar]

I don't have much to add other than that I'm glad to see you sharing your side.

It's pretty clear that removing or refusing to add russian language localization is nothing more than a guise to save money by cutting the costs it takes to provide a quality localization. Greed masquerading as a selfless act.

[Muizer]

Have CA actually made any statements about this?

[Septentrionalis]

I tried to figure out what exactly CA has done, but that is not said in your blog post. As I don't think that CA is in the position to "abolish the Russian language", I assume you mean that they have stopped providing Russian localization to new titles.

Localizations are provided for large enough markets, and markets are mainly assessed in terms of audience size, money spent on gaming, and general willingness to play in one's own locale. For instance, the Spanish-speaking world is large, they spend money on games, and many of them aren't comfortable playing in English. Hence almost all games are localized into Spanish and even separately to Latin American and European Spanish in many cases.

It may be an economic choice that if games are not sold to Russia anymore and the Russian diaspora is not considered important enough a market, it is not worth it to localize. That does not discriminate against the language but merely puts it on the same level as many other languages that do not get a localization. On the other hand, in the unfortunate event of restricting game sales to Russia not being feasible technologically, the only way to even partially exclude Russia from the market is by restricting localization.

[Septentrionalis]

Have CA actually made any statements about this?

It looks like CA has not bothered to make a statement, but it indeed seems that they are trying to prevent the games from being played in Russia. At least there are complaints of not being able to buy or download Total War games and DLC. It makes sense that no further resources are allocated to Russian localization.

[Flinn]

Have CA actually made any statements about this?

Good luck with CA making any statement at all

[Roma_Victrix]

While this generally sucks for Russian speakers who don't even support Putin's war in Ukraine, Septentrionalis is right, it's about appealing to markets and right now Russia is being sanctioned by the West over its invasion. It seems as though CA has made an internal decision (without much fanfare or big announcements) that it is not worth it financially to continue providing Russian translations for gaming. You can certainly appeal to them to change that, but it seems they've made a calculated business decision that a small chorus of Russian speaking gamers is not going to readily change.

[Maximinus Thrax]

I have sent the special message to CA and explained them one thing - regime is not a nation, is not a culture or language
And the whole language can`t be the culprit of this disaster.

But CA didn`t answer
And i decided to publish my articles about my opinion.

You're wasting your time. CA doesn't care at all about the actual facts. It's just a company that follows the general guidelines imposed since the beginning of the war. Surely you can't expect them to step out of line. There's nothing you can do about it unfortunately.

[Akar]

While this generally sucks for Russian speakers who don't even support Putin's war in Ukraine, Septentrionalis is right, it's about appealing to markets and right now Russia is being sanctioned by the West over its invasion. It seems as though CA has made an internal decision (without much fanfare or big announcements) that it is not worth it financially to continue providing Russian translations for gaming. You can certainly appeal to them to change that, but it seems they've made a calculated business decision that a small chorus of Russian speaking gamers is not going to readily change.

This is exactly part of the problem. CA and other companies are using this as an excuse to get good press for standing up to Russia but really they're just inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of people who have no effect on the war either way and pocketing some cash along the way. If you want to pull out of Russia/stop localizing into the 8th most spoken language in the world to save money that's one thing but to do it while masquerading as trying to do what's right is just disgusting and indicative of the greedy corporate atmosphere that pervades the world.

That being said after doing some reading its not just CA games that are unavailable in Russia - it's every game published by SEGA which includes the CA games.

[Septentrionalis]

CA and other companies are using this as an excuse to get good press for standing up to Russia but really they're just inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of people who have no effect on the war either way and pocketing some cash along the way. If you want to pull out of Russia/stop localizing into the 8th most spoken language in the world to save money that's one thing but to do it while masquerading as trying to do what's right is just disgusting and indicative of the greedy corporate atmosphere that pervades the world.

I am not sure if that is properly publicized in the US media, but Russia is actually sanctioned internationally by a great number of nations, including UK where CA is from. There is not only no CA but no McDonalds in Russia. All those companies are losing money by withdrawing from the Russian market to comply with the sanctions, not pocketing money in an opportunist fashion by refusing to localize something. No one is going to buy all the CA games or eat at McDonalds several days a week because of some moral posturing. Many businesses reliant on Russian markets have been compromised or gone out of business entirely, including an export company that my friend was the CEO of.

Before the war, games weren't being localized to the Russian language at a financial loss. It was done to cater to a large consumer base and to make sure they feel comfortable buying and playing the games. To many of those consumers, Russian was not even their first language but an international language of eastern Eurasia that equals English to many of us western consumers who are not native English speakers. Most European languages never get localization unless there is an agreement to allow hobbyists, akin to modders, to provide them.

That market dynamic has changed quite a bit. Also, the localization providers may be the subject of sanctions. Finally, I am not saying that unwillingness to deal with anything Russian at this point is not a factor at all, but the very existence of western games versioned into Russian was not something everyone was just waiting to ditch once the opportune moment comes.

[Condottiere 40K]

We still speak German; as for Japanese ...

If you're looking at it from the cost accounting view, that Russian language market is probably dead until sanctions are lifted, and the Russian economy recovers.

Though the impression I get especially from Ukraine, is that the majority of the population conduct their affairs primarily in Ukrainian, and I think that for the current and the next generation, it's going to be shunned.

The Baltic States are likely to suppress it as far as European human rights will allow them.

If Putin is dumb enough to try and nuke anyone, it will probably become literally a dead language and culture.