Nintendo's Translator Complaint Names Missing from Credits in Popular Games
TapTechNews July 13th news, according to the report of GameDeveloper on the 12th local time, multiple anonymous sources have recently written in to complain that in popular games such as Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Super Mario RPG, as third-party outsourced translators, their names failed to appear on the list of game production staff.
These sources said that although they spent months translating these highly-acclaimed works for a global audience, Nintendo repeatedly failed to include their names in these works.
A translator who once worked at Nintendo said that they always got signed when as an internal employee at Nintendo. When I worked at Nintendo, I always got signed. I remember seeing my name in the list of production staff of a Nintendo game for the first time, and that feeling of being recognized was really great. It's like a warm thank you from the developers and the company for the work you've done.
After leaving Nintendo, translators continued to participate in the translation projects of Nintendo's games as outsourced personnel through the service provider Localsoft. However, these translators did not get signed in the Nintendo works they participated in through Localsoft or Keywords (TapTechNews note: another Nintendo service provider).
Another source also confirmed these claims. He has worked at Localsoft for more than a year and participated in multiple Nintendo projects, but never got signed. Nintendo's policy is not to list the names of external translation agencies in the list of game production staff, and also prohibits us from listing these works on our resumes. This source explained.
He said that when participating in Nintendo works as an external translator, they were required to sign a 10-year confidentiality agreement prohibiting discussion or promotion of their work externally.
As of the time of press, Nintendo, Keywords, and Localsoft have not responded to this matter.