Larian Studios was quick to take action after allegations surfaced that some of Baldur’s Gate 3’s translators were not properly credited on the game.
As reported by Eurogamer, Larian shared an immediate statement that the issue lay with the company they hired for the translations, Altagram.
“This was all Altagram group. We reached out, and compelled them to fix this.
Full credits will be coming in Hotfix 3. As soon as we (Larian) were made aware, we took steps with Altagram to remedy this immediately.”
Larian later clarified to Eurogamer that they have scheduled the update to the full credits in the game’s first upcoming patch.
Marc EG, director at his own localization studio, named From The Void, served as whistleblower on Altagram on his Twitter.
He sent this tweet talking about the situation:
“Congratulations to the heroes who translated @larianstudios’ Baldur’s Gate 3!
Sorry you couldn’t get proper recognition, but ctrl+C/ctrl+V is still way too complex for @Altagram_Group
That shortcut, for some reason, only seems to work for executives’ names. It’s so weird!”
Later, he also tweeted this:
“Translators for @baldursgate3 worked for 𝟯 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 translating more than 𝟭 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 and @Altagram_Group only credited their execs & leads.
Let’s be clear: this practice is always unethical, but here, like with Persona before, it’s downright 𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗟.”
Marc also commented on Larian Studios’ response to the issue:
“Altagram’s to blame & @larianstudios is to be praised for addressing it, but there’s an underlying issue that sees studios receiving translation credits that don’t list any translators, yet still implement them without question 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 it’s a PR issue.
I do find the idea of “Once we were made aware [𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘴]” funny & think we should interrogate its root cause.
It’s not @larianstudios -specific, it’s a multi-faceted broad industry issue, but one that needs cured.”
To be clear, Marc’s From the Void helmed localization duties on games like Darkest Dungeon and Inkulinati.This person isn’t well known, but he isn’t just some rando who just has an axe to grind vs the company. He’s definitely an industry person who took real risks to expose this issue, for the sake of his peers.
Eurogamer also spoke to another translator, who was properly credited on Baldur’s Gate 3. They explained that their work took four years, and added up to 2.5 million words translated to Spanish.
As Marc EG pointed out, while Larian Studios ended up in the crossfire here, the issue is bigger than one studio or game company. It’s an industry wide practice that gamers also have to talk about. For the sake of the people who make the games, they all deserve to be treated fairly and humanely in their work. That’s true for projects big and small, including sleeper hits like Baldur’s Gate 3.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is now playable on Windows via Steam and GOG. It will be releasing on MacOS and PlayStation 5 on September 6, 2023. It is also set to release on Xbox Series X|S.
