Masahiro Sakurai’s Comments on Japanese Game Development Were Mistranslated, Leading to Misinterpretation
Masahiro Sakurai’s Comments on Japanese Game Development Were Mistranslated, Leading to Misinterpretation
by darkestdepeths
15 Comments
Sad-Injury-4052
He was just stating the idea that inspired the old Bungie logo “We create games we like to play”.
OddEyess_
What a surprise, grifters using Sakurai for their culture war bullshit.
B-Bog
Damn this is only like the 3 billionth time this has happened with an interview in Japanese
you_wish_you_knew
“Instead, he emphasized that Japanese developers should focus on making games they personally enjoy, rather than feeling pressured to conform to Western trends.”
I’ma be real with you, this comes across as pedantic to me. It comes across more or less the same except one is pointed at the Japanese audience while the other is the developers.
linkling1039
>The correct translation of his response clarifies that Sakurai did not suggest limiting Japanese games to a Japanese audience. Instead, he emphasized that Japanese developers should focus on making games they personally enjoy, rather than feeling pressured to conform to Western trends.
Isn’t that exactly what people were commenting?
Admmmmi
“Instead, he emphasized that Japanese developers should focus on making games they personally enjoy, rather than feeling pressured to conform to Western trends”
What misunderstanding? I thought pretty much everyone agreed this was what he meant.
ButIDigress79
That’s exactly how I took the original translation. Bad faith actors will always run away with these quotes.
Wrong_Revolution_679
Yeah I knew it was something like that, Especially due to the types of people who were responding to that and spreading it
Laranthiel
But that’s exactly what people thought he meant.
Is this some crappy attempt at stirring drama?
TheDoctorDB
I’m more confused by the people thinking there’s no difference or it’s silly to highlight one. Japanese has a ton more nuance than English and even this “proper” translation could be lacking the exact meaning compared to what Sakurai really said.
But in its own right, “a developer being encouraged to make whatever they desire and personally find fun without worrying about future marketing and reception” is still vastly different from a statement characterized as “don’t cater to the Western audience.”
While some of the meaning may be shared (the “don’t listen to others” part, for example), the implication of “ignore what *those* people have to say specifically” is not present in the former concept at all. And it can come off as beyond rude.
The_Majestic_Mantis
Why is it ALWAYS a mistranslation?…
evildrtran
C’mon Google Translate, do Better!
StoryAndAHalf
So the same advice I got when I was trying to get into game dev a dozen or so years ago – make games you want to play. Life turned out different and I never worked on any big budget games (closest were licensed IP iOS games), but it appears it’s a popular sentiment in the west as it is in the east years later.
Mysterions
He’s not wrong with either translation. Japanese-made media is at its best best when it’s made for the home market and at it’s worst when it’s chasing international appeal.
Also, it’s a weird double standard. No one is critical of American media, made by Americans that specifically caters to American audiences. And frankly, no one should. There’s nothing wrong with people making content for their home audiences.
What’s wrong is when barriers are put up that prevents others from accessing that media.
Aquarsene
This…. Seems to happen a lot when it comes to translation. I know Miyamoto’s words regarding Sticker Star were also wildly taken out of context and used to make him look like the boogeyman responsible for ruining the game, I wonder if that was a mistranslation too….
15 Comments
He was just stating the idea that inspired the old Bungie logo “We create games we like to play”.
What a surprise, grifters using Sakurai for their culture war bullshit.
Damn this is only like the 3 billionth time this has happened with an interview in Japanese
“Instead, he emphasized that Japanese developers should focus on making games they personally enjoy, rather than feeling pressured to conform to Western trends.”
I’ma be real with you, this comes across as pedantic to me. It comes across more or less the same except one is pointed at the Japanese audience while the other is the developers.
>The correct translation of his response clarifies that Sakurai did not suggest limiting Japanese games to a Japanese audience. Instead, he emphasized that Japanese developers should focus on making games they personally enjoy, rather than feeling pressured to conform to Western trends.
Isn’t that exactly what people were commenting?
“Instead, he emphasized that Japanese developers should focus on making games they personally enjoy, rather than feeling pressured to conform to Western trends”
What misunderstanding? I thought pretty much everyone agreed this was what he meant.
That’s exactly how I took the original translation. Bad faith actors will always run away with these quotes.
Yeah I knew it was something like that, Especially due to the types of people who were responding to that and spreading it
But that’s exactly what people thought he meant.
Is this some crappy attempt at stirring drama?
I’m more confused by the people thinking there’s no difference or it’s silly to highlight one. Japanese has a ton more nuance than English and even this “proper” translation could be lacking the exact meaning compared to what Sakurai really said.
But in its own right, “a developer being encouraged to make whatever they desire and personally find fun without worrying about future marketing and reception” is still vastly different from a statement characterized as “don’t cater to the Western audience.”
While some of the meaning may be shared (the “don’t listen to others” part, for example), the implication of “ignore what *those* people have to say specifically” is not present in the former concept at all. And it can come off as beyond rude.
Why is it ALWAYS a mistranslation?…
C’mon Google Translate, do Better!
So the same advice I got when I was trying to get into game dev a dozen or so years ago – make games you want to play. Life turned out different and I never worked on any big budget games (closest were licensed IP iOS games), but it appears it’s a popular sentiment in the west as it is in the east years later.
He’s not wrong with either translation. Japanese-made media is at its best best when it’s made for the home market and at it’s worst when it’s chasing international appeal.
Also, it’s a weird double standard. No one is critical of American media, made by Americans that specifically caters to American audiences. And frankly, no one should. There’s nothing wrong with people making content for their home audiences.
What’s wrong is when barriers are put up that prevents others from accessing that media.
This…. Seems to happen a lot when it comes to translation. I know Miyamoto’s words regarding Sticker Star were also wildly taken out of context and used to make him look like the boogeyman responsible for ruining the game, I wonder if that was a mistranslation too….