Change is coming to the world of fan-translation, and it has been gaining ground ever since companies like Minori, Visual Arts, and Over started to threaten fan-sub groups like No Name Losers with legal action. The community’s response? To form a group collaboration to obtain official permissions from Japanese developers to localize their games.
As the site creator Agilis stated,
“I just want to be left alone to translate good games with good people, and share the results with friends. But the world’s a stupid place. When I think about it, I only want a few things:
A place where scripts and project files could be shared w/ people who know what they’re doing
That’s collaborative on the web
And isn’t always under the threat of finding a C&D coming down
I haven’t seen such a place. So, I’ll go ahead and make it.”
Whether or not the collaboration will succeed in its endeavors remains to be seen, but considering that it already has a first official translation project, Kisaragi no Hogyoku Visual, it might succeed.
For those unfamiliar with the title, Kisaragi no Hogyoku is an iPhone adaptation of a web novel created by Waitingforyouguys. Although an English translation of the trial version is currently available from the original author, no further progress has been seen in quite some time. Along with his blessing, other things include a supposed new set of graphics and stuff to go along with the inevitable release along with proper distribution via the iTunes store.
[source: Neechin]
