RUMOR: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

[Sign]

Update: PC Games's video editor has deleted his commented and they have put out another statement saying it's not an official confirmation from Square Enix.

It's been a matter of concern whether or not the long-awaited KINGDOM HEARTS 3 would receive more than Japanese and English voiceover. The original Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 had been dubbed in French, German and Spanish, but all subsequent titles have only received appropriate language subtitles for each region. When the HD remasters were released, fans were dismayed to find that all other voice tracks but Japanese and English have been removed, as Square Enix opted for consistency within the collection. 

But those who yearned to hear their favorite characters in their native tongue again continued to reached out, hoping that they might convince Square Enix and Disney to at least consider bringing back European dubs for one final game.  

With the recent Kingdom Hearts 3 Premiere Event in Santa Monica, German gaming news site PC Games took the opportunity to ask Square Enix developers and PR staff about this possibility, which they then addressed in the comments of their preview video.

"No, only English voices with German subtitles. Starting with the new HD editions, Square Enix decided against dubbing Kingdom Hearts". 

Square Enix has yet to make a formal announcement about what subtitle and voiceover options will be available in Kingdom Hearts 3.

Thanks to Muke for the news and translation.

Source: PC Games

 

[Chaser]

Re: No German Dubs for Kingdom Hearts 3?

This is both a surprise and a disappointment.

 

[bagcifreak]

Re: No German Dubs for Kingdom Hearts 3?

That's stupid. I usually play my games in english anyways but I know many people who don't like to play games without dubs. I get it with games like GTA and niche titles like NieR but I don't get why they wouldn't dub a game that also has a very young audience. My 12 years old cousin didn't want to play the HD Remixes cause they were in english only. So many games with waaay lower production costs get dubs. Final Fantasy is also usually dubbed so I don't get why they wouldn't dub a big game like KH3... makes it less appealing to many people imo.

 

[Silver_Soul]

Re: No German Dubs for Kingdom Hearts 3?

Bummer. Was really hoping the Latin American Spanish dub. Oh well.

 

[Launchpad]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

It's a great disappointment. Must suck for those who started with the German dub to have to transition to English.

That said, KINGDOM HEARTS is a tremendously hard series to do in any language besides English. It takes an extreme amount of effort to find soundalikes for the dozens and dozens of iconic characters. While it's too bad, I understand why they made this decision. Japanese players also apparently tend to prefer the English cast, hence the Final Mixes being English dubbed.

 

[Meow Wow]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

If they don't want to do any dub for Europe or Latin America, they might as well not even bother with an English dub. As much as I'm not a fan of the European and Spanish dubs, they still deserve to play the game in their language.
The thing is, it may be hard to find sound alikes for famous characters, but they grew up hearing, say... Goofy in their native language. So then, they're used to how he sounds in their language.



WARNING! LIKLEY UNINFORMED RANT INCOMING,

I wanna say that this decision was made to cut time and budget off KH3. Which in my opinion is idiotic coming from a multi-billion dollar company. Nope, gotta cut corners whenever can. Who cares about the people that can literally make or break your company......

 

[Muke]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

I'm really sad about this since the German dub was really, really good for its time and they got almost every single voice actor from their respective movies to reprise their role (which was something out of the ordinary). It would've been cool to hear who they chose for characters lile Aqua etc. who never got a German voice.

I always liked the German dub the most but I've also gotten used to the English voices, so it's not really a big deal

 

[Pinwheel]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

If they don't want to do any dub for Europe or Latin America, they might as well not even bother with an English dub.

I mean, no, not really. You'd be opting against dubbing a Disney property into the most widely spoken language in the world because other regions didn't get one. It isn't all or nothing. This is actually one of the few subjects I can say I have some knowledge on that might be useful here.

Dubbing games with large casts can be difficult, but Kingdom Hearts is a whole other monster. You've gotta get soundalikes or the original cast from all of the movie properties that it features on top of casting the original Square Enix characters. Especially now that they haven't dubbed a few games now and would have to bring in voice actors to start voicing Aqua, Terra, Master Xehanort, etc.

Nope, gotta cut corners whenever can.

Usually the reason a company opts not to include a dub if they have in the past is that the game barely (or didn't) hit the profit margin they're looking for in that region and they're looking to cut costs in one of the only ways you can for localization that won't make the game totally unplayable. I don't know what their expected sales goals were, nor do I know how much the localization costs to bring it into Spanish or any other language, but it's likely just an indicator that they weren't selling as much in those regions and wanted to cut costs while still bringing the series to those countries. You can try to argue that you'll sell less copies this way, but odds are if they've continued to bring the series over past 2 withotu those dubs they're probably hitting around where they want to in sales numbers since they've not outright cancelled it.

There's really no way to tell without directly asking the people involved, but 9 times out of 10 this is likely why a company will opt to cut out a dub that they previously had for a series. I hope that information clarifies the situation a little bit.

 

[13th Vessel]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

I'm very disappointed with this desicion, this game has in-game dialogues which makes the experience more inmersive, playing it in spanish (like I did when the second one came out), would help me and every spanish fan to enjoy this experience on a higher level.
We even did a localization petition some time ago... I hope that they change their mind...

KH2 sold very well in Spain because of it's dubbing, and it was a big part of it's success since people love to play a game where they interact with characters of their childhood. I can't believe that they are ignoring this...

PLEASE SQUARE, DUB KINGDOM HEARTS III IN SPANISH, GERMAN AND FRENCH!!

 

[Meow Wow]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

I mean, no, not really. You'd be opting against dubbing a Disney property into the most widely spoken language in the world because other regions didn't get one. It isn't all or nothing. This is actually one of the few subjects I can say I have some knowledge on that might be useful here.

Dubbing games with large casts can be difficult, but Kingdom Hearts is a whole other monster. You've gotta get soundalikes or the original cast from all of the movie properties that it features on top of casting the original Square Enix characters. Especially now that they haven't dubbed a few games now and would have to bring in voice actors to start voicing Aqua, Terra, Master Xehanort, etc.



Usually the reason a company opts not to include a dub if they have in the past is that the game barely (or didn't) hit the profit margin they're looking for in that region and they're looking to cut costs in one of the only ways you can for localization that won't make the game totally unplayable. I don't know what their expected sales goals were, nor do I know how much the localization costs to bring it into Spanish or any other language, but it's likely just an indicator that they weren't selling as much in those regions and wanted to cut costs while still bringing the series to those countries. You can try to argue that you'll sell less copies this way, but odds are if they've continued to bring the series over past 2 withotu those dubs they're probably hitting around where they want to in sales numbers since they've not outright cancelled it.

There's really no way to tell without directly asking the people involved, but 9 times out of 10 this is likely why a company will opt to cut out a dub that they previously had for a series. I hope that information clarifies the situation a little bit.

Yes it does, thank you. I don't really have anything else to say beyond that. I was really speaking out of emotion there.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

Is it a possibilty for them to go the Final Fantasy XV route and add regional dubbing later as free DLC? Because I think the lack of dubbing is more of a scheduling situation if anything else.

 

[bagcifreak]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

Is it a possibilty for them to go the Final Fantasy XV route and add regional dubbing later as free DLC? Because I think the lack of dubbing is more of a scheduling situation if anything else.

FFXV didn't have dubs when it came out??

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

FFXV didn't have dubs when it came out??

My bad, must have confused it with another game. Anyway, that still can be a possibility if the demand is high enough.

 

[Alja]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

I'm personally not too sad as I've come to love the English voices so much more, but it would have been a nice feature anyway (as long as there would've been an option to change to English audio lol). I kind of expected it though, seeing as they already chose against adding the European dubs for KH1 and 2 to the Remixes.

 

[VoidGear.]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

 

[Sign]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

Even though it was already stated in the article, Square Enix has asked us to reiterate that this is not an official statement and should not be treated as confirmation.

 

[Sora04]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

Hey guys. As a native german speaker i think i should clearify this matter. The guys from PC Games just liked a comment where somebody said that there will be no German dub, because of the HD remixes, which also didnt get a german dub.

Later PC Games commented like this:

Noch mal zur Klarstellung: Infos zur Sprachausgabe gab es auf dem Event nicht. Wir gehen nur aufgrund der HD-Neuauflagen fest davon aus, dass es auch in KH3 lediglich Untertitel gibt.

Which means: For clarification purposes: There were no informations about a german dub at the event. We just think there will be no german dub because the HD-Remixes also have no german dub.

 

[Sign]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

Hey guys. As a native german speaker i think i should clearify this matter. The guys from PC Games just liked a comment where somebody said that there will be no German dub, because of the HD remixes, which also didnt get a german dub.

Later PC Games commented like this:



Which means: For clarification purposes: There were no informations about a german dub at the event. We just think there will be no german dub because the HD-Remixes also have no german dub.

Was this comment just made recently? This is what we were informed of when the news broke out, with comments by the video editor:

 

[Sora04]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

The comment where he says he is the video editor is deleted.

the comment I told you about was written 5 hours ago.

Maybe they where contacted by Square Enix,too.
But i doubt it.

 

[Sign]

Re: No German Dub for Kingdom Hearts 3?

The comment where he says he is the video editor is deleted.

the comment I told you about was written 5 hours ago.

Maybe they where contacted by Square Enix,too.
But i doubt it.

That individual is PC Games staff, you can reference his name and profile picture on their website and videos. If he felt the need to delete his comment and the site put out a new statement at the same time we were asked to revise our article, that does heavily imply they were contacted by SE.

But it's a moot point. Since we're back at Square 1, I'll close the thread for now.