Middle-East website Al Bawaba reports that Disney Pixar’s Wall-E will be the first Arab localized video game.
Luke Keighran, THQ Export Sales Manager remarked:
We are delighted to be part of this, launching an Arabic game is every Arab gamers’ wish. This is a great opportunity for us to grow further in promising territories like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and a solid demonstration of our commitment to the Middle East market. It is [distributor] Pluto Games’ enthusiasm and will that made this commercially possible and we hope it will be the first of a long line up for Arabic titles in the future.
There are only few games that would suit the Middle East’s morals more than WALL*E. The game depicts family virtues in a fun adventurous story line immersing the players in a world of passionate pursuit for adventure.
Rabeeh Zakaria, THQ Product Manager for Pluto Games, added:
Wall-E is the first next generation video game to be produced in Arabic, we are seeing encouraging growth of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 formats and are delighted to be able to finally distribute a product that speaks our language. We hope others will follow with THQ’s step and help contribute to the growth of the gaming industry in the Middle East.
Comments
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
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Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Good. I appreciate the progress. I have a little bit more hope for some other things possibly getting localization jobs.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Good on em imo.
The first step to breaking down stereotypes and assumptions is shared culture. Hence why 'breaking bread together' was typically a forum used to increase relations between factions.
As for the wankers offended by the Middle East actually getting some attention, how fucking petty can you get such that an arabic localised version of a Pixar game actually causes you to get annoyed? Grow the fuck up. It's this xenophobic crap on both sides of the fence that prevent either culture from understanding each other and (surprise surprise) increases the hatred and violence both ways.
Even kids in preschool can learn these lessons and yet adults somehow manage to miss it. Just fucking amazing..
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Surely, no one can help that their ancestors all decided to find their religious prophets on the same damn fertile crescent...otherwise these religion turf wars wouldn't have been this serious. Maybe it would've been better to just give every major religion its own continent.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
It's good to see more games being ported to that region but it is by far not the first game to ever be localized in arabic.
Arabian Lords (http://www.arabianlords.com/Public/main_public_master.aspx) has been released there for over a year now and there were games before that.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
I believe this is isn't accurate, according to this post from March 30, 2004 8:39 am ...
http://www.geek.com/sony-unveils-first-ever-arabic-title/
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
With the stagnation in console sales the industry is going to be looking for any region with growth potential. If this works then two things are going to happen - first, we'll see alot more "Muslim-friendly" games localized for the Arab world and second we'll see some games produced with a mind towards Arab localization. By that I mean that they will either be easy to edit for a Muslim audience or certain ideas will be dropped entirely.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
-The Bird
-The Bird
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Why don't we take all the fundamentalist christians and all the fundamentalist muslims and have them fight each other to the death on (inter)national TV? We win no matter what the outcome, plus I bet they'd be willing to kill each other with a little provocation.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Better yet, get all of the annoying and violent religious fundamentalists in the world, stick 'em on some island, and arm each one with a BFG 9000.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
The fundie Christians usually aren't the violent sort. Loud? Yes. Annoying? Yes. But not violent. Fundie Muslims, on the other hand...
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
well yes but pit them up against muslim fundies that shout death to america and want to push muslim philosophy (such as all women wear head scarfs) and who knows what will happen. Never mind the abortion clinic bombings we've had.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
look up the LRA
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
That's pretty cool, but, for the record, Assassin's Creed was the next-closest thing to localised, from the amount of Arabic going around in that game :P
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
I can see where this game will be accepted since one of the major themes is "The US will ruin the world".
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Seriously though, how hard is it to localize beeps and whistles.
Good on Pixar though. I find they're always one or two steps ahead of their competition in terms of tech. Dreamworks always looks like they're animating using Pixar's *last* toolset.
-- If your wiimote goes snicker-snack, check your wrist-strap...
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
To be fair, while it definitely isn't WALL*E, Kung Fu Panda was actually a very good movie.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Am I the only one slightly disappointed by this crap?
~You Could Be Mine, But You're Way Out Of Line..~
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
By the movie or the localization?
The movie was fan-freakin-tastic. It's definitely near the top of the Pixar spectrum.
As for the game...what's the big deal? It's rare enough for that region of the world not to bitch about games in general, so if they're willing to have this one, why not? I hope it's good, but honestly I don't think the game quality will be the big issue. It'll be whether or not someone with an axe to grind can find something in it to declare the game "harmful" and move to have it banned.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
It's more a.. Lack of progress issue. Not everyone in the Middle East is a Fundamentalist Muslim. I remember ABC doing a story on Egyptian College Students a while back. They were really polite versions of American Students.
~You Could Be Mine, But You're Way Out Of Line..~
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Ah, I see what you meant.
Out of curiosity, were these Egyptian college students in the U.S.? Europe? Egypt?
While not everyone in the Middle East is a Fundamentalist Muslim, they do represent a non-trivial amount of the wealthy/powerful elite, who are the ones who get to dictate the rules over there. Look what happened after our most recent Iraq debacle...we manage to get democratic elections held and Hamas wins...
It's not the Middle Eastern people as a whole who evoke this sort of reaction. It's the ones promoting Sharia and the like, and they unfortunately happen to be the ones with the loudest voices and the biggest sticks. So that's what molds the rest of the world's perception of their countries, for the most part.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Everywhere in the world we're subject to a "loud-acracy". The quiet literati are letting the loud represent what's going on. Why can't people do like Korn's album and keep our freaks on a leash?
The well-meaning people are also too scared to do the things that help others put themselves in power. In a power vacuum, fierce competition is encouraged- when current leaders are wiped from their offices of power, "political selection" favors the ruthless to take their place. The altruistic types need to learn that you need to bend your own psyche a little and be more selfish and aggressive (if only for the phase when government is in transition) if you actually want to be in a position to make a difference for the world. Once you secure your position in office, go back to your typical altruistic ways.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
It's sounds like the fundamentalist leaders follow Yosimite Sam's butchered version of Teddy Roosevelt's "I speak softly but I carry a BIG stick".
ie "I speak LOUD, and I carry a BIIIIGGER stick! And I USE it too!
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
It was inevitable, a movie with such high ratings would have a game go everywere....
but DAMN! I never thought pixar would outdo themselves, but they did...
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Did we forget to tell the Arabs that games based on movies have a tendancy to phail miserably?
---------------------------------
So speak I, some random guy.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Shh, lets let them have this one.
As to the story, this helps lead us to my vision. I envision a world where wars are unneeded, as all conflicts are settled by a series of Team Deathmatches. Hax and spawn camping will be considered war crimes, punished by account ban.
Growing older doesn't have to mean giving up what makes you. - http://himynameistyler.com
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
LoadingReadyRun called, they want their jokes back.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Say what now?
Edit:
Oh right, I forgot about those guys.
Now I remember that video. It must have seeped into my subconcious when I was looking through their videos during the Mass Effect controversey. Whoops.
Growing older doesn't have to mean giving up what makes you. - http://himynameistyler.com
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
Personally, I think it should be setteled with ping pong.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
No, let's settle it over a few rounds of Super Smash Bros.
You know the deal: no items, no fun, Final Destination, etc.
Re: Wall-E is First-ever Arab Localized Game
I wonder if Saudi Arabia will ban this for "promoting zionism" like they did with Poke'mon.