Idolmaster western release! What you can do right now:

[Rihsa]

Let's not overestimate the attention Idolm@ster would get if it were released in America. Like Persona 4 and Hyperdimension Neptunia, it'll go completely under the radar and go unnoticed by the majority of America, save for the gamer community. This game isn't Rapelay or GTA or anything. Are games even in the news anymore? Seriously. On top of that, you'd have to play the game to know what's actually in it. Trailers for the game would just show a rhythm game and people singing and dancing to songs. Someone just scratching the surface of the games would know only that much.

I think the main issue here is whether Idolm@ster would sell well or not. :/ At least, that's the Tales series big issue and the reason why lots of Tales games are going unreleased (and this is a series that already has at LEAST a little presence in America).

As for the sub thing, I believe it's Sony's policy that the game has to have English voices available if it's on a disc (Except Yakuza 4. I'm hearing stuff that that was a special case for whatever reason). Things available only on PSN can be done without an English dub like Arcana Heart.

[DereDereAngel]

I'm not trying to necro a thread here, but I had a few things to add...

The iDOLM@STER will never be taken outside of Japan in the foreseeable future. Here's why:

1. No audience. Well, yes, there's us. But that's not enough compared to how much it would cost Namco to do it. Also, Namco have a pretty poor history when it comes to localising stuff outside Japan.

2. Innuendo and under-age girls. This will not fly at all in the United States and similar countries. Of course there's nothing even ecchi about iM@S, but that's not how a mainstream Western audience would see it.

3. The biggest reason: The iDOLM@STER is more than just a video game series. It's a whole franchise. I don't believe Namco would ever want to bring just bits and pieces of it across. It'd be all or nothing. Which, in our case, means nothing. Even if if they did decide to bring it all, they would have to dub ALL the music released on CDs. Can you even imagine how much that would cost?

My own personal feelings is that I'd prefer for it not to be localised anyway. I shudder to think what a dub would be like or what some members of Western-anime communities would do to the series if they latched onto it.

[TweenDoriru]

I'm not trying to necro a thread here, but I had a few things to add...

The iDOLM@STER will never be taken outside of Japan in the foreseeable future. Here's why:

1. No audience. Well, yes, there's us. But that's not enough compared to how much it would cost Namco to do it. Also, Namco have a pretty poor history when it comes to localising stuff outside Japan.

2. Innuendo and under-age girls. This will not fly at all in the United States and similar countries. Of course there's nothing even ecchi about iM@S, but that's not how a mainstream Western audience would see it.

3. The biggest reason: The iDOLM@STER is more than just a video game series. It's a whole franchise. I don't believe Namco would ever want to bring just bits and pieces of it across. It'd be all or nothing. Which, in our case, means nothing. Even if if they did decide to bring it all, they would have to dub ALL the music released on CDs. Can you even imagine how much that would cost?

My own personal feelings is that I'd prefer for it not to be localised anyway. I shudder to think what a dub would be like or what some members of Western-anime communities would do to the series if they latched onto it.

All of this is very true. Honestly, if they wanted to bring the whole franchise over, and go all out with dubs and the like, I'd personally frown upon it.

I think it would be nice if they could release an "Asian"/International version. Everything is exactly the same except it has options for different-language subtitles on it (since, while that's more work for them, there are people who don't speak English or Japanese but want to enjoy iM@S, too).

Quite frankly, I think that iM@S2 wouldn't be very difficult to do that for, given that there's not that many different commus compared to iM@S1. But (please correct me if I'm wrong), translating something like iM@S1 wouldn't be -that- much more work than translating a Tales of game, would it? Since there's a lot of little events and such that need to be translated but might not be seen in the end.

[animagic4u]

Well a lot of the UI and basic gameplay elements would be super easy to translate.
The only thing they'd have to translate are the commus really.
It's time consuming but I think it'd be pretty simple.

[redhairedking]

I don't think getting the games translated would be the hard part, seeing as fans do that on their own anyway. The hard part would be marketing it. Let's face it, the majority of people in any given country other than Japan will see this as sexual innuendo with teenage girls.

[animagic4u]

Well I think the problem is the target audience in Japan v. the target audience in America.

My friends and even a lot of people on other forums and ircs think that iDOLM@STER is a game for GIRLS.
It has a lot of traditional elements of girlish games I suppose. Dress up, watching the performances, gorgeous men, etc etc.

Obviously in Japan the target audience is men...but if they tried to market it to men in America (I don't wanna play stereotypes here, but by men I'm thinking the stereotypical xbox live addicts) it would come off real pedo-ish and not all that appealing...because I think here it definetly looks like a game for girls.

Now, if the game was targeted towards girls, it might be really successful!
"Look you can dress up your character however you want and watch her sing and dance! Isn't that cute?"

[TweenDoriru]

Well I think the problem is the target audience in Japan v. the target audience in America.

My friends and even a lot of people on other forums and ircs think that iDOLM@STER is a game for GIRLS.
It has a lot of traditional elements of girlish games I suppose. Dress up, watching the performances, gorgeous men, etc etc.

Obviously in Japan the target audience is men...but if they tried to market it to men in America (I don't wanna play stereotypes here, but by men I'm thinking the stereotypical xbox live addicts) it would come off real pedo-ish and not all that appealing...because I think here it definetly looks like a game for girls.

Now, if the game was targeted towards girls, it might be really successful!
"Look you can dress up your character however you want and watch her sing and dance! Isn't that cute?"

This. I have a (male) friend who wants almost nothing to do with the girls (except for Makoto and Hibiki) but would prefer playing Jupiter because they look badass unless they're skipping to Koi wo Hajimeyou .

Obviously, there's nothing wrong with a guy liking iM@S, but the vast majority of American men with their videogames and manly I-must-kill-things-with-my-manly-guns-in-war-time man-attitudes aren't going to go for dressing up a cute 14-year old and her buddies in order to perform a cutesy song. Okay, okay. It was an extreme exaggeration. Don't chew me out for it, manly-men.

However, if you translate the game, I'm sure it'll get itself a following, besides us on the forum. Because it's kind of a strategy game, and kind of a rhythm game. And I'm sure when you get to people that normally play games that have heavy conversation/relationship aspects (a la Persona 3/4, and Catherine), they'd be glad to pick up iM@S and give it a try.

That being said, Persona 3, Persona 4, and Catherine are all rated M. And I'm sure there are games with that sort of thing going on that -aren't- rated M, I just haven't played much more than those, if any.

It just wouldn't be the next MW3.

I'm afraid of what would happen if they market it for girls. It's more likely they'd dub it over and do a bad job with it in general, I think, and less likely that they'd leave in the Japanese voice track and use more literal translations. Of course, that's a really general assumption and I shouldn't assume it would be that way, but the possibility frightens me. XD

[animagic4u]

I'm afraid of what would happen if they market it for girls. It's more likely they'd dub it over and do a bad job with it in general, I think, and less likely that they'd leave in the Japanese voice track and use more literal translations. Of course, that's a really general assumption and I shouldn't assume it would be that way, but the possibility frightens me. XD

Oh god.
This reminds me of this "anime"-style skating game for girls. It's a NDS game I believe.
For the american release (for whatever reason) they CHANGED the art style to be more American.

I cringe at how this would work in idolm@ster.

[BT2]

You mean that easy osu game thingy for kids?




Also, Happy Star Band> PSP K-on game thingie.

[TweenDoriru]

Oh god.
This reminds me of this "anime"-style skating game for girls. It's a NDS game I believe.
For the american release (for whatever reason) they CHANGED the art style to be more American.

I cringe at how this would work in idolm@ster.

You mean that easy osu game thingy for kids?




Also, Happy Star Band> PSP K-on game thingie.

This. Wasn't there a dancing-ish game for the Wii, too?

It had GO MY WAY!! in it in the Japanese version. They changed it to "We/Wii Cheer!" or something.

[BT2]

This. Wasn't there a dancing-ish game for the Wii, too?

It had GO MY WAY!! in it in the Japanese version. They changed it to "We/Wii Cheer!" or something.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm5006804 ?

[Benpc91]

We Cheer came first, and by all accounts, the gameplay was better in We Cheer.  The style/soundtrack... not so much.

Few good ones though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVHCnea2KiU

[Crisu]

Wow, that actually looks difficult at first glance.

I like how the USA Princess on Ice cover is not only Westernized but also very politically correct.

At this point, the anime is more likely to get brought to the West?  I think some anime that have been licensed are released with subs only, no dubs.  Bigger series like CLANNAD got an English dub, so who knows.  The trend lately, luckily, is that they keep everyone's names.  If this were ten years ago, everyone would be getting horrible new first names like so:


(though I admit some of these are clever, like Chloe and Zoe)

If the anime gets decent sales, maybe just maybe the game could edge out some sort of limited release?  </wishful-thinking>

[Rihsa]

Lmaoooo those names are amazing. And I had the same idea too. The anime has a great shot of being dubbed and licensed, so perhaps that could open the way for a game. Perhaps not. But I'm hopeful for at least the anime.

[Saturos]

Wow, that actually looks difficult at first glance.

I like how the USA Princess on Ice cover is not only Westernized but also very politically correct.

At this point, the anime is more likely to get brought to the West?  I think some anime that have been licensed are released with subs only, no dubs.  Bigger series like CLANNAD got an English dub, so who knows.  The trend lately, luckily, is that they keep everyone's names.  If this were ten years ago, everyone would be getting horrible new first names like so:


(though I admit some of these are clever, like Chloe and Zoe)

If the anime gets decent sales, maybe just maybe the game could edge out some sort of limited release?  </wishful-thinking>

lol what about takagi