Gematsu Interview with Kazumasa Habu (Digimon Next Order) – No Vita Version and More Explained

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Digimon World: Next OrderDigimon Next Order was announced not long ago and will be releasing on Western markets on the PlayStation 4 Early 2017. Gematsu was able to have an interview with the producer on the project, Kazumasa Habu. This interview covers a lot and the portion of this interview I want to highlight is about the Vita version of Next Order released in China and Japan.

Just recently, English translations were found in the Chinese version of the game. Can you talk about that?
Habu: “To be honest, we only just found out about that yesterday (October 7). We hadn’t heard from anybody. I’m really not sure how that happened. That wasn’t supposed to happen, it was kind of an accident.”
Does it imply that there was an English version of the game for PS Vita in development as well?
Habu: “A PS Vita localization wasn’t planned. The main purpose was to bring the game to PlayStation 4, to update the graphics for PlayStation 4, so we couldn’t put that back into PS Vita. The PS Vita market is pretty small overseas, so we wanted to bring out our best in PlayStation 4.”
I understand that decision from a business perspective. But I am curious as to how the English text ended up in the Chinese version to begin with.
Habu: “What I heard about why the English text is in there was not because we wanted to release it in English territories. We don’t translate from Japanese to Chinese—we go from Japanese to English, then to Chinese, so I’m guessing that’s why that was left in there. I’m only guessing, but that’s a possibility. I’m not sure if I can say that, but that’s what I think. I’m really not aware of how that happened.”

Basically the producer was completely unaware of the English text inside the Chinese release of the game and decided that due to ‘the small overseas market’ for the PS Vita, they will be focusing on the PS4 platform for this expanded release of Next Order for the west.
At the very least, the story about Next Order on Vita can finally close; it is not coming and the producer wants to focus on the PS4 release. But the interview covers much more than the Vita version of the game; Digimon being added into the game, Cyber Sleuth’s success in the west and more were discussed in this great interview.
Source: Gematsu

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