Seiha reveals that negotiations with Sekai Project for their nearly complete Baldr Sky fan translation have floundered due to gross communication failures.
Aroduc of Seiha translations, responsible for fan-translating several popular gameplay eroge including Kamidori Alchemy Meister and Duel Savior, and for work on official JAST releases including Seinarukana and Littlewitch Romanesque, has announced that negotiations with Sekai Project for Seiha's nearly finished translation of Baldr Sky Dive 1 have floundered due to gross communication failures by Sekai Project staff.
Seiha: Concerning Recent Game Translation Activities
While I have received a very small handful of e-mails from Sekai Project, and I have no doubt whatsoever that the license was obtained primarily due to the tools Doddler and Nagato created, as well as my own significant work on it, Sekai Project has yet to make any kind of substantive offer to work with us to translate/release the game(s). Or anything vaguely in the ballpark. We made an offer to them (which was flatly rejected for reasons that remain unclear to us even after expliclty asking), and they did make an 'offer' to give us a grossly inadequate sum of money to hand over everything we've done and walk away, after being told at the very beginning that doing so was completely out of the question. [...]
It's been over eight weeks now, and I have done literally no translation work on it, or anything else, in that time because I don't know what the future of the project is. [...] The most recent communication from Sekai Project was that we should "step away from it for a little while and come back next month." This was in response to an e-mail from me saying not-so-politely that "I'm concerned about the lack of communication," which was itself a followup to a more polite e-mail from Doddler pointing out that we're frustrated because they're not communicating with us… which had gone ignored for the better part of a week. The solution to the issue of poor communication is, clearly, no communication. That's merely the tip of the iceberg.
[...] The situation hasn't changed at all for two months and counting. Being as that I'm not contracted to Sekai Project, nor anybody else, I'm beholden to only myself to do what I think is right and best. For me. So as of now, the project's in indefinite abeyance and I'm moving on to something else.
Maybe I'll come back to Baldr Sky in the future, but I honestly can't say when it'll be, or for certain that it'll happen. I've tried. We've tried. We really, really have, but at this point, getting that ball rolling is on Sekai Project to start communicating with us in ways that they haven't to date, and then we can start dealing with everything else. So long as we keep getting stonewalled, it's impossible for any conversation to even begin. I personally think they're woefully underestimating the amount of work the game needs, both in translation and on the technical side, and it's… disconcerting… for them to be this obstructive instead of trying to make any effort to work with a group that already has the tools, the knowhow, and the scripts/interface significantly more translated than not. Especially after what that group has already done for them.
I apologize if anybody thought my involvement or Dive 1's (script) translation having been finished for the better part of a year would lead to any kind of speedy release, but that's clearly not happening from my perspective.Based on the revelations, it appears that work on Baldr Sky Dive 1 on Sekai Project's end has not started, and a release could be years away (not to mention Baldr Sky Dive 2, which was also announced).
Failures in communication between localization companies and fan translation groups are not new, and one such failure involving MangaGamer, âge, and Amaterasu Translations set back an official release of Muv Luv Alternative by 5 years. Aroduc's portrayal of Sekai Project in this matter isn't very flattering.
Sekai Project initially announced their license of Baldr Sky at Anime Expo 2016, where they showed off plans for a censored Steam release of GIGA's highly acclaimed gameplay eroge. I responded with an appeal to Sekai Project for an uncut release.
Baldr Sky: Rallying for an uncut version of a landmark eroge
Fans are sure to be disappointed that Sekai Project's release of Baldr Sky will likely now be both censored AND heavily delayed.
To stay up to date on Baldr Sky and related news on gameplay eroge and censorship, follow me on Twitter.
Edit: Aginyan of Sekai Project responded to Aroduc's post, assuring fans that they are still committed to an official English release.
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