Halo 2 questions

By Oli
At 11:59 PM · Wednesday, 19 November · 2003
To Gaming · Japan

I’m getting ready to buy an Xbox, but I have some questions about how Halo 2 is going to be localised and/or internationalised.

Halo 1 was a fantastic game (still is), but it was localised for international markets — if you bought Halo 1 in Japan, your game contained only Japanese cut scenes and menus. Added to this, the Japanese Halo 1 disk was incompatible with a North American Xbox, and a North American Halo 1 disk was incompatible with a Japanese Xbox. Finally, it wasn’t possible to link a Japanese and an American Xbox and play Halo head-to-head. While understandable, this kind of sucked if all you had available was one Xbox from each region — I have yet to experience more than 4-player Halo :-(

So what I’d like to know is:

  1. Will Halo 2 have the ability to select a language for cut-scenes and interface, similar to DVD’s language selection scheme?
  2. If so will there be a Halo 2 disk that contains both English and Japanese?
  3. Will a Halo 2 disk be playable on any region Xbox? ie if there is no bilingual disk, can I play an American copy on a Japanese Xbox?
  4. Will there be any built-in system preventing American and Japanese Xboxes linking to each other and playing Halo 2 head-to-head (differing binaries, region-locking flag etc)?
  5. Or at the opposite extreme, is Halo 2 designed to allow different region Xboxes to link?
  6. Finally, will there be any restrictions in either Halo 2 or Xbox Live to prevent international gaming (apart from bandwidth)? Can I play against people in Seattle or Sydney from Japan over Xbox Live?
  7. If so do I need to use a Japanese Xbox and/or Halo 2 disk to access Japan’s Xbox Live?

I guess that the Xbox is fundamentally multilingual (it’s system menus are after all). I really hope games and the Xbox Live service are also multilingual/internationalised if coded to be so. And I really hope this includes Halo 2! As an aside, I think that having multiple languages on one Halo disk would also add to replay value — even when you don’t know what they’re saying, the Japanese voice acting is damn funny ;-)

PS if you have no idea what Halo 2 is, and you want to find out, check out a Halo 2 trailer (under “Video”). Just watch out for the flaming ninjas.

Discussion...

Comments (7) · TrackBacks (0)  to  http://www.boblet.net/cgi-bin/mttb-external.cgi/42
1. Comment by UltraBob  · 29 Nov, 2003 · 12:20 PM

No idea about Halo 2, etc. but good to find another xbox owner. I think there are only 3 of us in Japan ;) I’m considering modding mine in the near future so that I can buy games from the U.S. and play them here. Of course I’ve heard a lot of rumors about that making xbox live inoperable. _any knowledge on that?

2. Comment by oli  · 30 Nov, 2003 · 11:43 PM

I would guess there are a few more than 3, although I’m sure MS is a little disappointed in the Japanese sales figures! I sure hope they get a killer game for the Japanese audience out soon (that or an ultra-tiny version of the xbox — it might just be too big for Japanese apartments). The PS2 is definitely getting a bit old, which should help.

I’d be very careful about modding an Xbox if you plan to do anything with Xbox Live — rumour has it that the Live service will check for mods, and modded machines will be permanently blacklisted. MS closed down the bigger mod sellers already — I guess they’re not pro-mod.

While that’s understandable, I sure hope that Xbox will be the first non-stupid console in making games region-free. While the money is apparently in the hardware, you (or I) are not going to buy a second ‘import’ Xbox, although I bet we’d both spend quite a bit on ‘import’ games if they worked without needing a mod. I simply can’t see a reason to intentionally reduce game sales — what’s up platform makers?

PS I think I’m going to buy a Japanese one — the frustration I’ll feel not being able to play Halo2 on Xbox Live is far bigger than having to play it in Japanese. However it’ll be nice if this is a non-issue. Here’s hoping!

3. Comment by oli  · 14 Dec, 2003 · 4:28 PM

From what I can gather, Halo 2 will not be intentionally internationalised, but should at least not be intentionally localised, so there’s a chance that Japanese and US Xboxes can LAN-play together. However regarding my decision on a Japanese or US Xbox, the Xbox Live service has decided for me. While I can sign up for Xbox Live in Japan using a US Xbox, I will only have access to the US Xbox Live service (with probably too much lag for Halo 2 despite the good company). On top of that I’ll need a credit card with an American address. As I don’t have one and really want to use the Xbox Live service, I’m left with a Japanese Xbox as my only option. I sure hope some Japanese people get over the motion-sickness-while-playing-3D-shooters thing enough to play with me!

Seeing as there’s no locational requirements for Xbox Live (ie you can play in the US one from Japan), it’s a pity that there are intentional software localisations to prevent international gameplay. Surely some of the Xbox Live service developers have friends overseas?

Sigh.

4. Comment by oli  · 2 Jan, 2004 · 11:23 PM

I found out a bit more. Halo 2 will have multiple languages, so you can play in Japanese or English (or other supported languages). As there’s only one version of the game (no localized versions with different binaries) LAN play between different region X-Boxes should be possible. This is great news! Matt and I can go head-to-head on different TVs (as soon as we find an extra TV).

Also the X-Box Live service is divided into three sections; Asia, America and Europe. There is no interconnection between them. However this should put Japan in the same region as Australia — potentially meaning I can play Tim in Sydney!

Woop!

5. Comment by gen  · 1 Mar, 2004 · 1:48 PM

Oli, if you ever need a Halo sparring partner or team-member, just drop me an email. I have a Japanese xbox and Japanese Halo and am willing to travel to play!

6. Comment by bungie jumper  · 11 Nov, 2004 · 11:10 AM

hi oli, thanks for the Halo 2 info. i’m also an Xbox owner in Japan, so that makes all of 6 or 7 of us. i held off buying an Xbox for a long time just cuz it was so big and ugly. (i thought the same about the PS2 when i first saw the design, but both Xbox design has grown on me, just like the PS2.)

there’s a Halo 2 demo at the big electronics/computer store in the big town near me, so i’m gonna go look and verify that it *is* multi-lingual. i was really disappointed about Halo 1 being only Japanese and no option for restoring it to English voices. (the voice acting is horrible.. it’s the same Japanese actors you hear in EVERYTHING and gets really boring.)

for clarification purposes, the money is in *software*, not hardware. Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft lose money for every unit that is sold. the machines cost much more than the $150 or whatever it is that they retail at. the reason they are willing to take a hit is because they know you buy 1 console, but maybe 50 or 100 games over the life of the unit. that’s lots of loot.

7. Comment by Oli  · 18 Nov, 2004 · 9:02 PM

To any Japanese-based gamers searching for Halo2 information - I’m hoping to write a detailed article soon, but here’s what I know for sure about Japanese Halo2 now:

  • There is no obvious way to select the language for Campaign mode, and Halo2 in Japan is only in Japanese
  • There is the option to turn on subtitles, which gives English subtitles in the Campaign mode cutscenes (it’s something I guess, although I’m missing all of Sarge’s witty banter)
  • The menus are all in English (I’m assuming they’d be Japanese if I changed my Xbox language, but haven’t tested yet)
  • I don’t yet know if we can use a Japanese Halo2 in an American Xbox, but will find out soon

Despite my disappointment over the lack of true internationalisation, Halo2 kicks serious booty!! ;-) You need to get on Xbox Live, it’s worringly addictive. Hit me up online (send a frend invite to “boblet”).