So this is yet another game where the publisher has given a big old FUCK YOU to its non US customers.

There is no EU or AU launch date currently available.

Thanks WB Games!

Eh, it's coming out on the PC thankfully. I'll finally get to play some Scribblenauts.

EDIT: Oh wait, shit. Screw WB!

@eskimo: Check steam?

But really I do not know. I am pretty sure it is coming out else where though... Then again WB is based in NA....

Yeah... but I'm happy with Scribblenaughts Remix for now.

Of course I checked Steam, but it just says in big orange letters - THIS ITEM IS NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR REGION.

It gets tough being continually reminded that publishers dont really give a shit about our tiny market.

Im in Australia by the way, respect to EU, it must be even harder there waiting for all the translations.

They are probably waiting to release it at the same time for Wii U, 3ds and PC.

And since the Wii U is not released in EU...

@eskimo said:

Of course I checked Steam, but it just says in big orange letters - THIS ITEM IS NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR REGION.

Is there any particular reason for this concerning digital releases? Multiple translations aside?

@eskimo said:

Of course I checked Steam, but it just says in big orange letters - THIS ITEM IS NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR REGION.

It gets tough being continually reminded that publishers dont really give a shit about our tiny market.

Im in Australia by the way, respect to EU, it must be even harder there waiting for all the translations.

Hey, At least EU gets the Pikachu 3DS xl.. I want that in america. otherwise I probably wont buy a 3ds for quite a while.

@blessey: Thats a damn good point. Retailers here put the PC release of scribblenauts on the 30th, same day as the Wii-U release.

Normally we can buy games ahead of time here, and I've rarely seen the "not available in your region" tag from steam, except in dire circumstances where the game has been massively delayed or not released at all.

@Video_Game_King: I dunno, licensing or commercial agreements? Blessey is probably correct in the AU case.

@blessey: Thats a damn good point. Retailers here put the PC release of scribblenauts on the 30th, same day as the Wii-U release.

Normally we can buy games ahead of time here, and I've rarely seen the "not available in your region" tag from steam, except in dire circumstances where the game has been massively delayed or not released at all.

@Video_Game_King: I dunno, licensing or commercial agreements? Blessey is probably correct in the AU case.

This shit still drives me crazy.

It's 2012! Just let us all have it at the same time!

If it comes down to languages it's even more annoying as the UK (surprisingly) speaks english.

In the UK you can't get AC3 or FC3 on Steam, the only way is to buy the retail verion (without steam - just uplay) or buying it on the Amazon US store/trade with a US user. These two + scribblenauts would have been day 1 buy.

@Soap said:

This shit still drives me crazy.

It's 2012! Just let us all have it at the same time!

If it comes down to languages it's even more annoying as the UK (surprisingly) speaks english.

You'd be surprised how long it takes to add all those extra Us.

@MikkaQ said:

@Soap said:

This shit still drives me crazy.

It's 2012! Just let us all have it at the same time!

If it comes down to languages it's even more annoying as the UK (surprisingly) speaks english.

You'd be surprised how long it takes to add all those extra Us.

That's true I guess... and without those extra U's I'd be totally lost as to what was being said, damn those Americans and their ability to massacare our beautiful language!

@eskimo said:

So this is yet another game where the publisher has given a big old FUCK YOU to its non US customers.

There is no EU or AU launch date currently available.

Thanks WB Games!

Luckily you can pirate games, normally I wouldn't say this but they pretty much didn't give us much choice.

Its their fault for making us want it so much, right!

This game has to be a bitch to localize.

@Hailinel said:

This game has to be a bitch to localize.

Maybe I've been watching too much TV, but it seems like they'd just be able to have a computer automatically translate the words and have a human translator double check everything. It's not like they have to translate complex sentences or anything.

@eccentrix said:

@Hailinel said:

This game has to be a bitch to localize.

Maybe I've been watching too much TV, but it seems like they'd just be able to have a computer automatically translate the words and have a human translator double check everything. It's not like they have to translate complex sentences or anything.

I'm not an expert in language construction, but I do believe that with the myriad ways that foreign grammar rules work, structures of simple phrases don't always match the way English is structured. So even a simple phrase invoking a string of adjectives and a noun might require more than just a base dictionary translation.

@Hailinel: Very rarely is a game fully translated to Finnish for example or at least I don't know how I would get to those translations (I haven't really looked because who would want to play anything in Finnish (I'm Finnish btw. so don't take this as racism or something like that please)). There's generally just a German, French and a Spanish version at least in the ROW versions of games and I think those are the ones Europe always gets anyway. That's still no fucking reason to keep the game from everyone in Europe. I'll go ahead and say that most of Europe, at least the western part of it, speaks english.

I hear that you can get the game if a person living in america buys it and then gifts it to you.

So yeah, it's not a localization thing.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/22/er-wheres-scribblenauts-unlimited-then/

It's fucking 2012 y'all.

Games generally don't receive a PAL release until they've been fully localized into FIGS (French, Italian, German, Spanish). Scribblenauts isn't going to be the easiest game to localize, it's understandable why it would take a while.

It's also not as simple as saying "release it in English at the same time, then patch it to include FIGS". Marketing gets in the way of that. Publishers want a big marketing push upon release. Having half of your target market unable to play the game when you have that push is a major negative.

Yeah, it sucks. But it's the way the world works. And it's not going to change anytime soon. Digital distribution doesn't change the nature of marketing.

Are WiiU games region locked? If not, just use amazon to purchase the game.

(if so, what the fuck)

@eskimo said:

So this is yet another game where the publisher has given a big old FUCK YOU to its non US customers.

There is no EU or AU launch date currently available.

Thanks WB Games!

you may take into consideration the possibility that they're still doing localizations since language is a key part of the game and the DS games have always seen a delayed release in non-US regions.

sure they could release it in England and Australia but when has that ever stopped someone from doing so before the rest of the PAL region versions were ready.

they're surely not doing it because they think it's funny so all that fuck WB Games nonsense is silly.

@MattyFTM: @DeF:

Readers are telling us that the US version has multiple languages, so it’s not that then. And a few people have pointed us toward a NeoGaf thread in which a 5th Cell developer says he can’t explain the delay, but it’s not their choice.

“Nope. It’s due to stuff I can’t talk about until 2013. Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts were released NA and EU the same day. Trust me. I want your money. It’s due to things outside of development.”

Direct quote from the RPS article I linked earlier. And here's the article again. It also has some other stuff about how WB publishes its games that might warrant that fuck you WB mentality if not just from a consumer viewpoint but also from the developer side of things.

@Ravelle said:

@eskimo said:

So this is yet another game where the publisher has given a big old FUCK YOU to its non US customers.

There is no EU or AU launch date currently available.

Thanks WB Games!

Luckily you can pirate games, normally I wouldn't say this but they pretty much didn't give us much choice.

They did give you a choice, you can wait until it comes out in your region. I'm not one of those "you should never pirate anything" people but just own up to the fact that you weren't going to buy it. You act like the game isn't coming out at all to other regions.

To rub salt in the wound I was able to buy it here in Canada. I played it for about 5 min then remembered that I dislike the Scriblenauts games once I actually play them and really just like them in concept more then anything else, then proceeded to shut it off and not touch it again.

Anyway, ya it sucks that they still do shit like that. It drives me nuts when I go online and try to watch a video and can't because some cunt clicked a checkbox that makes it US only.

@jmood88 said:

@Ravelle said:

@eskimo said:

So this is yet another game where the publisher has given a big old FUCK YOU to its non US customers.

There is no EU or AU launch date currently available.

Thanks WB Games!

Luckily you can pirate games, normally I wouldn't say this but they pretty much didn't give us much choice.

They did give you a choice, you can wait until it comes out in your region. I'm not one of those "you should never pirate anything" people but just own up to the fact that you weren't going to buy it. You act like the game isn't coming out at all to other regions.

When it's out I will, but in the meanwhile I'll enjoy my pirated copy.

Has anyone from outside the US tried buying the game from the US version of the Steam store?

If you log into Steam in a browser and go to this page:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/218680/?cc=US

It'll take you to the Scribblenauts Unlimited product page for the US store. You can add it to your cart and proceed to checkout from there even if you're not in the US. I haven't actually bought it myself so I'm not sure if it even works.

That ?cc=US trick is against the Steam TOS. Don't believe me? Ask Steam support. I did, and this was their response:

from:	Steam Support email@support.steampowered.com
to:	Daniel <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
date:	24 November 2012 06:24
subject:	RE: General purchasing enquiry - Purchasing from US Steam store in EU - [7919-QWCV-7164] [134af687]
mailed-by:	support.steampowered.com
Signed by:	support.steampowered.com

Steam Support	06:24 (1 hour ago)
to Daniel

========= Please enter your reply ABOVE this line =========

Hello,

A staff member has replied to your question:

Hello Daniel,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

Yes, this is against TOS.

You can only make a purchase through a country's Steam Store if you have a payment method registered to that country.

If you have any further difficulty, please let us know - we will be happy to assist you.

So be VERY aware that you are breaking Steam TOS and run the risk of losing your entire account. I don't know how risky it is, but I certainly won't be trying this myself.

So, it's more like Scribblenauts Limited, amrite?

Yeah, in cases like this I say just torrent that shit. If the company is too stupid to let you give them money for something you want, and there's no plans to make that thing available to you in the future, then you might as well play it if you want to.

Well, better hope this doesn't turn into another P4A.

Maybe all us PAL region people could get together and invade the US, or wipe it out or something. Then we wouldn't have to deal with this stuff! That'll teach em!

This is really too bad. Its not that I was sitting on the edge on my seat for this game but I was looking forward to it.

@dekkadekkadekka: I had a feeling it would be something like that, which is why I didn't actually do it myself! That sucks.

They need to make the English versions of games standard. Whether they use American or British English should depend on the studio behind them.

Let the countries in Europe that don't speak English (or at least much) wait for the translated copies.

It's utterly ridiculous that the UK has to wait for the French, German and so on translations to be added in. American English and British English is fucking identical save extremely minor spelling differences, so who gives a dick, just release those in all English speaking countries.

@xMrSunshine said:

@Hailinel: Very rarely is a game fully translated to Finnish for example or at least I don't know how I would get to those translations (I haven't really looked because who would want to play anything in Finnish (I'm Finnish btw. so don't take this as racism or something like that please)).

This is completely off-topic, but Kingsley's Adventure was totally localized for Finnish. Disney also used to do it back in the PS1/2-days for some of their licensed games. Also, plenty of PS3 games get localized nowadays, at least Sony first party-stuff.

If the UK not being in the EU anymore would get us off PAL then I would vote us out of that shit immediately. I'm only half joking (not being in EU probably wouldn't do that anyway, ask Australia). While I don't really care about this game, I know full well how much bullshit stuff like this is (P4A). I was under the impression we were living in a globalised economy, at least that's what we keep being told. Regionalism is so 19th century.

Well the Wii U version launches in Australia on the 30th alongside the console. I would assume they delayed the PAL PC version to launch alongside this?

Aussie launch is the 28th (even on Wii U when the console launches on 30th for some strange crazy reason): http://www.leveluptimes.com/news/scribblenauts-unlimited-delayed-till-2013-in-euuk-territories-not-in-australianew-zealand/

Disclaimer: I wrote the piece, but we did break the news. Subsequently sites like Joystiq then started linking off to us. So my piece is the original source for the story. But yeah, this is super weird and crazy.