Report: Some translators omitted from Marvel's Spider-Man 2 credits

24.10.2023 - 11:29 / gamedeveloper.com

Sony has seemingly failed to properly credit some of the translators that worked on Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

As highlighted by localization specialist and crediting advocate Marc Eybert-Guillon on X, formerly known as Twitter, the title's credits include a "special thanks" to "all of the translators and voice actors that helped create this game," but don't appear to include the names of many individual translators

We took a look at the credits sequence ourselves and while Sony does credit some international "production and localization" workers from its internal teams across Europe, Asia, and America—including producers, directors, managers, and specialists—there's barely a mention of any individual translators.

Seven Japanese translators were credited under the "Supplemental Translation" section for the region, although other sections covering Europe and America don't feature any such credits.

Under the list of external developers offered at the end of the sequence it's a similar story, although it's currently unclear if that's because Insomniac relied solely on Sony's in-house localization services as opposed to hiring third-party companies.

In any case, when you consider how much dialogue and in-game text there is in a game the size of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, the absence of an extensive list of translators from the credits sequence is rather notable.

Game Developer has reached out to Sony to learn if Insomniac did indeed use the services of external localization companies, and whether the studio has failed to properly credit individual translators (whether internal or external).

If so, this wouldn't be the first time a major studio has failed to credit developers. Earlier this year, localization company Altagram was forced to apologize after it didn't credit the translators who worked on Baldur's Gate 3, and eventually pledged to implement a new crediting policy in a bid to avoid repeating that mistake.

The credits for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor also reportedly omitted the names of individual translators. Prior to that, a number of God of War: Ragnarok developers claimed they weren't credited for their audio work on the sequel at launch.

Earlier this year, a number of developers spoke to Game Developer to explain how the miscrediting has affected them personally, with many expressing the belief that the practice has now become normalized—especially in the world of localization.

"Years ago, when I was just starting out in the industry, I worked on a project where everyone was told on day one that they'd only receive a 'special thanks' unless they stayed until beta," explained one anonymous source. "I left about nine months later due to poor contract conditions (as it only renewed every three to six months). I had