Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree removes Latin American translation staff from credits

It appears the credits for Elden Ring, revised after the release of DLC Shadow of the Erdtree, do not properly credit translators from Latin America.

Eurogamer understands the revised credits now fully credit translators from Europe. Localisation staff have been listed, as well as a Special Thanks including all individual translators, all under Bandai Namco Europe.

However, translators from Latin America under Bandai Namco America have not been given the same courtesy. Thai translators have also not been listed individually by Bandai Namco Asia, beyond the name of the agency, unlike those for Chinese and Korean.

All 25 Revered Spirit Ash Locations In Elden Ring: Shadow Of The ErdtreeWatch on YouTube

What’s more, the original credits for the game credits Brazilian Portuguese and Latin American Spanish translators individually, but the new credits remove these names and instead includes a generic Special Thanks message.

Now that the revised credits overwrite the original, these translators are no longer individually credited.

For Thai, only the agency is credited. For ES-LATAM and PT-BR, not only did Bandai America choose not to credit anyone, it also appears that translators that were in the base game credits are now only thanked.
Link to the video:https://t.co/gdtQfNlBg5 pic.twitter.com/YlPzsUjPME

— Loc in Credits (@CreditsLoc) June 30, 2024

The full, revised credits have been uploaded to YouTube. Further, translator Ramón Méndez has confirmed the European localisation teams are fully accredited.

Parece que, con el lanzamiento de Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, por fin están acreditados los equipos de localización en su totalidad (los testers ya estaban en el juego básico) 🩵 pic.twitter.com/UPQN7SONqv

— Ramón Méndez (@Ramon_Mendez) June 24, 2024

This miscrediting of translation staff is in violation of the International Game Developers Association game crediting policy. This states: “Any person, be they contractor, freelancer, external agency employee, vendor, part time employee, or full time employee with billable contributions toward creation or publication of a game in any discipline must be credited.”

As for external agencies, it states: “Employers must establish a contractual obligation to identify and credit vendors and contractors employed or contracted by an external agency to work on their project.”

Eurogamer has contacted Bandai Namco for comment.

Just last week a report was published by Game Developer concerning external translators not being properly credited in Nintendo games. This followed a high profile case last year of translation staff being left out of the Baldur’s Gate 3 credits.

Eurogamer previously reported on why localisation workers are regularly left out of game credits.