Update: We asked Keyword Studios to comment on Leonoudakis' assertion in the following article and received the following response: "As a service provider to the global video game industry, we do not guarantee that we will be included in the final credit It is standard procedure to provide the names of everyone involved in the game with the understanding that The credit decision rests with the game developer and publisher, and the publisher will consider and balance the many facets of this process. No mention was made of the specific claim that keyword workers are prohibited from speaking out about this practice.

Original Story Last Thursday, "Persona 3 Portable" was released on the PSP and "Persona 4 Golden" received a major update. Both games are fully subtitled in French, Italian, German, and Spanish (FIGS), wherever they are played. However, it has now been revealed (from Kotaku (opens in new tab)) that the people actually responsible for the localization work have been removed from the final credits, with only the senior Keywords staff responsible for the localization work named.

The issue was brought to public attention by tweets from game translator Tamara Morales Gomez (opens in new tab) and Katrina Leonoudakis, Sega's former localization coordinator (opens in new tab). Leonoudakis, who worked on the P3P and P4G localization projects until she left Sega last year, was very keen that everyone involved in the localization of the games be credited correctly when she worked for Sega, and mentioned this in her farewell email to Sega He tweeted

that it had since apparently fallen off his list of priorities.

However, Leonoudakis told Kotaku that the problem is not with Sega, but with Keywords. She claims that Keywords prefers to be credited as Keywords Studios collectively, rather than individually. This means that companies like Sega must specifically request a full list from the company to ensure that everyone involved in the localization of a game is properly credited, which obviously does not always happen. Leonoudakis also claims to have heard of keyword workers who have been banned from speaking out about this practice, and that some feel "modestly threatened" by it.

Whether or not Keyword has a specific policy of not providing a full list of localizer names, it is woefully inadequate to assume that a blanket credit to the entire studio would do the same job. Being able to name yourself in the credits of a major release like "Persona" is a huge boost to your resume.

"Persona" is not the only game that has recently received attention for ignoring worker credits. The developers of "Callisto Protocol" worked under pressure to bring the game to market, but in recent months they have noticed that their names have been erased from the game's credits (open in new tab). Even the co-creators of "The Last of Us" made the news recently when they complained about being removed from the credits (open in new tab) of the HBO show, but one has to imagine that compared to the developers of Callisto and the localizers of "Persona," it will be easier to get future work.