Statement on the Official English Release of Summer Pockets

So, as some of you may have heard, Key recently confirmed at Animaga that an official English edition of Summer Pockets is now currently in production. So the obvious question now is, what does this mean for the fan translation, and Alka Translations as a whole?

Put simply, not a whole lot. This was, and still is, a passion project above all. We aren’t going to stop just because someone else is now doing it too. The fan translation will continue as planned, because we want to see Summer Pockets in English, and we want all of YOU to see it in English as well. Now obviously, there’s a few things we can’t do anything about, if they happen. If we get a cease & desist from Key, VisualArt’s or any of their subsidies, we will obviously abide by it immediately and cancel the fan translation. And of course, once the official English release is out, we’ll take our translation down and link to official sites to purchase the English edition at. Until then, however, it’s going to be business as usual. We aren’t translating Summer Pockets because we feel obligated, we’re translating it because as cliche as it sounds, we are genuinely passionate about this visual novel and are eager to share that passion with all of you.

While we’re at it, for those of you who don’t follow us on Twitter, I’ll go ahead and share some progress with you. Tsumugi’s route is now sitting at almost 47% translated, and Ao’s route is 18% translated. We’re also working on implementing the final touches to the Shimamon minigame.

Keep an eye on our Twitter feed as well as this site, and if there’s any updates regarding the above situation, we’ll be sure and address them. Until then, please look forward to the upcoming release of the Tsumugi patch!

15 thoughts on “Statement on the Official English Release of Summer Pockets

  1. Hibarign says:

    I’m relieved that you decided continue the project. The official maybe take some years to be released. Do you intend to keep translating after this game?
    Good Luck

    • Rinny says:

      Once we finish Summer Pockets, I plan on poking the team with a stick to translate 1st Beat until they either agree or brutally murder me

      • hibarign says:

        Please poke them until they kill you, I waited this translation for so long. Despite that, thanks again, i’ll wait eagerly for the translation.

        Greetings from Brazil.

  2. June says:

    I really truly thank you for putting all of your passion into the translation of this visual novel!
    However since I´m just as much a fan of key´s/VA´s works as you are, I´m feeling a bit conflicted… Though I guess thats how it goes with TL´s that are officially localised during the process…
    The reason I mean is: Won´t less people buy the game when it releases since they are not willing to support key´s TL directly after having already read your work from here? (Regardless of how long their release might be away – I know waiting is pain)
    I don´t want to trample on anyones parade/hard work or whatever.
    Those are just my genuine thoughts…
    Thanks for all the work up until now~

    • Rinny says:

      I don’t think so. The official translation will almost certainly be better than ours for obvious reasons, but the more pressing matter is the rampant piracy in the visual novel industry. If I’m being real, most of the people who don’t buy the official release, weren’t going to buy it in the first place whether our translation existed or not. People are much quicker to pirate visual novels these days, and it’s unfortunate. I know I’ll be buying the official release when it comes out.

      • Anonymous says:

        I don’t think that you should be dimissing the impact this release would have on the sales of the official localization as simply “most of the people who don’t buy the official release, weren’t going to buy it in the first place.”

        There are quite a few people intent on buying the official release that would experience Summer Pockets through this fan translation first, and that often leads to the consumer not caring about buying it anymore as they could be getting different games they haven’t experienced and their money is limited.

        And just in case it’s brought up, the argument that “the opposite is also true though because there are people who wouldn’t have bought it without experiencing it for free” is invalid as those people could pirate the official release anyway, and would in fact be more likely to support it since, as you yourself said, it “will almost certainly be better than” yours.

        As you said yourself, people are much quicker to pirate visual novels these days, so why tempt them further with this release? I’m pretty sure that you, as part of a translation team, would agree that people should learn to have more patience when it comes to releases, so why test that patience?

        If you care about supporting the official release and thus Key, I think you should consider the delicate situation they are in, and do your best to help them by halting progress and moving onto another project. By all means power to you guys, but I think it’s wise to know when to stop. Yes, it can feel irritating to drop a project when you have done quite a bit of work already, I can sympathise with that, but following through can be a worse choice.

        • Rinny says:

          Let me start off by saying all your points are possible. However, on the flip side, there’s no guarantee they will ever come to pass. In fact, the likelihood is rather low.

          We know the potential risks of releasing this translation. But simply put, those risks are so low it’s almost a non-factor. Plus, there’s so many ways this could go, both negatively and positively. And if we take circumstances and history into account, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

          That’s why we’re continuing. This is something we set out to do, and genuinely want to do, and we have many many Key fans waiting on us, eager and happy for us to continue. And visual novel fans are nothing if not loyal. I’d bet money that the majority of people who read this will still buy the official release. You’re right, some will read this and not buy it because they already read ours. But I don’t think it will be a lot. And that’s really what it comes down to. You think that this will have a potentially massive effect. I think it will have a minimal effect. And we don’t want to stop this project we genuinely love just because of potential things that we don’t think will happen. This is not an “eff you” to Key, or anybody else, as some people have said in other corners of the internet. Regardless of your stance, I hope ours is understandable.

  3. fuck fred says:

    I think you made the best decision. There’s no harm in having both fantl and official translation, unless KEY expressly is against it.

    • Rinny says:

      We came together specifically for Summer Pockets. The chances of doing anything else Key related are low enough as it is, so unfortunately I’d say the chances of going ahead with what your comment suggests are next to none

  4. Leonhart says:

    Great attitude to take considering the situation! I was worried how you guys will be feeling about it when I saw the news.

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