Baldur’s Gate 3 translation company vows change after staff are left off credits

The translation team behind Baldur’s Gate 3 has apologized and committed to change after it left a significant portion of the translation team out of the game’s credits.

Altragram posted a lengthy statement to Twitter acknowledging the issue and committing to rectify the situation.

The company opened by saying that, “the omission of translator credits from our contribution to Baldur’s Gate 3 has generated frustration and disappointment among the freelance translator community.

“We take full responsibility for the omission of our freelancers’ names and apologize for the effects that it had. We are learning from this experience and are reviewing the failures of our internal processes regarding credits,” read the statement.

Earlier in the week, Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian said it had been in direct contact with the translation house to resolve the issue, which saw developers who worked on the Brazillian version of the game omitted from the credits.

This will now be fixed as part of an upcoming patch.

The issue of properly crediting developers in video games is long-standing, with numerous companies having been criticised for not giving proper credits to creators.

With no real regulation beyond International Game Developers Association (IDGA) guidelines – which aren’t enforceable – game developers are effectively at the mercy of their employers as to how, where or if they’re credited.

IGDA guidelines advise that anybody who has worked on a game’s development for 30 days (or 5%) must be credited.

Katharine Neil, a veteran programmer who has worked on the Test Drive and Alone in the Dark series, told VGC in 2019 that the regulation of game credits is long overdue.

“Some gamers don’t realise how important this issue is for us professionally,” she told us. “Many seem to think it’s about bruised egos or something. No – like film and TV – it’s about getting hired for the next job and not looking like a liar on your CV.

“There are still no industry standards that developers can count on their employers adhering to. And I think the fact that many people still don’t even know that those IGDA crediting standards exist says something.

”And one thing I can say for sure is it’s something game developers do worry about – i.e. will I get punished in the credits by a vindictive boss, or will I be unfairly credited if I have to leave this project early.”

Since its release, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been lauded by players and critics. The game’s first reviews have seen it surpass The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as the highest-rated game of 2023, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is off to a huge start on Steam, becoming the second-biggest launch of 2023 so far.