Altagram only able to properly credit devs on 5 percent of projects, estimates CEO

gamedeveloper.com:

Altagram founder and CEO Marie Amigues has told Game Developer that miscrediting in the localization industry is endemic and is often the result of large publishers and studios refusing to acknowledge the work of third parties.

In a wide-ranging interview at Gamescom 2023 that took place shortly after Altagram apologized for leaving out the names of its own freelance translators in the credits for Baldur's Gate 3, one of the year's most celebrated releases, Amigues said many of the instances of miscrediting that have made headlines are just the tip of the iceberg.

After explaining how the names of Altagram contractors came to be omitted from the credits of Baldur's Gate 3 and reiterating that Larian wasn't at fault—she claimed the issue was caused by a last-minute hold-up in changing Altagram's own crediting policy to better recognize freelancers, and says the situation was "totally non-intentional"—the long-serving CEO said getting recognition within the world of localization has been an uphill battle that has spanned decades.

For instance, when asked why some of Altagram's freelance translators were also left out of the Diablo IV credits, Amigues explained that, although the company has a long-standing relationship with Blizzard, the studio appears to have an unwritten rule that it never credits freelancers.

"We've worked on a lot of their titles and they never ask us for the names of our freelancers," said Amigues, who claimed she doesn't understand why that's the case, but believes it's now changing because of the backlash around miscrediting. Discussing the bigger picture, she said localization vendors "almost never have any power" when it comes to crediting, and that it's the developer who ultimately makes the