Fan petition hopes to bring the Chinese language to Pokemon games—will you sign it?

Pokemon fans from Greater China have started a petition following the conclusion of the 2014 Pokemon World Championships, asking the series’ developers to add localized support for the game. The full petition can be read and signed here, but here are its main points in a nutshell:

• Pokemon is a highly-recognizable franchise in the Greater China region, and has a fanbase there larger than even Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. Chinese Pokemon fans currently get their Nintendo and Pokemon fix from overseas markets.
• While there are already a lot of Chinese Pokemon fans, the lack of in-game Chinese support is an obvious barrier as many potential consumers of the games can’t read foreign languages. The fans who wrote the petition believe that what the franchise can achieve in Greater China is “far from its potential capacity”.
• Even for “senior fans” like the ones petitioning, playing Pokemon in their native Chinese language and being able to understand the Pokemon universe better is their “biggest dream”. They want to be able to introduce Pokemon games to more Youngsters and Baton Pass their passion and love for Pokemon to generations. Cute puns!

• While the fans understand the difficulties faced in Chinese localization over the years, it seems like this is currently the ideal time to develop Greater China’s full consumer potential.
• Rapid economic development in China has enabled most consumers to be able to afford genuine copies of the games, while at the same time, these consumers also want to buy genuine copies.
• Copyright protection for video games is also getting looked at again by government agencies, while Nintendo’s strict anti-piracy measures for the 3DS consoles ensures that pirating the game and consoles remains tough.

(See: What Nintendo’s new consoles for emerging markets need to do to really succeed)

• Translation costs could possibly be lower since there already are official Chinese names for existing Pokemon, and for moves, locations, and other in-game terminology, thanks to both the anime and manga making inroads in the region for over a decade. However the writers note that it might be difficult to update the existing games with Chinese in-game support, and instead hope that it can be the eighth language option for future games.

• Hong Kong and Taiwan (considered a part of the Greater China region) both have well-established sales channels for video games. China has also loosened its restrictions on video games this year, and both Microsoft and Sony are entering mainland China via partnerships with local vendors. Even if the games aren’t officially released in China, the Chinese support will be fruitful for Hong Kong and Taiwan’s gamers, drawing potential consumers.

(See: Report: EA wants a China partner for Titanfall, Tencent first in line)

• While advancing into the Greater China region will lead to high market Return for the franchise, the petition writers think it’s first important to build and nurture Friendship with Greater China fans, and they feel in-game Chinese support is the most effective way. Again with the puns!

The petition writers finished by saying that they were still collecting more information to support the petition, and that all campaign activities and industry analyses would be published on this Chinese language Pokemon fansite. All insights are welcomed by the three writers, and can be sent to them via sylvia1jay[at]yahoo.co.jp, i[at]mudkip.me, and byg[at]qq.com.

The petition itself was concluded thus: