I study translation, so I guess I might be able to shed more light on the matter. The practice is probably the same in the games industry as it is in literature, TV subtitling and such: when a translation is commissioned, a contract is made between the translator and the TV channel/publisher/whoever. Ideally, the contract mentions not only what must be done and when and for what price, but who owns the rights to the translation and what they are and are not allowed to do with it. Naturally, it's better for the translator to keep the rights to themselves and I suspect that's what has happened in the case of many games on GOG.

EDIT: Typo.

They should make them compulsory in Esperanto. :)

GOG is just too lazy and other business reasons.
That's interesting. I find it more naturally if all rights of a product are concentrated at one party. What does the translator want to do with the translation? After all it's specific to the product. Maybe sell it separately as a book? You also don't want to buy your car in parts from different companies.

Maybe it was just limited foresight in the old days. Publishers were divided into geographical regions and acting quite independently. They negotiated not the full rights because they didn't think enough. Like they thought a translation will only be needed in a certain geographical region instead of the whole world and GOG is selling worldwide every language. That might explain why Steam has more languages for some games than GOG.

As an ESL teacher, I heartily endorse anything that makes me more valuable to keep around.
Yeah, I'm with Trilarion, what good would owning the rights to the translations be without the rights to the game? It's not like you can sell the translation separately from the game or that somebody can't just do a new translation if need be.

But yes, whenever you're doing contracts of this nature you can opt not to assign rights to he person paying. And that's often cheaper, but that's usually because the party doing the work has some alternative means of producing revenue from it.

hmm.. I am guessing you can get royalties per unit sold instead of a one off payment? makes sense if you think there will be lots of sales, and kind of an investment for the future.

As an English speaker I will be the first to admit we can kind of be dicks about our language. This is somewhat of an uninformed comment so please take it in stride, but I find that be it Americans, English, or British Canadians we aren't real big to the idea of meeting anyone on their side of the fence, or even half way; it's either, learn my language or leave me alone. A lot of Canadians may have a problem with this comment as last time I checked Quebec wanted to secede because the rest of the country didn't want to learn French. Again, I say this with tongue in cheak and I hope it doesn't offend anyone.

You teach competitive gaming? Oh... the OTHER kind of ESL.

Wait, does that mean you won't teach someone English who already knows two other languages? Or do you just treat it as a second second language then?
You haven't ever met a French person, have you? Fewer people know French than English and still they insist that everyone speaks French with them instead of learning another language themselves. Of course I'm acting a little ignorant on purpose here but there is some truth to it. :P

HAHAHA! Everyone should take the following admission and tuck it away for future reference when I say something stupid. I have been to 46 of 48 continental states in the U.S.. I know this country like the back of my hand; I know the people, the places, the myth, the legend, the history, the geography, and everything else that makes up the culture. HOWEVER!!! Outside of the U.S. I once spent two days in Toronto (loved it), one day in Montreal (didn't love it), five days in Winnipeg (GO JETS!). Point being, anytime I make a comment pertaining to anything outside the U.S. it should be firmly recognized that I am most likely talking out of my ass.

Don't get me started on that.

They've changed the name several times because of things like that. I think that's why Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages is a somewhat more modern name for it. Or Teaching English as a Foreign Language. And we'll often times call the students English Language Learners.

If you ask me, it's a matter of semantics and of very little value.

And yes, I'm fully aware that you're joking.
I think if you get away from Europe that ceases to be the case. The French people I meet here will usually speak English or French which ever is better for communicating with the people. And usually speak more Chinese than French.

But, China is a very strange place in that regards. I hear more Russian and English than anything else that isn't Chinese.

And have YOU met a French person recently? Because fyi, learning English has been a requirement in French middle and high schools for a very long time.
Now, that doesn't mean most French know it well, or are even very willing to use it when in France, but they do know some English, as well as usually some German or Spanish, which are the two other foreign languages typically taught in France (and yes, we need to learn 2 foreign language, one of which must be English).

Because you haven't made officially acknowledged pro bono translations for them.

Heck, that makes even me cringe. I don't have a good French accent myself but whenever I hear an American speak French in a movie or game I just want it to stop. IMMEDIATELY! Especially when according to the scenario that particular character is supposed to be that brilliant highly educated guy who impresses everyone with his knowledge of foreign languages. It just hurts! >.<

Sure, they may have it on school and there is a sizeable amount of people who can manage it. But population at large can't. I've lived in Belgium for years, and every time I found someone not able to speak English they were Walloons. Almost every single person in Flandes managed Flemish, French and English.