dtgreene: In the English version, the game's data files still have Japanese text; rather, whenever the game needs to display text, the game connects to Google Translate (or a similar service), sends the Japanese text, and displays the resulting English text. Naturally, not only does this require an Internet connection, it also slows down the game considerably when it needs to wait for the result.

There's some precedent for parts of this: I am aware of two games (Ultima 6 SNES and Chrono Trigger PSX) where, in the English version, Japanese is swapped out on the fly for English text; in both cases, this slows things down. I also remember reading about some indie game where the English text is the result of machine translation. So, the logical conclusion is that, maybe, some developer might get the idea of having the game translate itself on the fly.

The company's rationale for this strange (and rather silly) approach is that it insures that consumers "will always have an up-to-date translation".

PixelBoy: Wouldn't this be achieved by having all game texts in a file, then running that file through a translator during game start up processes, and then getting translations from that file when playing the game?

I really see no reason why it would have to be simultaneous with the gameplay, unless there's some very dynamic content which is somehow randomized during the gameplay.

phaolo: Why not do it 1 time in dev when adding a new language and then make the game use that file offline?