Baldur's Gate 3 translation company commits to change after leaving staff out of credits
"We are learning from this experience."
Altagram, the translation company which was found to have not credited staff who worked for years on Baldur's Gate 3, has issued a lengthy public apology and a list of commitments to change.
In a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, Altagram said that it had "come to our attention that the omission of translator credits from our contribution to Baldur's Gate 3 has generated frustration and disappointment among the freelance translator community".
Disappointment in the lack of creditation was initially directed at Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian. But in an exclusive statement given to Eurogamer yesterday, Larian said Altagram had failed to provide a full list of names, and that it was now working to ensure these were all added to the game in a forthcoming patch.
"We take full responsibility for the omission of our freelancers' names and apologise for the effects that it had," Altagram wrote in its statement today.
"We are learning from this experience and are reviewing the failures of our internal processes regarding credits. We would like to thank Larian for allowing us to quickly fix that error and update the credits section. The names of the Brazilian Portuguese translators will be included in an upcoming patch to the game."
Altagram's apology comes as social media posts highlighted another case where the translation company apparently failed to credit its full team of staff. Back in June, Altagram issued a short statement to say it was "truly sorry", after it was noticed that it had not included its German freelance translation team in the credits for Diablo 4.
"Once more, we acknowledge that this has been an unfortunate and frustrating experience, and that all too often in this industry, freelance contributors do not receive the recognition they deserve," Altagram's statement today continues.
"As a leader in the game localisation space, we aspire to be a positive example and to lead change across the industry for credits in games, as seen by our commitments we have outlined."
Altagram goes on to list seven commitments it will adhere to in order to ensure proper accreditation of its workers in future, including the establishment of an internal crediting commitmee, improved transparency between clients and staff, and a commitment to the IGDA guidelines which were set out earlier this year.
Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian used seven local translation companies to help adapt the game's mammoth million-word script into 11 languages - work which took several years.
The fact Altagram had not credited its full translation staff was brought to light this week by a much-shared LinkedIn post from game localisation specialist Diego Perez, who praised the other translation companies for listing their staff in full.
Examples where staff have been left out of the credits in other video games have frequently hit the headlines, and recently included translators who worked on the Persona 3 and 4 remasters, as well as staff missing from the credits of Callisto Protocol.