Localization company Altagram has pledged to work with its partners to update the credits of titles including Warcraft Rumble after some external translators were omitted.
Last week, Game Developer heard that Warcraft Rumble had launched with an incomplete list of credits because Altagram had failed to include names of contract workers who helped with localization.
Notably, Altagram had credited its in-house employees and executives including CEO Marie Amigues.
One anonymous source who worked on the project for Altagram told Game Developer that crediting was never discussed during contract negotiations, but noted they had been credited on other titles, including one major Activision Blizzard release, when working as a contractor for the company. “There’s no reason it should be different for Warcraft Rumble,” they said.
Earlier this year, Altagram found itself at the centre of a miscrediting furore after failing to credit translators for their work on Baldur’s Gate 3. Following that debacle, the company apologized and pledged to remedy the situation.
In an interview a few weeks later, Altagram boss Amigues told Game Developer the company would strive to do better by implementing a new set of crediting guidelines that expand on similar frameworks created by the IGDA.
Altagram claims full list of freelance credits will be added in the next Warcraft Rumble patch
When contacted by Game Developer for more information on the Warcraft Rumble omissions, an Altagram spokesperson said the company began working on the mobile title in February this year and was “only recently made aware of the game’s launch.” That’s despite Blizzard publicly announcing the project’s launch date back in October.
“At the time of the partnership, we had not yet implemented our new crediting policy, and our team is currently in the process of reaching out to all freelancers involved to confirm they want to be included in the credits,” they added. “A full list of freelance contributors is being sent to Blizzard and will hopefully be included in the next patch.”
Altagram claims the company’s latest omission is a “rare case” that will require it to retroactively apply its new crediting policy by contacting freelancers before sending out a new (presumably complete) list of credits to respective partners.
“[This process] can take a few days to complete. Please note that for all releases we have been a part of since our new crediting policy was implemented, all freelancers have been credited.”
Altagram noted that since it new crediting policy was implemented it has credited everybody, including freelancers, correctly. That includes those who worked on titles such as Laika: Aged Through Blood, Long Gone Days, The Invincible, and Battle Shapers.
Update (11/08/2023): This article was updated to clarify that Altagram has improved its crediting practices since implementing a new policy in 2023.