This month’s launch of the widely-celebrated Baldur’s Gate 3 highlighted the often-overlooked topic of video game credits, and the fact that many people who work for hundreds of hours on a project sometimes still do not get their name recognised. But why does this happen? And what is being done – across developers, publishers, localisation companies and industry bodies – to ensure the situation improves?
I’ve spoken to staff past and present at Altagram, the company which was publicly highlighted for failing to list its freelance localisation staff in Baldur’s Gate 3 credits, as well as localisation freelancers and the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), to find out.
Below, Altagram’s CEO also offers an explanation for what went wrong specifically with Baldur’s Gate 3 – something they claim was simply an innocent mistake, after Larian previously asked for freelancer names to be provided.
