Microsoft asks Xbox Insider users about automatic machine copy
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For a long time, we have wondered in our country about the dubbing Al español video games from Xbox and the apparent “abandonment” of translation in all titles. The community has already spoken and asked social networks that the voices in Spanish have been maintained for the exclusive games of Microsoft.
It has happened before that in titles like Forza Horizon 4 the dubbing in Spanish has been removed, unlike what happened in previous installments of the saga. Another example is Flight Simulator, which contains voices in languages other than English, but avoids Spanish-speaking users. As you well know, with Quantum break there was a special case, because although it was dubbed in “neutral Spanish” (Latin America), most of us would have preferred it to include voices in Spanish.
At least the community was ‘heard’, and after a month of the premiere of Gears of War 4 (dubbed in English), the patch arrived with audio in Spanish as the brand’s previous flagship releases rolled in. . But not everything comes from exclusive games, because there are cases like GTA or Red Dead Redemption 2, which despite the large income obtained by its developers do not stop thinking of other countries and their mother tongues “for artistic reasons “.
It also occurs in other titles like the first to arrive on Xbox of the saga Yakuza that are not even translated or localized into Spanish, or State of decomposition 2, which is only located in Mexico, including non-neutral words or phrases in Spanish, which may take us out of the experience slightly (trunk = trunk).
And it can be annoying for some (including myself) not to have more knowledge of English, or to not want to read dialogue while traveling by car or on horseback. Not being able to appreciate other elements on the screen due to the knowledge of the dialogues, part of the gaming experience is diluted, and it is normal that it is necessary that at least the titles arrive dubbed in Spanish neutral.
Well, looking at the app Xbox Insider Hub On my console (I’m an Insider Beta Ring member), I came across a rather peculiar poll. These were questions about voice dubbing and machine dialogue, which immediately grabbed attention.
In this he questioned the language preferences in video games, even if you like the professional dubbing work in a classic way, or if you prefer the main parts folded and the rest in the form of translated dialogues. But the most curious was the subject of dubbing performed by machines and it is something very interesting.
Nowadays, it is common to find applications with artificial intelligence on smartphones and other devices such as Siri from Apple or Alexa from Google; even Microsoft has its own AI with Cortana installed on Windows 10 devices. These technologies are advancing very quickly, but they still seem too mechanical to replace a good voice actor.
In the survey, the user is asked about the rooms where we prefer machine generated dialogs, such as tutorials, conversations, and other sections from any video game, about our interest in this possibility of inclusion and the likelihood that you will choose this system over the predefined language.
It is clear that such a system should be perfected in aspects such as intonation, breaks, different from you, expressions and other factors that make this experience credible for the user. A mechanical voice like GPS maps is not welcome in a video game adventure, but Microsoft isn’t doing these surveys for nothing.
As we said, technology is advancing and we have already seen what CD Projekt Red was able to enter his next game, Cyberpunk 2077, where we will find 10 dubbed languages including Spanish. Not only has it included more languages, taking into account the fact The Witcher 3 It was dubbed in English, but worked with systems capable of synchronizing the lips of the protagonists in each language, thus making the experience even more authentic.
If this study was able, why should Microsoft not invest in technologies capable of generating dialogues in all the languages of the territories covered by Xbox Live, and also, thanks to technical advances added to artificial intelligence, achieve something? unthinkable a few days ago for me. Without a doubt, a good job done by professional dubbing professionals will always be better, but definitely more expensive in the long run and more so when Xbox Game Studios intends to bring us video games from. 23 studies.
We will closely follow this initiative of the American giant, so that you can give your opinion: would you welcome a dubbing carried out by machines with open arms as long as they have a minimum of quality, or would you prefer to listen to the dialogues in English? and read the subtitles? As for the latter, it’s more likely to arrive sooner, as it would only be a matter of applying a system to replace English text dialogs to the rest of the languages with consistency.
While this could all be one of those projects that don’t see the light, one of the many projects that we didn’t even know that got scrapped because they don’t work or are too expensive. What is clear is that Spanish and Latin American audiences would like to have at least the exclusive titles dubbed in their language.
