| Code | Language | Market Size / Status | |------|----------|----------------------| | en | English | Default. Lingua franca. Often poorly localized (UK English, not US). | | fr | French | Strong localization laws in France. High quality dubbing expected. | | de | German | Massive market. Censorship historically (low-violence versions). God of War III was uncut in Germany, a big deal. | | es | Spanish | European Spanish (not Latin American). Separate dubbing. | | it | Italian | Full dubbing culture. | | nl | Dutch | Small market. Often subs only, no dubbing. Cheap inclusion. | | pt | Portuguese | European Portuguese. Tiny market. Often included due to Iberian partnership with Spain. | | pl | Polish | Huge emerging market in 2010. Often subs only, but culturally significant. | | ru | Russian | Massive unofficial market. Piracy forced official localization. |
Why? Because the (europe) tag in scene releases often means “PAL with major languages,” and Scandinavia was considered “English-proficient enough to not need localization.” god of war iii (europe) (enfrdeesitnlptplru)
The filename is a lie of equality. This string format (Region) (Languages) is from scene release naming conventions (e.g., 0day warez groups). A deep reading: this filename is a time capsule of how games were pirated and shared. | Code | Language | Market Size /
But ironically, the pirate release is often more complete than the retail version. Some retail discs had separate SKUs for France (FR only), Germany (DE only), etc. The scene release combines them. | | fr | French | Strong localization laws in France