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Good point! The text took up very little space on the box and certainly did not detract from the imagery.

 JB wrote:
Good point! The text took up very little space on the box and certainly did not detract from the imagery.

It could be they thought the translations of "Sternguard" in several other languages were stupid as well.

I assert the real size of the space marine models to reflect their 10+ ft tall stature led to the demise of the normally additional languages to make space for this massive girth.

Man, just learn English! It's like how in Germany and France they dub all American movies *shudders*.

Back when I still bought stuff it was all only in English, to German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, etc. variation.

Dear God I sound like a grumpy old man now!

I thought this thread was going to be about the White Scars character being renamed James Caan. I am disappoint.

Kanluwen wrote:

 JB wrote:
Good point! The text took up very little space on the box and certainly did not detract from the imagery.

It could be they thought the translations of "Sternguard" in several other languages were stupid as well.

What? You mean stupider than the English name? Next we will have Crossguard or Dourguard. I don't see this as a valid reason. And it only takes a day or two to get a decent translation for new units. For all of the old units, no new work was required.

WarOne wrote:I assert the real size of the space marine models to reflect their 10+ ft tall stature led to the demise of the normally additional languages to make space for this massive girth.

While crazy, your reason makes more sense than any other justification listed here so far.

Do they still produce plastic figures in the USA? Maybe this is a USA/ Canada market box hence English and French will do.

I've checked the most recent box I've bought (re-packaged Space Marine bike squadron) and it has the design as per the photo in the original post but with English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chines? Japanese? on it.

Kanluwen wrote:It could be they thought the translations of "Sternguard" in several other languages were stupid as well.

Malika2 wrote:Man, just learn English! It's like how in Germany and France they dub all American movies *shudders*.

I share your sentiments.

But if I was selling something to customers who predominantly need a translation to use my product, no matter what I personally thought about that, I'd try to meet their demands instead of telling them they can go and take their money elsewhere if they don't meet my demands.

Any confirmation one way or the other than the other languages aren't on the other side of the box? Is this truly the end of the Marines Espaciale?

Allod wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:It could be they thought the translations of "Sternguard" in several other languages were stupid as well.

Malika2 wrote:Man, just learn English! It's like how in Germany and France they dub all American movies *shudders*.

I share your sentiments.

But if I was selling something to customers who predominantly need a translation to use my product, no matter what I personally thought about that, I'd try to meet their demands instead of telling them they can go and take their money elsewhere if they don't meet my demands.

I dunno, most computer games seem to be in English, nothing translated into German/French/etc and those seem to work just fine. Is it really necessary to 'dub' 40k? I can get it that a rulebook or Codex or whatever might need to be translated, but the names of specific units? I think that might be a bit overkill. It's not as if something would be totally lost if a unit is called a 'Librarian' and doesn't know what the word is in his native language.

When I started out with 40k my English wasn't that good yet, I had no idea what a 'Chaplain' was (kinda embarrassing, I know), but it's not that this stopped me from enjoying the game/hobby/etc. It was just the name of a unit.

 Ouze wrote:
Any confirmation one way or the other than the other languages aren't on the other side of the box? Is this truly the end of the Marines Espaciale?

If you look at the side of the Sternguard box picture in the OP, it only has English and French.

 Kroothawk wrote:

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:It's no different to most big brands
they want a single name the can use across the whole world

This is something different.
The Codex still calls them Expugnatorgarde and Scriptor. Only German customers have to guess, that these are the same as "Vanguard Veteran Squad" and "Librarian".

thenoobbomb wrote:Aren't most books in English, though?

The Codices and standard rulebooks are still in German. Still. But I guess, GW is abandonning all non-English markets because they think it is not worth it anymore.

your local GW hobby store can help you with translations!

Wierd, did Gw not annouce sometime recently that they're trying to expand more into non-english speaking coiuntries?

 JB wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

 JB wrote:
Good point! The text took up very little space on the box and certainly did not detract from the imagery.

It could be they thought the translations of "Sternguard" in several other languages were stupid as well.

What? You mean stupider than the English name? Next we will have Crossguard or Dourguard.

"Stern" as in your rear, not "stern" as in strict. Contrast to the Vanguard Veterans, who are in the vanguard...

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:

 JB wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

 JB wrote:
Good point! The text took up very little space on the box and certainly did not detract from the imagery.

It could be they thought the translations of "Sternguard" in several other languages were stupid as well.

What? You mean stupider than the English name? Next we will have Crossguard or Dourguard.

"Stern" as in your rear, not "stern" as in strict. Contrast to the Vanguard Veterans, who are in the vanguard...

While the nautical term makes sense for marines, it is still not a very exciting name. Ditto on the VV.

In fairness though, the German language names of Protektorgarde and Expugnatorgarde are even worse, so I'll drop out of this conversation.

 Malika2 wrote:
I dunno, most computer games seem to be in English, nothing translated into German/French/etc and those seem to work just fine. Is it really necessary to 'dub' 40k? I can get it that a rulebook or Codex or whatever might need to be translated, but the names of specific units? I think that might be a bit overkill. It's not as if something would be totally lost if a unit is called a 'Librarian' and doesn't know what the word is in his native language.

Not true. You would be extremely hard pressed to find a computer game in a store that isn't translated into German, and I would assume that the same holds true for France.

Young 'uns over here simply are not exposed to English outside of school at all. Everything is translated or dubbed because the market is big enough, so pupils have virtually no practice in English. I suppose the situation in the Netherlands is very different (and Dutch is very closely related to English, let's not forget that), but in Germany and Austria, many people never develop the skills necessary to comprehend the background or rules of a game like Warhammer in English. If they do, it's usually at a later age than GW's preferred target audience. It's deplorable, but a fact that won't change in the foreseeable future.

But the problem is less that players here wouldn't know what Sternguard meant or how to pronounce it correctly and more that it seems GW is ever so slowly phasing out support for foreign languages.

Death from the Skies is only available in English.
All digital publications are only available in English.
All supplements so far are only available in English.
The new mini rulebook (!) is only available in English.

If this continues, they'll be enticing fewer and fewer people to get into the hobby or keep up to date with the rules, which can only be bad for them.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:

 JB wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

 JB wrote:
Good point! The text took up very little space on the box and certainly did not detract from the imagery.

It could be they thought the translations of "Sternguard" in several other languages were stupid as well.

What? You mean stupider than the English name? Next we will have Crossguard or Dourguard.

"Stern" as in your rear, not "stern" as in strict. Contrast to the Vanguard Veterans, who are in the vanguard...

But that would be a rearguard. Does any military force actually call it a sternguard? If not then how can they be veterans of fighting in an action that doesn't exist? They should be rearguard veterans, as they are veterans of fighting in rearguard actions.

Wait,

You mean the new hardback mini rulebook or the softcover one in Sturm der Vergeltung.

Hmm...I assume you mean the hard back.

Yup, the hardback version, should have made that clearer.

Sturm der Vegultung sounds so much cooler than Dark Vengeance. It even translates into a cooler phrase, 'Storm of Vengeance'. They shoulda called the English boxset that

 Kroothawk wrote:
The message is clear: "You want to play our game, learn English, dude!"

Its not THAT clear...

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Sturm der Vegultung sounds so much cooler than Dark Vengeance. It even translates into a cooler phrase, 'Storm of Vengeance'. They shoulda called the English boxset that

Already taken by a Dark Angels/ Orks 2nd Ed campaign pack.

It is a valid point because it is very difficult for me to find a softcover German language mini rulebook. I already have an English language starter set and I don't want to spend the Euro on another set with German language components. I just want the mini rulebook because I want to learn the German language USRs. I have the one from 5th Edition which helps but it doesn't have all of the terminology for the new edition.

So a mini hardback in German language might have been useful, if it was also cheaper than the current price.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
[They should be rearguard veterans

I think in real life we call those people "laundry squadron"

 mattyrm wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
They should be rearguard veterans

I think in real life we call those people "laundry squadron"

Haha, obviously that is what every Space Marine aspires to be

This is a cost saving measure and nothing more. Remember you have to look at the facts over the recent years on the quality of services/product that Games workshop has reduced/removed. They did this to continue their revenue streamlining process.

 Adam LongWalker wrote:
This is a cost saving measure and nothing more. Remember you have to look at the facts over the recent years on the quality of services/product that Games workshop has reduced/removed. They did this to continue their revenue streamlining process.

It makes sense until you realize that most of the translations don't cost GW anything extra. The German translations, for example, come from a GW employee and most of the names already exist. He only had to add the new unit names. Given that development timelines take a couple of years, the GW employee would have had plenty of time.

A more logical reason is that GW doesn't want more people knowing about the new units well in advance of their release. Translations of multiple languages at an early stage for type layout for the box printing would have given more employees access to the names of the new units. Since a lot of leaks come from the non-English speaking community (probably because they have less to fear from GW's legal team), it probably made sense to GW to reduce the amount of information that had to flow through employees in other countries.

Awwww, my kids love practicing reading the so-so katakana translations!

Trips to the hobby shop will be much more sad not getting to hear my son pronounce some of the questionable translations and then complain loudly to nobody in particular.

 JB wrote:

 Adam LongWalker wrote:
This is a cost saving measure and nothing more. Remember you have to look at the facts over the recent years on the quality of services/product that Games workshop has reduced/removed. They did this to continue their revenue streamlining process.

It makes sense until you realize that most of the translations don't cost GW anything extra. The German translations, for example, come from a GW employee and most of the names already exist. He only had to add the new unit names. Given that development timelines take a couple of years, the GW employee would have had plenty of time.

A more logical reason is that GW doesn't want more people knowing about the new units well in advance of their release. Translations of multiple languages at an early stage for type layout for the box printing would have given more employees access to the names of the new units. Since a lot of leaks come from the non-English speaking community (probably because they have less to fear from GW's legal team), it probably made sense to GW to reduce the amount of information that had to flow through employees in other countries.

I don't think it deals that much with a leak situation. Since I have done both pre-press and post production work (as far as I know now since I have been out of the practice for several years now) costs are incur to print runs when you make changes to the "works" being issued, Make one change to the product being changed and it becomes a different print run. This is what I used to deal with for my personal works as well what I learned when dabbling in that profession years ago. This is why I believe it is more of a cost savings than a leak though that might have a secondary aspect to their decision about their current print runs. -Adam

But they print all boxes with the same text.