For the most part, Court-Records.net has been rather silent on the topic of wanting Ace Attorney Investigations 2 in English. It's not because we don't want to play it, or aren't excited about the prospects. (Believe me, I'm dying to play a new game in our lawyer game series!)

The reason we haven't been saying much on CR, is because when we do receive tips it's mostly because of Capcom's Senior Vice President, Christian Svennson or "Sven" as he's known on the forums there, was responding to fans questions about when AAI2 would get localized.

Here's where things get sticky. As a Capcom employee, he's bound by a "Non-disclosure agreement" (Often abbreviated as an NDA), basically meaning he's not allowed to disclose internal details to those outside the need to know basis (often meaning authorized fellow employees and partners).

It can be hard for fans to understand why NDAs are important, but the best way I can put it is, which is more exciting for you? Learning about a game on a random Tuesday, or with fireworks and fan fair at E3? If games are leaked before the big day, they loose a lot of their steam/chatter and that can stunt sales. The first Ace Attorney for the DS was sold almost exclusively by word of mouth. If that didn't happen we could've easily not gotten Justice for All, and from there the rest of the saga. (There are other reasons why NDA is important, but I feel this is the one most people will readily understand)

Now, while an NDA is a very important thing, it can also cause problems/misconceptions. Silence on a topic can cause fans to think a project or franchise has been abandoned. When Capcom Japan sold the Street Fighter franchise to Capcom USA and the first thing to come out of that deal was Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix there was concern that the deal was a throw away and the franchise was as good as dead no longer being owned by Japan. That sort of gossip can do more harm to a company then staying silent. Lost, the former Capcom ambassador to the fans, did his best to dispel that rumor, while not saying a word that that game was effectively practice for Street Fighter IV.

Sometimes you can deal with the NDA and bad gossip, without violating either. Sven's response to this and AAI2 was to periodically disclose non-mission critical developments that could've mostly been inferred by anyone thinking logically without his input.

Here's what I know thus far:

• AAI2 is not going to be released on the DS. The costs of localization out weigh the forecasted return on that game.
• Sven's been trying to convince the higher ups to localize AAI2 on a non-DS platform.
• The higher ups are not easily convinced. (I theorize putting the game on another system means potential buyers might not have access to the back catalog, thus locking out current fans, never mind the costs of localizing AND porting)
• If any further progress is made or not, Sven won't say. (Here we hit the hard NDA limit)

Sven's a good guy. And it's awesome that he's shared that much with the fans.

The reason we haven't shared that much is because it's too easy for wide eyed fans to read it as "OH YES, SVEN SAYS WE'RE GETTING AAI2!", "OOOH, WE'RE GETTING AAI2 ON THE 3DS AS A DOWNLOAD!", "PFT, CAPCOM'S A LIAR, WE'RE NOT GETTING AAI2".

That's not what he said, and I refuse to let Court-Records be willfully responsible for spreading misunderstanding and potentially ruin a man in consequence.

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That brings us up to today.

On Capcom's forums there was a guy pretending to represent the Make a Wish Foundation, an organization who's mission is to provide kids who are often terminal cancer patients with their one wish before they die. He alleges that he called Sven's work number, talked with him, and got out of it that AAI2 is likely not coming out in English within a year. The con has since paraded around Capcom's forums that AAI2 is dead.

The guy LIED about representing the Make a Wish Foundation and used that to MANIPULATE the good graces of another man. I am wildly disgusted, and this is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping could be avoided. It can be very aggravating to have to wait to learn if a game you love will come out, but that is never an excuse to resort to willful deceit and manipulations. Sven's a cool guy and it's a tragedy someone felt they could take advantage of his semi-open communications like this.

If you want to see progress on AAI2, there's MUCH better and ethical ways to do it. I'd recommend Operation Objection It's a group native to the Capcom site that's pushing for a localization. There's no better petition then the one on Capcom's door step, eh?

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What a scumbag. That's really the only way I can put it. The odds for an English AAI2 don't look good, but misrepresenting yourself to get information out of someone is low enough as it is - nevermind doing so by stirring up trouble on that person's home turf, under the guise of a charitable organization.

PR is never an easy job to have, and Capcom's recent missteps have made them a very-easy-to-hate company, so Sven in particular is in a tight spot. He's doing his job, even if in doing so he can come off as standoffish or holding back details. And as Woost said, he really can't say anything more even if he was allowed to disclose all the details of the decision-making, because this is the internet, and things will get blown out of proportion.

Actions like this do not help convince Capcom AAI2 deserves a release. What they do do is make us look childish, and make a lot of people's jobs harder.

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I'm pretty sure that he's lying about that, but even if he is, it's sickening what he SAID he did.

I saw that when I was on the forums earlier today and I couldn't believe what I was reading, that someone ACTUALLY had the nerve to do that. It's disgraceful.

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Hey Wooster, thank you for telling people about the Operation, it will be of great help! For those who are reading this, please join the group and tell as many people as you can to do the same!

It's just really insulting to Sven specifically, he can't give the usual status on AAI2 without people completely going overboard and taking advantage of his interactivity with the fans, this inevitably drives away the very few people who do that very thing within the said projects.

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I agree! I have been wondering why CR has been so quiet about AAI2, but I'm glad there's folks on Unity and elsewhere who have been carrying the torch in the meanwhile while our great big fansite sleeps.

In any case, I welcome each and every one of you to join us at Unity

What makes it worse is the guy was saying "Here I got Sven's extension number! Go pester him! The more we do it the more chance we have!" before revealing a number which on the original thread got removed. Therefore...maybe there is some weight behind the rumour...maybe it's just policy to pull numbers from the unity forums which I believe banned the fellows but then the same topic cropped up elsewhere except he left out the 'make-a-wish' part of his heist.

Harassing the higher ups is not a valid way to get change if anything it'll just make them disinclined to the Ace Attorney fanbase knowing some of us would resort to something so despicable.

I've accepted the fact we may not get AAI2 but I thought with the announcement of GS5 people would happily look forward to that instead.

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If someone posted my phone number, I'd delete it, post haste. Wouldn't you?

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Yes that's what I'm saying, it adds weight to the rumour being true given the fact they responded by doing that. If it was a hoax could be made up.

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You can't necessarily read that. Lets say the phone number wasn't for Sven, but for Candy the Capcom receptionist and fighter of crime. Or lets even say you're a moderator on the forums and you don't know if the number is true or not. Would you leave the phone number in either case?

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Fair enough

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Forgive me, I'm a slow person. Really, but to anyone who's kind enough to answer this question, thank you very much!

Um, what happens to AAI2 now?

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Same as before. It's not going to be released on the DS. Other then that it's up in the air.

One thing to keep in mind is that AAI2 being remade should not only be profitable for the West, but Japan as well. And considering GK2 is a relatively new game, I wouldn't expect it to be remade on the 3DS, unless perhaps it was like the MegaMan Zero GBA games being bundled on the DS?

On the other hand, Capcom invested some money on the Wiiware and iOS/Android ports (Wiiware with audio remastering, and iOS/Android with everything else) Even GK1's apparently been ported to cell phones in Japan, so don't rule it dead 'just' yet.

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There's still hope then!

But regarding the audio remastering for the Wii, I really can't say the sound improved as much from the DS. The only difference I actually detected was the balanced mixing and the sharper sound. Not much. But it's still awesome. \m/

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It's pretty disgusting someone posed as a non-profit organisation member for the sake of a single game. I love me some AA, but not enough to break the law over.
I can actually understand why they won't release AAI2; it won't make the money. The Original AAI wasn't in shops for very long at all. I actually missed out on it and only played it very recently because I found it after about 6 months of trawling through game stores, op shops and the like. Furthermore, the DS is coming to the end of its lifecycle and Nintendo and Capcom would want to focus on the latest and greatest 3DS. Little chance of making money on a dying console with a niche game=not a good idea. Furthermore, I was quite shocked to see a 2nd AAI was made; a spin-off was fun, but I would have rathered more on GS5.
I am upset that I'm likely not to get AAI2, but I can understand why. Lying to extort information is not on under any circumstances, though.

I am disgusted and just upset at what he claims to have done. He said that pestering Sven would get us a higher chance of localization, but I actually believe that'll give us a lower chance. I love Ace Attorney, don't get me wrong, but I'm not going to pose as a charity to extort information about the latest game.

Wooster
Did'ja read the mess that happened?

Croik
No, what?

Wooster
Someone posed as a "Make a Wish" representative to get Sven to spill the details on AAI2's localization
When he got an answer he didn't like, he spammed Capcom's message board, and posted Sven's phone number encouraging people to spam him

Croik
Yikes

Wooster
I feel like we should do some sort of damage control.

Croik
How much damage is it, really? If it's just one guy being a troll

Wooster
Very true. But I'm more thinking about how Sven's been grated on for AAI2 info, and the reactions to what little he's been giving haven't been received very politely.
But you're right, it could just be me being caught in the moment.

Croik
Considering how fans feel about Capcom in general right now I'm sure Sven has had worse, heh. Capcom has no one to blame but themselves for that. But your writeup was a very nice gesture. Sven has been good to us

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Slight question

How has Sven been good to us before? Do you mean CR specifically? I kinda assumed we were but a minor blip on their radar being a fansite. Or do you mean to the fans as a whole like how he's fighting for the AAI2 localisation?

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If you want some specific details, why not take a gander at CR's Interview section. That first one under General Capcom / Localization Interviews looks mighty interesting to me.

Croik might be able to tell you more however, if I'm not mistaken, she met him at Captivate'08.

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In my personal opinion, I believe Capcom jumped on the 3DS train a little too early. I remember that the original DS came out all the way back in 2004 and from my understanding it did not really soar into popularity until around 2007-2008.

Now it is also my belief that the DS can still be profitable enough. It's the bestselling handheld, and probably the bestselling console period. Nintendo seems to think it's still plausible to put out some games on it, at least Pokemon games. I know that Pokemon and Ace Attorney are entirely different boats but Pokemon has contributed significantly to those big sales on the DS with Pokemon Black and White being the fastest and most likely best selling DS games. In case you haven't heard, Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 are also being released for the DS, this makes sense because the previous ones were on the DS anyway. If these can repeat the success of Black and White, then Capcom might hopefully see that it's reasonable to build on Ace Attorney's success by localizing AAI2 on it. Of course like I said, AA and Pokemon are pretty different franchises and it wouldn't surprise me if they don't see it that way.

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Capcom crunched the numbers. If they dropped everything, started localizing now, it might be a year or two before we got it in our hands. By then the DS would be dead dead dead. The question isn't so much if AAI2 would be profitable, the question is where and how.

If they put it on the 3DS, why would the Japanese fans care? AAI2 isn't old enough, I wouldn't think. If they popped it on Android or iOS, wouldn't those folks want to know the entire saga up to AAI2? Same issue on Vita, Wiiware, eShop or what have you. If they bring it to those markets, what's the guarantee that there's a sizable adventure game fan base? These aren't simple questions, and they have to manage their resources. If they have to choose between localizing AAI2, and say Resident Evil Super Toodle edition, and RE:ST would generate 5x the income, what choice would you make if you were in charge?

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That's a good point. Forgive me for my rather simplistic view on this, I just thought there was a slight glimmer of hope there.

It's just kind of a bummer all around you know? Nobody wins in this scenario...

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This is utterly deplorable. Just sickening.

I've been part of some pretty crazy fandoms (Pern, I'm looking at you), but this is just... I have no proper words for how disgusting this is. I would love to have AAI2, about as much as I want The Last Guardian, but I know that the more I wait, the better things get. So maybe we don't get AAI2. That's a crushing thought, but it isn't the end of the world, OR the end of the series. There are dedicated fans willing to translate, translated "Let's Play"s out there... the fandom, when it works for good, will respond somehow.

But this is not the way to do it.

I can't believe someone had a mind sick and twisted enough to do something like pretending to be from a good, helpful organization. Not only is that so wrong that it isn't even funny, but it also makes the fandom look bad. I hope Capcom realizes that we aren't all like that idiot.

Here's the uh, post in question:
http://www.capcom-unity.com/ace_attorne ... #518587323

On the same site, someone ELSE posted:

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I feel so bad for Sven
Having to be conned by someone like that.

As for it's release, all I've been saying to myself is "Patience is a virtue"
and I will continue to support Sven, and the others pushing for western releases of Ace attorney.
I've loved this game ever since I found it, and would hate to see people disheartened by not finding out what happens after AAI.

Stay positive We'll get it in the end!

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Way to worry me Icer.

I'm going to dismiss this one as just rumours and hearsay right now because of the unfortunate implications of that statement.

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I'm just going to assume that anybody posting about the possible localization of AAI2 and other future AA games is crying wolf unless they've got official info from Capcom.

People like these really make the fandom look like a bunch of desperate, impatient idiots, which we are NOT. Hell, if we were able to wait 5 freaking years for the GS5 announcement, I'm sure we'll be able to hold out for the announcement of AAI2 in English as well. Posing as someone from a non-profit organization just to extort someone and pressure them into leaking information is just petty and pathetic.

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You can be sure the Make a Wish Foundation will come down HARD on the pretender. Capcom knows how the Make a Wish Foundation works and probably checked the guy's credentials.

As an aside: If they were to release AAI2 on the 3DS they'd probably bundle it with another game or two to make the Japanese fanbase happy. What's not to say they release a bundle containing AJ, AAI and AAI2?

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