We have been looking forward to Chinese for too long

礼仪之梆_以德斧人

礼
To Frontier Developments Team,

I am a Chinese player of Elite: Dangerous. Recently, a multi-language coordinated rescue mission for a stranded Chinese commander has ignited widespread attention for the game across Chinese social media. However, language barriers continue to hinder millions of Chinese players from delving deeper into its universe.

As a Chinese player, I have repeatedly recommended this hardcore masterpiece with a 1:1 galactic sandbox to my friends, yet I face the stark reality that other Space Games have ten times more discussion heat in the Chinese community than ours. They only rely on localization advantage alone has generated millions of daily livestream views on Bilibili. This compels me to emphasize that official Chinese localization would profoundly enhance the gaming experience for Chinese players, create a more immersive world view, and also help Elite: Dangerous expand the Chinese market.

China has 230 million Steam users and “The Wandering Earth” 10-billion-yuan box office group have formed a core science fiction consumer circle. For example, the Bar Citizen event held in Chongqing, China in 2022, attracted hundreds of players to the hotel conference hall and shocked overseas developers with the scale of a "shareholders' meeting" - the official team even briefly adjusted its status due to the formal atmosphere of Chinese players. In contrast, similar gatherings overseas are usually small bar salons with only a few dozen participants. Behind this gap is the expansion of China's science fiction consumer market. However, the language barrier is still the key to preventing players from deep participation, in 2017, localization patch is invalid due to the official encrypted game font library, a large number of Chinese players were forced to leave the universe they once traveled, and the lack of official Chinese language also caused a large number of potential users to turn to localized competitors like Star Citizen. With sci-fi enthusiasts growing at a 37% annual rate, millions now actively seek vessels to carry their cosmic aspirations—each yearning to hear their native tongue declare, "Frame Shift Drive Charging."

Meanwhile, advancements in AI technology now enable efficient, cost-effective localization. I urgently appeal for official Chinese language integration in Elite: Dangerous, as well as other language. Let encounters across light-years no longer require translators.

o7 cmdr
your sincerely,
Chinese players.
 
Last edited:

Unlimited_crime

U
I agree, now more and more New Chinese or Chinese user player coming this game. In our communication group we have more than thousands of people playing this game. But elite doesn't have Chinese, lots of player can't play well in game. We need Chinese to make more Chinese player join in Elite and make them more happier when they playing Elite.

o7
 

礼仪之梆_以德斧人

礼
China’s massive population base (over 1.4 billion) means that even if only 5% of its citizens (approximately 70 million) engage with hardcore sci-fi content, this group already exceeds the entire population of France. Among its 230 million Steam users, 17% (about 39.1 million) are space-themed gamers—a figure surpassing Canada’s total population. Star Citizen’s Chinese localization patch alone has been downloaded over 6 million times (accounting for 43% of its global non-English players). These numbers are not merely percentages; they represent a potential paying demographic 50 million larger than Germany’s population. In the Chinese market, a mere 1% conversion rate equates to a loyal user ecosystem on the scale of a mid-sized European country.
 

礼仪之梆_以德斧人

礼
QQ图片20250313192343.png
 

LiuBei

L
Though I've played the game for many years and I'm also a Chinese player, I'm able to enjoy the game well. But for many Chinese newcomers, the first difficulty to play the game is the problem of language. Not all Chinese players have a good command of English or other foreign languages. As I know, many people who want to wander in Elite: Dangerous are discouraged by the difficulty caused by language, including my classmates and roommates. They have the desire for a vast universe, so I strongly recommend the game. It's a very upset thing that there's a large player base in China, but the Chinese language is delayed.

I began to play when I'm in senior high school and now I'll graduate from university. ED was the first game I've purchased in steam. It has been nearly six years but I still couldn't forget how thrilled I was when driving my own spaceship jumping from one system to another, trading, hunting etc. ED made my wish of travelling in the universe come true. And I sincerely hope more and more people can enjoy the good game.

I had heard that there was a civilian Chinese version of this game. But the leaked plot led to the official locking of the font and the claim that an official Chinese version would come out. I hope this is not an official excuse to block Chinese players. I'd be very happy to see more and more Chinese players joining the game when officials are starting to pay attention to Chinese players.

o7
 

SERAPHVER

SERAPHVER
Agreed. Many of my friends want to play the game because of my recommendation, but most are holding off due to the lack of an official Chinese version. In fact, some of them mentioned they’d gladly pre-order or even buy in-game cosmetics if localized support were added. It’s a shame because the game’s unique art style and storytelling could resonate deeply with Chinese players—they’re just waiting for that language barrier to disappear!
 

sothiss

sothiss
China now boasts a rapidly growing gaming population, yet many space game enthusiasts face language barriers that either deter them from trying or cause them to abandon games during critical learning phases like tutorials. I personally recommended this game to two friends (both seasoned space game players with thousands of hours logged in titles like Stellaris, Star Citizen, and No Man's Sky), but they ultimately couldn't persist due to localization limitations.

We sincerely hope the development team could implement Chinese language support. This strategic localization would not only expand Elite Dangerous' player base in the world's largest gaming market, but also create a mutually beneficial cycle: A thriving community attracts more players, which in turn provides greater resources for ongoing game development and enhancements.
 
Last edited:

gm2008

gm2008
Since I bought Elite Dangerous in 2016, I have been waiting for the Chinese version. It's been almost ten years now. 自从我在2016年买了《Elite Dangerous》，我就一直在等待中文版。到现在已经快十年了。
I should say I'm a clumsy player. Due to my unfamiliarity with English, I encountered many unimaginable difficulties, which made me have to give up after playing for a while. However, the grand universe view, the realistic Milky Way, and the unique sense of loneliness in space exploration of Elite Dangerous have always fascinated me.
So, after a while, I would come back to check if the Chinese version was out.
I believe I will keep playing it. I really hope Frontier Developments can add Chinese.
The universe is so wonderful. Looking forward to the next ten years!我应该说我是个笨手笨脚的球员。由于我对英语的不熟悉，我遇到了很多难以想象的困难，这让我玩了一段时间后不得不放弃。然而，《Elite Dangerous》中宏大的宇宙视野，逼真的银河，以及太空探索中独特的孤独感一直让我着迷。所以，过了一段时间，我会回来看看中文版本是否出来了。我相信我会一直玩下去。我真的希望Frontier Developments能加入中文。宇宙是如此奇妙。期待下一个十年！
 

Andy Rice

Andy Rice
Thank you, OP, for posting this.

And to the Frontier staff, if you’re reading this, I would like to briefly share the situation of our Chinese Elite players over the past ten years. Elite Dangerous has attracted immense attention from Chinese sci-fi fans since its release. However, language has been the biggest barrier preventing most Chinese players from fully enjoying the game. In light of this, many players, including myself, have voluntarily contributed our efforts to make the game more accessible to others. Let me give you some examples. There’s a person named 'y1n4', who is Malaysian but has actively contributed many tutorial guides on Tieba (the Chinese version of Reddit) since the game’s release. He created a highly systematic and clear guide for almost every aspect of the game, which you could even call the bible of Elite Dangerous. I can confidently say that almost every Chinese player has benefitted from his contributions, to some extent. As for myself, I’m a small content creator on Bilibili (Chinese YouTube) and an active contributor on JustAbout. In January, I made a video documentary about an international rescue mission for a friend's stranded carrier. This video has become the most popular Elite Dangerous video in Chinese video platform history, with 140k views and countless likes. I also wrote the full story in English on Reddit; if you're interested, feel free to check it out: Rescue at the Top of the Galaxy: An International Mission.

Additionally, we have a group chat with more than 1000 players, many of whom, like me, have been playing the game for years. We volunteer to help beginners learn the game and start their journey in the galaxy.

Our intention is simple: we want more Chinese people to enjoy this incredible game, which is probably the best space simulator in history.

But honestly, the lack of Chinese language support really makes our work challenging. Even though we have excellent guides (again, thank you, Mr. y1n4), the game is still far too complex to navigate without official Chinese language support. The Elite universe is constantly evolving, with news and updates happening all the time. Players who don’t understand Chinese miss out on a lot of exciting things like background stories, community goals, and more. There have even been rumors circulating on Chinese social media accusing Frontier of being racist for not providing a Chinese language option. We all know this is not true, since other games like Planet Coaster offer great Chinese support, and you even have Chinese customer service. I have personally been fighting against these false accusations on Chinese media for over five years. It’s exhausting to keep explaining the situation over and over again to the public. The best way to put an end to these accusations is to prove them wrong, right?

Under my popular video, many comments expressed frustration that the game seems fantastic but the lack of Chinese support has stopped them from purchasing it. This is a potential market that, if you can launch Chinese language support, would attract many new players. The initial purchases could bring in a lot of income, and trust me, we Chinese players love buying skins—we are more than willing to purchase skins with ARX.

I’ve been playing this game for eight years, since I was a boy, and I’ve developed a deep connection with it. Elite Dangerous is my favorite game, and I sincerely hope that more of my people will come to understand how great it is.
 

Ameeleean2

Ameeleean2
I can't imagine how can someone type in chinese on PC given how unique writing system China has. English alphabet has 26 letters only so all You need is 26 keys+some special ones, which ends up around 100 to have functional keyboard. I'm kind of curious how many are required to type in chinese:)

The fastest way that I can think off would be for ED developers to allow fanmade translations- special folder with text files that could be loaded instead of default ones.
 

Andy Rice

Andy Rice
Ameeleean2 said:
I can't imagine how can someone type in chinese on PC given how unique writing system China has. English alphabet has 26 letters only so all You need is 26 keys+some special ones, which ends up around 100 to have functional keyboard. I'm kind of curious how many are required to type in chinese:)

The fastest way that I can think off would be for ED developers to allow fanmade translations- special folder with text files that could be loaded instead of default ones.
Click to expand...
Agree, but tying is not of the top priority, the top priority is for people to read and understand. Many games also don't support chinese typing, we communicate with PinYin, even though that can be confusing sometimes.
 

sothiss

sothiss
Ameeleean2 said:
I can't imagine how can someone type in chinese on PC given how unique writing system China has. English alphabet has 26 letters only so all You need is 26 keys+some special ones, which ends up around 100 to have functional keyboard. I'm kind of curious how many are required to type in chinese:)

The fastest way that I can think off would be for ED developers to allow fanmade translations- special folder with text files that could be loaded instead of default ones.
Click to expand...
tanslate the ui from english to chinese，for example, "steel→钢"。and we can also use pinyin(use 26letters).we dont need to translate everything in english，like the name of star system、squadron.
 

Ameeleean2

Ameeleean2
sothiss said:
tanslate the ui from english to chinese，for example, "steel→钢"。and we can also use pinyin(use 26letters).we dont need to translate everything in english，like the name of star system、squadron.
Click to expand...
I get it. Surprisingly it is what my own nation did to adapt latin alphabet to be used in my native language. Polish alphabet is supposed to be phonetic too but to dismay to most of my brothers and sisters our language specialists decided to incorporate some historical stuff which make many children grit their teeth in frustration while learning those weird rules...

Ability to use fanmade translations would be a boon not only to chinese players. We would need a tool to edit and add another languages in a form of language mod or for text files to be stored in a way that would allow us to create copy and then replace what we want (which is where partial translations could be made).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom