In the MMO shooter Destiny 2, localization is important, but the German voice actors are not listed anywhere. Who voices Cayde-6, what happened to him, and why does Bungie think döner shops are so cool?
Bungie emphasized in a video with IGN how important localization is, what was once called “translation.” This prompts us to ask: What happened to the voice of Cayde-6?
Destiny 2 will be fully available in German – sound and image
The video states: Destiny was translated into 6 languages. Destiny 2 will be available in 11 languages. The game will be fully translated, both text and sound.
German players love that a ramen shop was turned into a döner shop
In a video about localization, Melanie Theisen, who worked on the localization into German, explains that they turned the “Spicy Ramen Shop” that Cayde-6 likes into a “döner shop.” This fits better with the German culture.
German players loved this change and even had a hashtag “Dönerbude.” It was great.
This is the job, says another Bungie translation specialist: The game must speak to the people in their native language.
What happened to the voice of Cayde-6?
Mein-MMO states: Dönerbude or not. The German localization is often criticized for minor details by our readers. These “action lines” from the short trailers often do not come across as well in German as in the English original. Some of the clever names of items do not always make the cultural leap. But opinions may vary on that. This is nitpicking at a high level, we don’t want to criticize the localization.
One problem remains: Even though Bungie talks about how important localization is, in practice, it seems not to be the case.
We have been trying to find out what happened to the German voice of Cayde-6 in the last few days.
The German voice that voiced Cayde-6 in Destiny 1 and still in the trailer for Destiny 2 was no longer present in the beta. This has moved many of our readers. They liked the old voice and wondered what happened to it.
We were unable to find out who voices Cayde-6 in German. It is not available online, nor do the “credits” on the Bungie page include the German voice actors, only the English ones.
The German voice actor of the Ghost, Claus-Peter Damitz, did not know upon inquiry who voices the other roles. Questions to Activision through their PR agency went unanswered.
There is progress, but a little more love for the German players would be nice
Admittedly, Bungie has made progress in supporting the German-speaking Destiny fans. At least the patch notes and the “This Week at Bungie” are now always available relatively quickly in German – previously, we had to translate them ourselves.
However, it would be desirable to have a listing of voice actors and that more people are assigned to the German localization.
If a central voice in the English version is replaced, that is the number one topic for weeks. If this happens in the German version, there is not a peep.
In Overwatch, the voice of a heroine was also replaced. There, too, Blizzard sat it out and left the community in the dark. This is not a good way to handle the German voices of the characters.
If localization is as important as Bungie portrays it in the video with IGN, then such actions should not be done without comment, but the fans should be informed.
The German voice of Cayde-6 has likely passed away
Update 10:00 PM: After the publication of the article, readers pointed out to us that the original voice of Cayde-6 might be a voice actor from near Offenbach who passed away in May 2017.
As of 31.7. 12:00 PM: There are increasing indications that the German voice of Cayde-6 has passed away, and the character was therefore recast. Our condolences go out to the relatives of the voice actor.
What changes with weapons in Destiny 2 can be read here:
