Is there any way to get language patches for XBox 360 games?

January 4, 2009 4:13 AM

Is there any way to get language patches for XBox 360 games?

I recently bought an XBox 360 and several games. All of the games but one automatically support my English language setting, but Dead Space only offers German or French. This is understandable, as I live in Germany and purchased the game here, but my spoken German comprehension skills are not good enough yet to understand the dialog and I don't even know a word of French.

Is there any way to add English support to the game? One that will not void my console's warranty?

While I am asking, new games are roughly €15 cheaper in the US with the exchange rate right now - would I be unable to run NTSC games purchased there? I don't see a region lockout indicator on any of the boxes.

posted by cmonkey to computers & internet (3 comments total)

The Xbox 360 does have something like region coding, but they aren't the standard DVD regions. A compatibility guide can be found here. Apparently some games are compatible with more than one region of Xbox. It's a game-by-game decision, apparently.

Game translations aren't generally released as patches, especially for console games. A particular release will either support that language or not; you usually can't get a patch to convert an existing game to another language.

Whether or not you will be able to run US games will depend both on where you bought your Xbox and the game you're trying to play. If you have an European Xbox, then you will be able to play some games, according to the table I linked to above. The European version does seem to be the most restrictive though.

There is no way of making a console play games encoded for a different region without physically modifying your console. As one might expect, this not only voids your warranty but is of questionable legality, as Europe has DMCA-like laws regarding circumvention of DRM.
posted by valkyryn at 6:29 AM on January 4

For Dead Space? No. (Beware, this is true for every other format on Dead Space too).
You can download commentary tracks for FIFA though. Generally speaking the languages that are included on the disc are the only available ones in that region.

I struggle with this every month when living in Spain. Some titles come with English and X languages, some are fully localised. There is no reliable standard for finding out if it includes English by looking at the back of the game case. You can ask the people in the store if they have the game running or if they can find out for you.

US 360 games, as valkyryn says, generally don't work. UK ones will. With the pound being really weak, now's a great time to use our euros to buy stuff. Play.com has some great discounts for Xbox games

£17.99 for Prince of Persia which is brand new (and of debatable quality).
posted by slimepuppy at 12:07 PM on January 4

I was afraid of that, and it didn't even occur to me that I can get games from amazon.co.uk. But I guess I'll look at Dead Space as being yet more language practice.

Thanks!
posted by cmonkey at 5:04 AM on January 5