A report from Gematsu now confirms that Bandai Namco will indeed release an English version of "Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers" for the PS3 and PS4 sometime this year. This English version will be released in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
According to the report, players in Europe and North America will be able to play the game even if the title does not see a proper Western release given that the PS3 and PS4 are region-free, which means they can play games coming from Japan and other areas of the world.
Forbes reports that since the game will be in English, importing the game will not be much of an issue for Western players since they will no longer need to rely on fan-translations in order to understand the game's text. The report also points out that an English version released in Asia hints that a Western release may also be coming out as well.
This was the case for "Gundam Extreme Versus Force" for the PS Vita. The game was initially released in Japan but an English version was later launched for Asian countries, eventually leading to a Western port later the same year.
The "Original Generation" series is a spin-off of the "Super Robot Wars" video game franchise, a tactical turn-based strategy RPG where players control giant robots or mechas. While the main franchise uses licensed robots from numerous anime such as the "Gundam" and "Mazinger Z" series, the "OG" spin-off titles rely on original creations.
According to Forbes, this gives the publishers more freedom in importing the "OG" games to the West because there is less trouble in getting the distribution rights from the numerous anime studios. Since all the robots in the "OG" franchise are owned by Bandai Namco, they have the sole distribution rights for these characters.
