SSK

Since nothing was coming, I also cancelled my subscription to Disney+. Surprisingly the Disney+ Help account on X is responding to inquiries, but only for Latin America and only to say that they have no news about any Macross content. During the Macross panel at Anime Expo 2025 back in July, Big West international representative said that he heard requests for more countries and languages and kept working on it. But dude, it's been more than 4 years since the worldwide agreement announcement and more than a year since Disney+ streaming announcement. Your statement is a bit flimsy and not very convincing. Of course localization takes time but such delays are unusual, unless you're still living in the 90s. At least a clear statement about what's going on for the rest of the world (or should I say most of the world ?) would be appreciated. But well, companies...

Thank you for your comment, I feel less alone since barely no one cares about this. I even got blocked on social media by some great experts who want to convince themselves that everything's fine. Yup, so far it's hard to call the Macross worldwide take off a success. If you take a closer look, you'll notice that almost everything's happening in Asia and English-speaking territories only and it's more and more difficult not to draw suspicious parallels with Creative Sphere, Big West localization partner which is supposedly promoting and licensing the franchise outside Japan. CreSphe core members seem to be... Asian and English guys in first place. I guess that's just a coincidence if it matches the take off. Summarizing the Macrosss worldwide roll out so far (2021~2025) is pretty simple and significant. I won't bother about toys or music, considering the core stuff is series and movies. Disney+ is currently streaming content in more or less 20 countries (and it's a wide range) when the service is active in more than 100. I think we can agree the fact that it's a terrible ratio. Last roll out was for the US on Hulu in January this year. Nothing since then. No statement about what's going on, no road map, no answer. Disney+ and Big West remain silent as a grave. Only 3 languages are available : English, Chinese and Korean. Subtitles were provided by Creative Sphere and not made in-home by the service. Coincidence again. France could be a curious case since we're surprisingly getting Blu-ray releases. Well, actually not so surprising since English publisher Anime Limited got a French branch it often works with for common releases. That was the case for Plus and Zero and will be the case for Frontier and Delta next year. So I'd rather call this pure luck. If Anime Limited didn't have a French branch, pretty sure we wouldn't have had anything. The very first step of Big West and CreSphe outside their comfort zone (non Asian, non English countries or companies) could be in Latin America, where some countries are about to screen Macross Plus movie edition. Lord, it's a miracle ! It took them "only" more than 4 years for that (and that's not even a wide release). It's great of course, but at this rate we can wonder how many more years it will take to bring the same movie to other countries with other languages. Not talking about the hundred episodes and other movies left. And that's all. So yup, so far the Macross worldwide take off is at best a joke at worst a failure. And that's very concerning for the next entry, unless Sunrise takes care of the global release in addition to animation production. Gundam GQuuuuuuX was simulcasted (and is still streaming) in more than 200 countries in about 30 languages, including a dozen of dubs. The comparison with current Macross and its tons of content is not fair, but will be totally relevant for the new project. As for what went wrong in the global process, only assumptions : either targeting Asian and English territories only was the plan from the beginning or Big West and CreSphe are lacking resources and partners for other territories and languages. Or they got screwed again, by Disney+ this time. I don't believe there's any legal issue considering French Blu-ray releases and the fact that they can work in the US with Harmony Gold in ambush, Big West can release Macross sequels anywhere, just like they claimed in the worldwide agreement statement back in April 2021.

Good point for Big West. Most of the world still cannot watch the Macross franchise on Disney+, but at least YouTube is streaming these 3 épisodes nearly worldwide.

You're talking about the oversized ultimate box set, which was also released in France. I'm talking about the collector's edition, half cheaper, same size as Macross Zero set, which is surprisingly only available in France.

Funny to see that the Macross Plus Collector's Edition (including both the OVA series and movie) is still remaining a French exclusivity. It's even not available in the UK. Maybe that's the counterpart for not having any Macross streaming on our local Disney+😂

If there's any Q/A session, would be nice if someone in the crowd could ask them if it's still relevant to wait for the Macross sequels roll out on Disney+ outside Asia and English-speaking territories😓

Australia, New Zealand, UK. Ireland, Canada, the US, and some Asian countries. I don’t know how many exactly, but I believe it’s between 10 and 20 countries overhall.

As an European the first thing I'm hoping is that Sunrise implication goes further than animation production, and that they could help the inexperienced Big West to make the right choices internationally. Yeah, with a restricted distribution to Asia and English-speaking territories, excluding a bunch of countries where Robotech and Macross were popular in the 80's and 90's, Disney+ was willy-nilly a terrible choice. I mean even in France we'll have a theater release of the new Gundam in March.

They're already struggling to release it in the US and add more subtitle languages, so I don't believe dubbing is a priority. Maybe they'll consider it the day the roll out will be complete.

Well, let's hope 2025 will be the year of a massive roll out around the world. Kindly reminder that within a year, your partnership with Disney+ brought Macross sequels in about 20 countries in 3 languages subs while the service is active in more than 120.

Talk about a failure. About 20 countries got something (high estimation) when Disney+ is active in more than 120. And a deafening silence from both the service and Big West.

"Many countries", yes and no. Contrary to popular belief, Macross stuff is currently available on Disney+ in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland, Canada and some Asian countries only, with English, Chinese and Korean subtitles. Those who use a VPN may correct me but I don't think there's more languages. Disney+ announced a 2024 worldwide release back in March, and they're active in more than 120 countries. We're still very far from it. They'll have to clarify things sooner or later. For the US, but also the rest of the world on their will to add more languages.

If you mean last in line regarding to English audience, then I totally understand the frustration since the US is the main target in the west. And I bet Big West feel the same. But on a worldwide range, they've only completed English, Chinese and Korean subtitles. That's a big part of the world without anything, wondering if Disney+ is willing to add more languages and so countries regarding the countless translations it needs.

Nothing in Europe too, but there's rumors we won't get it. Too many translations needed I guess. I really hope it's wrong.

Nothing in Europe and Latam. Moreover there are rumors that Disney+ won't stream any Macross in France. Hard to really know what's going on and if some territories will be skipped.

As a French guy, I can answer. Our ultimate edition will include French discs with our old French dub and refresh subs. That's the only difference. The 180-pages artbook will still remain in English. Anyway, Crunchyroll's price is the UK price without the early bid offer. Feel sorry for you guys. IMO that's a bad move since the US are the main target in the west. They should have made a cheapest collector's edition alongside the ultimate one like they're doing for us.

UK only for now, since they didn't specify any other territory.

It's normal you can't find anything, the game won't be released on console outside Japan. Both disc and digital. It will be only available on Steam globally. Here's the official statement :

Bushiroad made a statement. Their first English tweet in months about the game. So basically at the launch date, the game will be only available in Japan on Switch and PS4/5, and globally on Steam. Full Japanese, "other languages" incoming. Well, I bet there will be only English and maybe Korean. Predicable. I guess everybody had a bad feeling about this at the very moment they announced a global release. I can only hope that the global console release was delayed until the English translation is done.

That's a Japanese release with English subs in first place. But coming after the worldwide agreement. Which might discreetly suggest Zero won't get a home video release outside Japan. (Wasn't announced last year among the other releases)

As a French guy, I followed each step of Big West european IP claim since nearly the beginning on the EUIPO website. The worldwide agreement was announced a couple of time after Harmony Gold ultimate appeal. So I believe all of these are related. I'd also say that was Big West initial goal, and probably the only way to gain something in the US market since I heard IP claims are way more difficult there. They had already won in the UK and on the verge of winning in Europe, so it probably gave them enough weight to negotiate. Anyway, I don't believe we'll get more stuff than you, and certainly not the prohibited one. Actually it's quite the opposite, we're not really Big West nor Bandai top priority for anything related to Macross, despite the worldwide labelled toys are avalaible for preorder.

Harmony Gold's press postings are terribly written as always. It's more likely Big West CAN use the SDFM/DYRL stuff for new sequels IN JAPAN ONLY. They can't export them. That's all. So nothing really new here. As example, we already saw that the SDFM/DYRL stuff from the incoming video game will be available as DLC in Japan only. Now the relevance of making sequels they cannot market outside Japan is another debate. On the other hand, the 2 years old worldwide agreement is dragging on so long (in addition to only targeting the US in the west) that I can try to understand some of the negative reactions. Big West has to strike hard next week (at least worldwide streaming announcement, in addition to giving release dates of the stuff announced last year in the US), otherwise it will ultimately turn like Harmony Gold's long time meme "The best is yet to come". They no longer have the luxury of hiding behind the "It takes time" excuse if they really want a worldwide take off for Macross.

If it doesn't get a proper global simulcast like any other current anime series on whatever streaming service, then the worldwide agreement would have been pointless. Hoping that Big West is already working hard on this point, since they don't have much experience on it.

Big West have to consider digital service (both streaming and download) if they really want a Macross worldwide take off, since it has outclassed physical release in many territories. I'm still surprised that they (apparently) didn't choose to team up with a global streaming service as soon as the agreement was settled, yet it's the best way to target a large audience more or less quickly. At least faster than physical releases that were only announced in the US so far (also in Europe for PLUS), and which are targetting fans only. More than two years have passed since the agreement, and it's still hard to understand Big West global strategy. Maybe they're waiting for the next work for a real, worldwide release of Macross sequels. For now, they're only targetting the US, some countries in Asia (South Korea had Frontier TV, Taiwan got Frontier movies), a little bit UK and very little bit Europe.

Good news. Since Sunrise is well known and respected on the worldwide scene, it could be the new beginning Macross needed, that worldwide take off Big West promised two years ago with the agreement. Although I'm worried about how they'll handle this. More than what Sunrise will do with Macross.