Henry Spencer wrote:And the official reason why, is still up in the air. Kojima said because of 'lip synching', but i think there's far more to the story than that...
Allow me to throw my 0.02 into the ring here. Keep in mind that much of this isn't part of the Official Reason, but inferred.
As we know, Snatcher did not sell very well when it was released for the Sega CD. If Jeremy Blaustein's figure of less than 400 copies worldwide is accurate, then that would make it one of the worst-selling games of all time, unfortunately. Put yourself in the shoes of a Konami exec right after news of that came back: now they have Policenauts on the table, which is many times bigger than Snatcher, both in terms of text and dialogue. It would have required a bigger investment than Snatcher, for possibly just as bad sales. That wouldn't have been a sound business decision. At the end of the day, Konami is a business, and they still need to make money to survive. I still say that the "X% translated" rumor was never true; it was simply started by one person and endlessly repeated as fact.
Also keep in mind that Policenauts is an important game for Kojima. I'm sure he was sorry to see Snatcher fail so badly overseas, and he didn't want the same thing to happen to Policenauts. This is just my own opinion here, but I liken Kojima's relationship with Policenauts to Ridley Scott's relationship with Blade Runner. It wasn't his most financially successful film, though Ridley calls it his most personal and complete work. I think that's maybe what Policenauts is to Kojima. He spent a total of six years on it, and ported it three times, refining it with each new installment. These weren't just ports for the sake of money, they really did improve the game as much as was possible back then. He said in an interview in 1996 that he'd spent more time on the game than his son had been alive, and that with each version they released, it felt like he gave away a part of himself with it.
He also said it's the most difficult project he's ever been involved with. Before I go on too long, I'll just say that right now I'm guessing he holds it in a special place where it's settled over time, and to go back to it would disturb those emotions. He'd also inevitably see things he'd want to change, and he's said he doesn't like to mess around with a game after it's been released (the MGS expansion re-releases being different). Finally, I'm also guessing he'd rather work on a new game than revisit an old one. The guys he works with all love the game, but it's not their thing to endlessly talk about it in public the way fans can. They comment on it whenever possible, but the remaining appreciation is private. We can see that Kojima continues to keep the game's memory alive by referencing it in successive titles (for instance, look at the way the original Policenauts poster is in the most prominent position in the Shell 1 computer room; Kojima's ghost being in one of the Policenauts posters in Otacon's lab; and a Policenauts poster hanging by the computer in Kojima's real-life office), but this requires less work and emotional involvement than going back to the actual game would.
As I've said before, if Konami ever decides to officially localize the game, they're welcome to our translation for free. As a fan who knows the game inside out, I had incentive to do a good job -- I wanted to see the game get a great translation. Translating is also what I do for a living, so you can be assured it'll read naturally. But even if the game never sees an official release, I know you guys will thoroughly enjoy what comes of our project.