I don’t know if you meant it with a /s or not but I would like to point out the entire rage around early access or alpha releases.

Other than that, having fans do things like these is something I don’t think any developer would want to do primarily because contracts ensure accountability. As a developer, I have no way of knowing if the Spanish dub you made of my game is full of racial slurs or not. Similarly, if I launch my PS game on switch in the future, and it’s absolutely abysmal, I would be the one on the firing block and rightfully so because I am the one who is bound to make money off of it. Shouldn’t that mean I go with someone who has expertise in doing these things?

I personally am not aware of the mana series so I might not fully understand your argument, so you should feel free to educate me, but I believe it might be more of an exception with things going right instead of the countless ways it could go wrong.

I would also like to disclaim that I have no love for publishers and more often than not, they are despicable suits. However, this is the reality of the video games industry which isn’t changing in the near future (but I sure hope it does further down the line).