This is the post from over a year ago on Reddit about the company that Gale Force 9 hired ("TheRPG Club') to do the Korean language translations of WOTC's products.
In the Complaint filed by GF9 they mention the Korean translations are one of the reasons WOTC cited for ending their license with GF9.
27. First, Wizards alleged that GF9 breached the 2017 Agreement through the actions of TRPG Club (GF9’s Korean translation and distribution subcontractor). Wizards alleged that certain unidentified products translated into Korean and distributed by TRPG Club were of low quality, including translations that were poorly done and included inaccurate, missing, and offensive translations. Wizards breach notice went on to further allege that TRPG Club failed to provide adequate customer service to consumers of Dungeons & Dragons materials.
This is the Reddit post from over a year ago on that topic, which matches closely the text above from the Complaint in the GF9 vs WOTC lawsuit. And this is why I say I suspect WOTC may be in the right on this one, and it likely is not related to the Weiss and Hickman lawsuit, nor related to trying to sell WOTC. I think GF9 may have simply screwed up:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/dof8t1/the_korean_dnd_community_needs_your_help/Posted byu/ArduousTriangle04
One Year Ago
The Korean DnD community needs your help!Tldr; A shady and incompetent company has botched the first official Korean translation of DnD. The Korean DnD community needs your help in raising awareness.
Greetings from the Korean DnD community! As fellow fans across the realms, we wish to raise awareness to a certain issue that we cannot solve ourselves.
Recently, the <DKSA>,(D&D Korean edition Supporters Association), in collaboration with the company <TRPG Club> has held a crowd funded project to release officially translated versions of the core books of DnD.
According to their web page, they had won exclusive rights to advertising, selling and translating DnD content in Korea, granted by WotC and the GF9 localization team.
They claimed the TRPG Club would be responsible for all legal responsibilities, while not presenting the full names of their members or those who participated in the project.
What they failed to mention in their resume as “the first official translators of many RPG books” is their infamy of gross incompetence and irresponsibility.
The TRPG club was responsible for multiple crowd funded projects, all of which ended in failed stretch goals and poor quality. They are infamous for mistranslation, unfulfilled or falsified stretch goals and irresistible attitude among the Korean RPG community.
Their first crowd funded project, <Dawn of FATE>was delayed for 1 and a half years, the latter in which they ceased customer support and went silent. Their promise of consistent monthly support ended with only 2 short guides.
Their next project, Vampire the Masquerade 20th edition, promised a officially supported supplant <Seoul by Night>,a translated DVD and other stretch goals. Later, after the funding was complete, they revealed that they actually didn’t have the legal rights or agreement from the DVD creators. The <Seoul by Night>; supplement was also delayed for over a year, was revealed to have never been officially supported, and the translated version of <Hunters Hunted 2>, which was supposed to replace the DVD, was never released. Other lesser rewards were also delayed or never released without any response.
Next was <Rogue Horizon>, a Japanese tabletop RPG. When confronted by customers who received poorly printed, damaged and heavily mistranslated text, the TRPG club responded “While we understand your worries, the amount of mistranslated text is negligible compared to older foreign companies in Japan or America.”, and also blaming their customers for demanding “over the top quality”. Needless to say this amateurish attitude does not portray a hint of gravity or professionalism.
And so we come to DnD.
The DKSA allegedly worked under the direct supervision of WotC and Gale Force 9 localization team.
The funding page claimed the funding was for a Pre-Order of a already finished product, and the funding costs would be spent to create extra reward packs.
Promised extra rewards included 8 packs of translated spell cards, including the Elemental Evil ones, DM screens and such.
Of the promised 8, only 7 were printed out because they hadn’t bothered to check if the 8th one was something they could print before promising it as a stretch goal.
They also claimed “Translations of the 3 core books are already finished and are waiting WOTC approval” when the funding started, and promised to ship between August 20~21.
They also also claimed they would translate the Xanathar’s Guide, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, Curse of Stradh.
Despite voices of concern, the funding ended with 441,686,742 Korean Won, equivalent to roughly 377374.57 US dollars on Tumblbug with 1840 supporters.
Problems began with delays. At first, the shipping was delayed to September due to “not enough supplementary material”, then to October due to “Issues in the first printed version.”
What we received in October though, was a horrendous mess.
Damaged books and packages were abundant.cThe text was basically unreadable gibberish due to poor printing and poor grammar.
Multiple Mistranslations were found on day 1, including texted such as “Residing nobles reside in residing cities”. The group also ignored official code of foreign language translation to “fit pop-culture”, while using out of touch translations contrary to modern pop-culture. (Example include Weer-Wolf, Ree-Vanant, Forgotten Reelms.)
Same class features, terms and creatures were also not unified across the books. (Examples such as Panthers becoming leopards in another book, Young Dragon became Grown Dragon.) Multiple Mislabeled and Mixed features were also abundant across whole books. (Spell range: Concentration, Creating non-existent terms)
Offensive and derogatory terms towards the disabled such as translating “Feeblemind” to “Retardation” (저능화) were also abundant, when less offensive alternatives exist and are already commonly used.
Missing text and features were also spread across spell cards and class features. The biggest source of funding, the Elemental Evil and Core spell cards, were also riddled with empty cards, empty card packs and mistranslated text.
Some backers even received entirely empty boxes, or received nothing at all when all products had long been shipped.
When confronted with complaints and demands of answers, the TRPG club and DKSA reasoned with amateur responses and blatant lies.
They claimed “the problem is natural, as errata and editing mistakes are common for any industries, for example the DnD errata” while claiming to have worked on a already finished translation for over a year.
According to their twitter account, the DKSA allegedly “followed localization instructions from WotC and GF9.”, “Had trouble with source texts.”, and “Not everyone in the team are entirely professional translators”, ignoring their unprofessional and incompetent translations and failure in providing a viable product.
They requested for “fan corrections” and refused monetary compensation as they “need it to fund further their DnD related projects.”
They have also ignored direct calls for refunds and contacts. Unclear addresses were listed for refund and customers had to pay for mailing.
The company not only failed in translating text, but created a unrecognizable and unplayable junk in Korean. Many have yet to even receive the books they paid for.
This isn’t simply a bad product. It’s a failure of one covered by blatant lies, abusing the passion of the Korean DnD community.
DnD’s reputation as a game, and the Korean Rpg communities are suffering because of this shady company’s overambitious failure. Many folk are now refunding, and 5e’s reputation as a whole is going down.
At this rate the TRPG club will maintain exclusive rights over our beloved hobby that is DnD, while doing nothing to cover their mess.
We believe that they do not deserve the status as exclusive dealers and that legal actions should be taken, but are unsure of what we can do to get support from WotC.
Please, I beg of you, help us.