I've just started reading fan translations of Fate/Zero and Fate/Apocrypha light novels, but it made me wonder, why have they not been officially translated to English?
I don't know a great deal about the Fate franchise, but it seems to be increasingly popular with games and anime series and loads more content in development. There also seems to be a great deal of LNs getting published in English lately that don't have as much of a following.
Is it because they're considered old (Zero is 2006, Apocrypha is 2012) or because there's an anime adaption for both so what's the point? Was it just overlooked?
In response to the linked question:
The market for LN is really small outside Japan for a number of reasons so companies aren't interested in publishing them unless they are for very famous franchises
That's what I'm saying, is Fate not an incredibly famous and marketable franchise both in and out of Japan? A number of Fate games have English localization, most of the anime series are on Netflix USA/UK with English dubs etc, this one just seems a bit of an anomaly.
Not to mention that question is almost 6 years old, the market has grown since then with entire bookshelves of English LNs in Western stores now. Seems to me, despite profitability, Fate got skipped.
Especially considering LNs like Globlin Slayer and Rise of the Shield Hero have English translations way before they even had an anime* to market them in the West.
*December 2016 and September 2015 respectively, their anime aired Fall 2018 and Winter 2019.
