Video game Translation and Localisation

The global video game industry is still growing at breakneck speed, with more and more companies joining every day. If you’re developing a game you plan on releasing in multiple countries, find out how video game translation and localisation could help you reach more players.

It is estimated that the three largest video game markets in the world will generate a total of $100 billion in revenue in 2019.

Source: Newzoo

Several key points have to be considered in order to translate and localise video games:

 

  • The target audience for the game;
  • The platforms it will be played on;
  • The personalisation the company developing the game requires.
You can rely on our language solutions for:


Video game franchise accessories.


User guides and walkthroughs


Promotional Banners


Promotional Newsletters


Computer and mobile-ready games


Game instruction manuals


Localisation of graphics


Videos about video games

5 steps to successful video game localisation:

1.

Understand the market where you want to launch your product.
Before you even start the localisation process, it’s important you do your homework by investigating market fluctuations and consumer behaviour. Only when you have this information can you decide if the market you’ve chosen is commercially viable for the video game you’ve developed.

2.

Check if the market has financial potential.
A country with a high population density is not always synonymous with a successful launch. You need to know if the target audience of that country has purchasing power so that you can predict the return you’ll get on the investment you’ve made into localising your video game.

3.

Consider cultural norms and standards. 
Cultural mistakes prove to be the ones that cost the most when it comes to launching a video game. We’re talking about mistakes related to historical contexts, beliefs and cultural and religious values, to name a few examples. In addition to causing a direct loss in profits, these mistakes affect the reputation of your overall brand, so you should do everything you can to avoid them at all cost.

4.

Find out what local players think.
There’s no one better than local players to provide feedback on the potential of a game, and how receptive a specific market will be to it. You can get their feedback in multiple ways, examples being sending them questionnaires, creating discussion groups or interviewing players, whether in person or via a video call.

5.

Choose translators who are players themselves.
Translators and proofreaders whose hobby is playing video games have the insider knowledge they need to understand the terminology and know which factors will be most important to the target audience. That’s why SMARTIDIOM’s videogame localisation teams are made up of native professionals, who have proven experience in localisation and a passion for the video game industry.

Video Game Testing

Testing video games is a complex, meticulous process, which consists of going through the entire game, trying to detect:

  • Spelling or grammatical mistakes;
  • Words that could be offensive to particular audiences or contexts;
  • Text that is too long for its box;
  • System bugs;
  • Factors that influence user experience.

This phase is especially important because, usually, it’s the last check, right before the game is launched to the general public.

Our video game testing team is made up of…

Linguistic testers

Who correct all spelling, syntactic, grammatical and semantic mistakes.

QA testers

These experienced players find out if there are any errors in the game’s software.

Compatibility testers

Who report problems related to the game’s characteristics.

Our team shares your passion for video games!

We embrace the challenges of translating, reviewing and running quality control on your game, but there is more! We also guarantee the insider knowledge and the experience necessary to test your product.

Check out the video game testing solutions we provide for more than 100 languages.

Successful Case Studies

Find out more about our successful partnership with Awesome.

Video Game Localisation

Client: Awesome | Industry: Video games

 

Languages: english-german, english-simplified chinese, english-traditional chinese, english-korean, english-spanish, english-french, english-italian, english-japanese, english-brazilian portuguese and english-russian.

 

CHALLENGE:
The project was fully managed around the launch of the game Parigami. In order to expand the reach of their game into other markets, Awesome collaborated with SMARTIDIOM to get all the components of their game localised from English into ten other languages.

Our other complementary solutions:

Need a quote for the translation and localisation of your video game?

Our team will send you a free, no-commitment quote to get the process started.
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