3 Factors You Need To Know Before Your Game Expansion – Prepare your game for localization
3 Factors You Need To Know Before Your Game Expansion
As expected by the public, the gaming market has continued to grow in 2021, with total revenue of 180 billion dollars generated by the gaming industry last year according to a report from Newzoo.
It is not difficult to imagine that the gaming market will continue to evolve and develop in the foreseeable future. However, how should you maintain your gaming business’ competitiveness in such a huge market, while expanding your business in the market? Gaming localization is one of the key elements before launching your games.
Prepare your game for localization – Gaming Translation or Gaming Localization?
Before launching your game in new markets, it’s crucial to prepare it for localization. Gaming localization is the preparation process of a video game to be released in a different country or region other than where it is originally developed. Gaming text translation is one of the biggest and most crucial parts of a gaming localization project. However, a completed gaming localization is much more complicated than merely translation; it encompasses various aspects like in-game text, user interface, voice-over, marketing materials, and more. It also considers factors such as monetization, time zones, and cultural adaptation. Opting for a comprehensive game localization solution rather than just game translation is highly recommended to ensure a successful launch.
Which market and language pair should be selected for a new game?
Setting the target market is the first step of your marketing and selling strategy. Factors that can influence your target market’s decision and language range from market research and analysis, figuring out the most active gaming market, discovering the most appropriate publishing platform, to choosing the monetisation model.
After balancing all factors and selecting the target market and language, you can start to build the foundation of the project.
Normally, English is always the go-to source language when you want to localize your gaming language, and it is the fastest way to gain market share and profit with minimal risk directly.
Begin by translating the game into the markets that cover most of the target game players, including European languages, such as French, Italian, German and Spanish, as well as popular East Asian languages like Japanese and Korean.
China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany are the top 5 games markets in the world ranked on the gaming revenue in 2021, according to Newzoo report.
While the top 5 languages (except English) on the Steam are Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish, German and Brazilian and Portuguese according to Alconost Blog.
How to choose the most appropriate translation partner?
After confirming your target market and languages, it’s time to assemble your dedicated gaming translation team. Different from the other general content, gaming content requires more professional knowledge and experience. It is crucial for a publisher to understand that gaming localization is not only a single translation task, but a complex project that requires many steps with culturalization background. Regardless of your project budget and the scale of your team, finding the right language partner is always the crucial beginning point.
The basic requirement of an exhaustive team should be structured by an experienced project manager, a linguistic team who is passionate about gaming, a technical DTP team, and a professional IT team.
Why are passionate game linguists so important? When the linguistic team consists of avid gamers themselves, they possess a deep understanding of the requirements and concerns of fellow players. Their passion for gaming allows them to approach the game localization process with a player’s perspective, ensuring that the translated content resonates with the target audience. They can accurately capture the game’s tone, adapt cultural references, and maintain the intended user experience. With their expertise and insider knowledge, passionate game linguists play a crucial role in delivering a localized game that truly connects with players in the target gaming market.
LangLink Gaming Localization Solution
LangLink works with both game publishers and developers and offer game localization solutions for mobile, desktop, console, browser, and board games into more than 60 languages. We specialise in various types of gaming localization like Simulation, Strategy, RPG, Action, Adventure and much more. Therefore it is our pleasure to provide the professional localization service for the famous game titles including “Game of Thrones”, “Grand theft auto V”, “Neo Cab”, “Gears of War”, “Crusader Kings III”, “Warhammer 40,000”, “Stellaris”.
