Over the last decade video games have become an increasingly popular activity among the general population. What used to be stigmatized as “childish” or “nerdy” is now a mainstream activity that millions of people enjoy. Game developers have recognized this and are now making a greater effort to market their games to a more global audience. In order to accomplish this, developers need to employ video game localization companies to localize their games. The following are three reasons why the services these companies provide are so vital.
Video Game Localization Companies Provide Valuable Language Services
The most important service video game localization companies provide is, of course, video game localization. The localization process involves adapting the content of a game to make it more relatable to the target market/culture. One part of this process is gaming translations. The localization team will translate a game’s text and audio into any language requested by the developers. This includes subtitling services and in many cases voice dubbing services too. After all the video game translation is done, the localization team will begin to adapt the content of the game as necessary. This involves changing characters’ names, the names of locations, and other small details. The point of this is to make players in different countries relate more to the content of the game.
Video Game Localization Companies Help Localize Marketing Materials
In addition to general game localization services, video game localization companies also help with global marketing campaigns. Publishers will need to adapt their marketing materials to sell their games in different countries with different languages and cultures. This means translating and culturally adapting press releases, online ads, promotional videos, and game trailers, and other marketing tools. Legitimate gaming localization companies will make sure to provide robust marketing localization services to help their clients sell their games anywhere.
Video Game Localization Companies Provide Vital QA Services
Localization companies also provide crucial localization QA services. The importance of thorough QA cannot be understated. This process is imperative to prevent bad video game translations from making it into the final product. The gaming community can be ruthless at times, and players will make sure that a game with localization errors will be ridiculed and blasted with poor reviews. These types of errors can bring games down and ruin the reputation of developers and publishers. Any company that provides gaming translation services must also provide localization QA to test the games and prevent serious errors from making into the final copy of the game.
