{"id":46307,"date":"2015-12-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-19T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/uncategorized\/challenges-video-game-localization\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T19:00:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T10:00:57","slug":"challenges-video-game-localization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/language-and-culture\/challenges-video-game-localization\/","title":{"rendered":"The challenges of video game localization"},"content":{"rendered":"This is a guest post written by a Gengo translator.<\/span><\/i>\r\n\r\nToday’s translation business has incorporated new forms of media, the most innovative one being the video game. Since the early 1990s and the advent of the first cheap game consoles, when titles began reaching a broader audience, localizers (or localization professionals) were called in to ensure idiomatic correctness, as well as the full implementation of the translated text within the finished product.\r\n\r\nAs a bilingual speaker with a passion for languages, I landed a job a few years ago for three major console producers and some of their developers. I was a linguistic tester\u2014basically a proofreader with the ability to understand video games and their mechanics. I was in charge of playing the new games and writing<\/span> bug reports on linguistic issues to ensure consistency and correctness of terminology.<\/span>\r\n\r\nMost video game developers outsource the translation of their <\/span>triple A titles<\/span><\/a>, as they can\u2019t afford full time in-house translators. Once the source language is translated into all desired target languages, the job of implementing it<\/span> always fails<\/span>,<\/span><\/i> and requires multiple passes before it meets the industry’s standard.<\/span>\r\n\r\nAlthough most companies hire exceptional translators, tremendous literal translations slip past the testers and have the power of \u201c<\/span>breaking the suspension of disbelief<\/span><\/a>\u201d of a foreign player. All developers realize the need to provide foreign players with a comprehensible, contextually and idiomatically correct translation of the immersive games now available in the market. Missing or literal translations can detract potential buyers, as reviewers can always tell whether the original text was respected.<\/span>\r\n\r\nMost video game translators never have the opportunity to play the games themselves with the full context for their translation. Rather, they normally have to work on an Excel file with columns for each language. When a game has a lot of written content, various lines of translation are usually disconnected and don\u2019t provide even half of the meaning of either a description or a dialogue.\r\n\r\nWhile <\/span>Rockstar Games <\/span><\/a>(known for its <\/span>Grand Theft Auto<\/span><\/i> franchise) actually does hire in-house translators that do get a feel of the game pre-release, other companies such as <\/span>Bethesda Game Studios<\/span><\/a> ended up with severe translation and implementation issues in both their main franchises (e.g. the <\/span>Fallout<\/span><\/i> series and the <\/span>Elder’s Scrolls <\/span><\/i>series).<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhile this could be due to the massive amount of disconnected lines of text, some of Bethesda’s translation mistakes are due to tight deadlines. Even small things such as \u201chello there\u201d are translated literally or seemed as if the translator relied on Google translate. For example, no localizer spotted \u201c<\/span>ciao l\u00ec<\/span><\/i>\u201d in <\/span>The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u2014a true idiomatic abomination.<\/span>\r\n\r\nIn Obsidian’s <\/span>Fallout: New Vegas<\/span><\/i><\/a>, \u201crestrooms\u201d are sometimes translated as \u201c<\/span>stanze di riposo<\/span><\/i>\u201d that could be wrongly interpreted by an Italian player as \u201crooms where to rest\u201d. It should have simply been translated as \u201c<\/span>bagno<\/span><\/i>\u201d or \u201c<\/span>toilette<\/span><\/i>\u201d.<\/span>\r\n\r\nI believe most of the mistakes come down to four main reasons: not investigating the context, only having an Excel file to work with, rushing translation, or not considering the idiomatic necessities and nuances when converting the written language. When in doubt, always check with either the translation provider for clarification or take the time to search the internet.\r\n\r\nTranslators don’t always have the imagination required to make the leap of translation without the help of relevant resources, but they are supposed to be wise enough to know when they can’t rely on their linguistic knowledge alone.\r\n\r\nWant to become a Gengo translator?<\/strong>\r\n\r\n