The Greatest Gaming Translation Fails

Gaming is an industry that might be relatively new, but it hardly took a few years to become the giant it is now. In fact, it’s also an industry that has led the way in many areas. Localization is one such area. Gaming has been busy with localization way before other industries caught on to it.

So, being a senior in the localization game, the gaming industry definitely has a lot to offer. You see, not all of gaming’s localization success stories were the result of smart research and strategizing. A lot of the learning happened through trial and error.

These failures may be specific to the industry, but there are definitely lessons in here for all of us. So, let’s look at some of the most common and greatest gaming localization failures and apply the lessons learned to our own respective industries.

Hardcoding Text

An expensive mistake that gaming companies often make would be hardcoding text into their core game files. This would include something like the menu, dialogue, or title. Developers would fail to consider that their game could just end up not appealing to foreign markets because of this. Hardcoded elements are hard to get rid of when you’re trying to localize the game into a new language.

Of course, the industry eventually picked up on this and started including variables in standalone resource packages.

The lesson other industries can learn from this is that they need to think ahead and stay flexible. You never know what kind of market you might be entering in the next ten years or so. So, make sure everything you do is change-friendly.

Compromising on Translation Quality

This is something we discuss every now and then and there’s no harm in bringing it up again. This is a very valuable lesson for every business that’s localizing.

Never compromise on the quality of your translation.

This only ends up snowballing into a bigger problem down the line. So, you’re going to end up spending more resources than originally intended just to get rid of the issues that could have been avoided at the start.

Always focus on accuracy right from step 1. This includes everything from choosing the right translation tools to even the right translation provider.

The last thing you need is to start everything all over again. Of course, that’s still better than actually releasing the project and risking the end of everything. But, as they say, a stitch in time saves nine.

Hiring the Right Translation Teams

Context is a major factor to be considered in gaming localization. So, it has always been a basic requirement for gaming translators to understand the game and truly learn what it is about.

Of course, things didn’t just fall into place in the gaming industry. They had to learn things the hard way too.

In the early years of gaming localization, it was common for developers to just deliver spreadsheets filled with text to their translators and assume everything would be okay. But, the only thing that happened was the results would be a complete failure. This is because the translation teams had no context to work with.

Eventually, developers realized their error and started offering translators a look at their games, even allowing them to go through the gameplay and everything. This allowed them to understand what the game was all about and what the core message being conveyed was. Attention was paid to terms, styles, visuals, etc.

So, what’s the lesson here?

Well, the lesson here is that context is important and if you want translators to do a good job, give them everything they would ideally need.

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