Everything About Game Localization and Translation in Singapore

From childhood, you might be playing several games on your mobile or PC, but do you know how games designed outside Asia becomes understandable in Asia as well? It’s all because of the right game localization process. Developing the game is not the kid’s stuff instead, it’s a big business. The reason behind the gaming industry’s success globally is localizing content marketing. The concerned game developers enable its gaming content to run in the global market and get success quickly.

The global gaming industry is continually booming and is expected to reach greater heights in 2020, even during the pandemic. As per the report, it has been exceeded $159 billion, which means it increased 4.8 % from the last year.

The year 2020 was the record-making year for all the video gaming industry out there. At the same time, several other sectors have been negatively impacted, but the video game industry is still booming and reaching greater heights. The sales of gaming products are reaching higher levels.

The conclusion of all the results means that going global for all the gaming industry can allow the gaming developers to earn a good profit margin and achieve success in the future. However, nothing can be better than providing a game localization process to the non-English-speaking countries to enjoy playing their favorite game without any hassle.

In short, the conversion of language is important even for the gaming industry to achieve success globally. So now let us have a check on what you should know about video game localization, gaming localization, its process etc.

What is Game Localization?

Game localization is defined as the process of changing video games into different foreign languages to make them understandable for the user. No doubt, while getting the game’s translation, it might give birth to specific limitations like vocabulary from one culture to another. This is where the need for localization arises as it provides the more accurate language translation because a professional localization team considers each culture during localization work.

Localization is the broader concept, comes with a number of obstacles and challenges. The game localizers are required to fulfil the expectation of the target audience in order to become successful in future. The right game localizer is required to choose the right tone, staying consistent with the original version. The extra attention needs to be given to the traditions, slang, target culture, and most commonly used terms worldwide at the same time also respecting the story and intention of the game.

That is why it is suggested that a reliable translator needs to be invisible. But, on the other hand, a good localization must sound natural and provide the original message without leaving a trace.

What is Singapore Games Association (SGGA)?

Singapore Games Association (SGGA) was founded in the year 2020 in order to take over the role of primary trade Association to contribute to the Singapore gaming industry. The primary motive behind taking over the primary trade Association is to support the Singapore gaming industry growth across the local ecosystem while focusing on the esports sectors and game development, considering the target audience’s expectations.

The Singapore gaming Association is planning to represent the Singapore gaming industry globally and looking to form a bridge with the international gaming community in order to explore a number of opportunities for all the members.

The Singapore gaming Association is supported by the Enterprise Singapore, Singapore Tourism Board, and Infocomm media development Authority.

Why do you need game localization?

• Irrespective of how attractive and perfect the graphics and pixel of your game cover is. If the game doesn’t specify the interactive story behind it, then there are chances that your game will not get expected attention from the public.
• This is a new generation where the entertainment option is limited to streaming movies and reading books. In today’s generation, the video game is one of the major and most used options, especially in teens for entertainment purposes. However, today teens are the target consumers of tomorrow. In case you wish your game to reach a larger audience and keep running and achieving success in the 2030s, then it’s your responsibility to provide the expected game to your audience. A digital generation wishes to experience immersion into the virtual world to feel the amazing experience from the comfort of the home in every video game they play. One of the essential things that need to be considered is localization.
• Most advanced technology games become successful because gamers usually relate those games with the virtual world, which are sufficient to experience the virtual world directly from the comfort of the home created by the developers.
• For example, suppose a video game is based on European mythology. This type of game will never succeed in Asia unless the video game is not properly localized, as gamers will not be aware of the legends and will not understand the scenario behind the game.
• Once the game is successfully localized, the original version of the game will undergo major changes, allowing the new version to become successful in a foreign language and make sure it is relevant to the native speaker. However, localization does not mean just the script; it’s all about the major changes in the complete interface.
• Based on the language you translate the game into, you will require to leave lots of space for time formats, dialogues, introducing different measurement units, or adding symbols and special characters.

What are the benefits of video game translation?

One of the most amazing benefits of video game translation is that it increases the brand and product exposure and enables it to reach a larger audience and allow the developer to earn a huge profit margin from it. More exposure means greater customers, more downloads, more publicity, and higher rankings in the competitive market.

Additionally, opting to go with the skillful localization team. You will get access to the upper hand in-game as professionals ensure that you receive the top-notch quality under your budget.

If you have sent your product to someone else for translation, then its quality doesn’t rest in the safe hands as it might also affect the brand image.

If you consider video game translation from the gamers’ point of view, then localization is one of the most beneficial things. However, the localization of the game allows your game to explore to the greater audience and develop their own brand, which might be difficult if the gaming characters are not familiar with other languages, which is non-understandable.

What’s Video Game Localization?

Video game localization is one of the most reliable tools for making your gaming products successful globally. In order to acquire maximum exposure and generate revenue at the same time, the gaming product needs to be loved by as many customers as possible, for which you will require your gaming products to be translated into the most popular languages.

The gaming localization work tends to be successful when the users are unable to identify that the game was originally designed in English, Polish, Spanish, or Japanese. As opposed to what it may look like, the reliable localization is the one that the user doesn’t usually pay attention to (as most of the time, users shuffle on the speech characteristics that might affect the game immersion).

An inexperienced user might take translation and localization process is just a kind of translation, but for the video game, it is much more than that. However, it’s all about linguistics, understanding the gaming world, language complexity of both target and source language and linguistics. This is why assigning the game localization process to professionals is always worth every penny.

Internet is a growing sensation, packed with several high-quality video games being introduced every day. Basically, there are two types of video gamers’ in the world. The one who plays just for the graphics and the other one for the interactive story behind the game. For both the players, localization is everything.

What does localization mean in video games?

Game localization is an industry that might look like it is a bit different from several other common translation industries like marketing and promotion translation. However, it’s all about providing the translation of the elements of the product, the promotion involved in it and its packaging. But in this case, the product is a video game. In the situation of the user manual, for example (suppose the physical version of the game which is entirely disappeared), it’s obvious that game localization it is very precise and clear because it contains some most common condition of use, not to include any legal content which can only be mentioned upon the order of the law.

Game Localization Process

A game localization process is a multifaceted, complex activity that requires many different skills to be successful. This blog post will give an overview of the most important steps in this process and how they are completed.

UI Content Extraction

The very first step involved in the game localization processes is extracting the linguistic content from the user interface. This process is done at the coding level or scrapping screens using the most advanced UI extraction technologies.

Translation

After that, the extracted portion of the localization process needs to be systematically or exactly translated. This is because of the possible correction in the linguistic and gaming character counts as well as several other design considerations involved in the localization process. The same process is used for the substantial and Voiceover as well.

Testing & Validation

In the process of gaming localization, nothing can be underestimated. Therefore, every local version of the gaming localization process needs to be verified and tested considering the highest standard of quality assurance and software validation.

Delivering

Now the final step involved in the gaming localization process is delivering the game. It’s celebration time now. However, it is the final stage of the localization process, which includes separating the gaming content, packaging and marketing materials for every target language, and the documentation.

Common Language Services for Gaming

Here are some of the most common language services for gaming are as follows:

Technical Translation

In order to make your game successful globally, the requirement of Technical translation arises. The primary reason behind the preparation of the technical documents is the commitment of the mother-tongue linguists equipped with device and software professionals to make sure that each item involved in the game is entirely described.

Audio Production & Voiceover

Background music, sound effects, and voicing play a vital role in the success of virtually every game. The important component involved in the process is recording voiceovers, subtitling, translating and customization of each target language involved. Professional translators make sure that every game conveys friendly language in accordance with the audience in perfect pitch.

Website Localization

Gamers usually focus on playing, but the more crucial thing involved in the gaming process is the social media pages and websites that allow the developer to do the marketing and sales of the product to gain more audience. A reliable translator always plays a vital role in creating multilingual pages every time that every gamer understands the product’s language and meets the audience’s expectations.

UI/UX Localization

User experience and user interface are some of the key considerations that every gaming manufacturer should consider. A good translation service provider will be well aware of these localizations. That’s why it is essential to invest in the right service provider to ensure that every word and character appearing in the game is in the right form, fitting completely in the form of correct meaning and proper graphical requirements so that the user is never disappointed with the designs. In this way, both developers and gamers are entirely satisfied with the game.

Marketing Translation

Once the title of the game is completed, then the intensive marketing work starts. A reliable service provider conducts the right marketing campaign in multiple markets and languages. However, if you assign marketing translation to someone else, it might affect your game marketing. That’s why all the developers need to choose the right service provider who can provide marketing campaigns of the highest level of quality at a cost-effective price.

QA & Testing

Transcription is one of the terms specially used by the marketing and advertising professionals concerning the alteration of media and documents from its source language to foreign languages at the same time maintaining the style, context, tone, and intent.

Specificities about game localization

The localization of gaming procedures is somewhat different from several other processes of adapting the software. The gaming industry has its separate uniqueness; this is because games integrate several different media, including audio, text, graphics and video. The localization of the games requires attention to the narrative and laws of the other countries.

The primary intention of localizing the game is to specify that the game was designed mainly for a particular market. Therefore, it will be a perfect thing that the localizer and linguist of the gamers should also be experienced gamers to understand the players’ minds completely.

The video game content and related things need to undergo testing and verification by considering the different aspects like different space that requires each language (for example, the German language requires extra space for the words when compared to English). However, the assisting translator must be aware of the source language, profound language and the target language along with some of the specific cultural attitudes.

The current situation of the Game Localization market

The current situation of the game localization market is consistently growing, as the motive behind it is that the video industry is trying to be ahead of all other entertainment sectors across the globe. With the help of localization, several different products of the video gaming industry can be obtained in the new market. The primary aim of the game localization is to provide several users with equal gaming experience and sensation irrespective of the culture or location of the targeted audience. The major concept of localization is to be true to the source material.

During the pandemic time, the video game demand suddenly increased to a greater extent, and this is expected to continue in the near future. For all these reasons, each game development Company needs to focus on quality and be ahead and expand their gaming industry to the international market. For the global presence, localization is mandatory.

Choose our certified translators for Translating SGGA documents

After reading the above article on the game localization process and some of the important details associated with it, the information above is sufficient enough to let you understand the complete localization process and its importance in making your gaming business successful globally.

Along with this, if you need any assistance regarding gaming document translation service online or any other related assistance, then quickly connect with a Singapore translator. Our translator team is equipped with expertise in digital entertainment from AR / VR software and the latest game devices. Moreover, our team has the capability to translate Chinese text into English without changing the actual tone, context and meaning of the text.