In association with: BETA | LOCALISATION FOCUS
The Witcher 2 (above) and StarCraft II (right) demonstrate the potential of thorough localisation and cultural re-appropriation, say those behind the games
INTERNATIONALISING LOCALISATION
Localisation, some will tell you, is but half of the process of globalising contemporary video games. The other half is internationalisation, which, according to the firms who specialise in the practice, is the process of making a single code base locale- independent so the application can be easily localised to other locales with no source code changes. “Another way to put this is that the fundamental logic and processing of how software presents and processes information needs to be adapted so it’s capable of supporting any language, cultural formatting preferences and processing of data – from the user interface on through the rest of the applications parts, such as databases, data processing and reporting,” explains Adam Asnes, CEO of internationalisation firm Lingoport. “Internationalisation always involves changes to the source code, while localisation primarily involves translation of words presented in the user interface or help files. Before localising software, it first needs to be internationalised.” While some companies include the
internationalisation service under the localisation banner, Lingoport has made the practice its specialty.
Top to Bottom: Adam Asnes of Lingoport, Babel’s Richard Leinfeller, VMC Labs’ Chloe Giusti, Localize Direct’s Michael Souto, CD Projekt’s Mikolaj Szwed, Richard van der Giessen of U- Trax, Alpha CRC’s Richard Sturgess, and Xloc’s Stephanie O'Malley Deming
26 | APRIL 2012
tailored monetisation will allow for enormous rewards.” As the success of Facebook in different
territories can prove to be something of a lottery, good localisation decision making can prove essential to the generation of what Peggs calls ‘solid’ return on investment. “I expect the power of the masses all using these social media in their own language will mean an increase in work for localisation agencies,” adds van der Giessen on the matter of the new opportunities in the social space.
“Hopefully it helps to finally destroy this false argument that is used throughout the industry for not localising into small and emerging languages like Dutch, Nordic and Hindi, because ‘they all speak English so well’. Yes, but not when they are being social or enjoying entertainment. Not localising, in other words, is antisocial.” Social gaming also provides localisers with another prospect; namely that of ‘dynamic’ user translations, where a potentially crowd- sourced approach sees translations from the public realm quality assured and managed back into a project.
You need to be smart about what smaller studios need and understand how they work, their priorities, and
their capacities. Chloe Giusti, VMC Labs
It applies to the social space, says Stephanie
O'Malley Deming, co-founder and president of localising specialist Xloc, because in that space “content is constantly being updated and improved, so this seems an inexpensive way for true fans to have an impact on their own gaming experience.” However, the use of what Souto calls ‘player
generated localisation’ must be treated carefully, he warns: “you will need to ensure you have a solid management process as this could get very messy.” However, despite the challenges they
present, it is because platforms such as Facebook boast a popularity and ubiquity worldwide that the number of languages that are now easily within reach to even the smallest studios has greatly expanded. “This has presented new opportunities for localisation, but also many challenges because it is often difficult to find qualified
linguists in languages in markets that were previously less accessible,” states LAI’s president and CEO David Lakritz. “However, the ability to reach those new audiences and interact with them is very exciting.”
NO SMALL MATTER The opportunity for smaller studios to begin localising their games with more reach is certainly a positive development, but it means localisation companies once largely concerned with triple-A games are now having to adapt to meet smaller budgets for studios of a less significant size. “As direct publishing channels continue to open up and grow, self publishing developers need the services of specialised localisation and testing vendors, but the lack of experience and organisation of the localisation process can present challenges for both parties,” admits a frank Day. However, the solutions are already in place
to adapt to that change, believes Richard Leinfellner, CEO of Babel Media. Adapting to suit the needs of smaller studios, he says, can be done “by using technology, by translating smart, and by understanding how to use a client’s budget for maximum return.” “That may mean dropping a few languages
to do others well, because a poor and/or cheap translation across a wider group of languages just gets you lots of unhappy players, there is lots of great content to choose from and the customers can switch providers with a single click,” Leinfellner suggests. “You need to be smart about what smaller studios need and understand how they work, their priorities, and their capacities. As a service provider, we are here to support companies of all shapes and sizes,” adds VMC Labs client solutions executive Chloe Giusti on the matter, who advocates flexibility and efficiency on behalf of the localising service providers looking to work successfully with small developers. “Localisation providers need to be agile and
streamlined,” says Souto in agreement. “There are far more games and people making
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