Why Games Localization?

Nowadays it's very easy to have access to games on multiple platforms, such as mobile, PC, online and social media which are easily reached by millions of people.
Part of the entertainment for the gamers is to have the game originally developed from a cultural context. If you are producing your game in just your own language/culture, you might be losing big segments of potential fans!
Addressing the gamers in their native language,  will add a credibility layer and will encourage more gamers to download and play the game, especially that you are in need to conquer all segments. This in turn creates game localization potential needs. Games Localization is an easy way to please your customer and accordingly reach wider markets and people.
Determining the markets to localize to, games producers are required to understand the market needs; culture, language, preoccupation, talks, ….etc. to decide if their games can be acceptable in this market or not. , the more you dig deeply in each culture, the more your localized game would fit that market and sell. For example; you can expect a huge success in the Middle East for Car racing games. Thus, the more languages covered, the more happy users will play your game in each and every culture.
  

It is worth it!

Companies that focus on specific market and address it with its native languages reduce the risk of spending money on localization or even avoid the market challenges. However, this is not 100% work for the entertainment industry, especially for games. According to Newzoo  Global Games Market Report, the number of gamers worldwide will rise from 1.21 billion this year to 1.55 billion. Mobile gaming will grow at an average annual rate of 19% for smartphones and 48% for tablets, grossing $13.9bn and $10.0bn in 2016 respectively. Combined, they will take a 27.8% share of the global market, up almost ten percent points compared to this year.

 ​Global Games Market Statistics
Global Games Market infographic


Source:  https://newzoo.com/


Get Ready!

If you want to go global - then it's Games Localization time. The Translation and Localization are the key to your market investment and breaking the language barrier is the tool for reaching out more users. So, you have to be proactive from the development phase to make sure that your game can be multilingual and localizable.
These are some of the good ways to prepare for localizations at the initial development stages, so you can make it easier and ready for localization:

         - Make sure your text strings are all stored outside of code
         - Understand the different language alignment (text, layout)
         - Make variable fonts to fit your target language (type, style, size, character…etc.)

If you have any question about the Games Localization, we will  be happy to continue the discussion.