The Ins and Outs of Localization
Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing well this Friday (which also happens to be Earth Day in America - go green!).
While I’m still working out the new format of my Secret Exit blog, I wanted to share a bit with you about the field I work in, localization. A lot of people have been asking me what localization is and exactly what I do, so I thought I’d clarify that here and add some helpful links for anyone interested in the topic. This is a lengthy post, so bear with me as I try to explain this as best as I can in plain terms.
Localization, essentially, is the process of adapting a foreign translation to make it appropriate for the target audience and intended market. It’s a bit different from translation, which is translating one language into another one. Localization involves knowing the intended market’s cultures, customs, way of speaking and language (casual, formal, etc.), and traditions, among others. Most localization writers and editors were English or Literature majors in college or similar, but this isn’t always the case (case in point: me). I was a Psychology major, but that still comes in handy when needing to understand characters and character development, especially if you’re localizing an RPG (role-playing game). What you really need is an excellent command of the language into which you’re localizing the game. I’m a good writer, and knowing advanced spelling, grammar, and syntax is crucial.
Square Enix is based in Japan; they have offices in Los Angeles, where I work, and London as well. Typically, the games are first translated, then brought over to the American localization team to adapt to fit American culture. So some things in the original Japanese – let’s say, a holiday - might be removed from the American localization because American audiences might not understand it. Or it might be replaced by another holiday that’s more familiar. This happens with character names, food, jokes, items, and locations, to name a few. However, localizers keep the original messages and overall themes of the games intact.
Video game localization is probably the most known localization right now, but it’s not the only one. A lot of things which might not fit into the traditional category of localization fit in as well. Localization is also found in anime (though not always referred to as such) where scriptwriters adapt the translation to make sense for Western audiences. Not everything in the original will transfer over well enough for the target audience to understand, so scriptwriters have to make sure that the rewrites are authentic. You hear a lot of this in the “Sub vs. Dub” arguments that spread throughout the anime community, where some people want the original to be exactly translated from Japanese, and some people want an entirely different adaptation.
Localization isn’t just from Japanese to English, though. Games made in the US also get localized in other countries, such as France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. People who do localization in those countries also have to know the customs and traditions of their intended market. A lot of Western companies have teams that do localization from English to Spanish, for example. There are even more specific localizations that can happen between two languages. For example, a game might be translated from English to Brazilian Portuguese – there’s a specific type of localization that makes more sense for Brazilian Portuguese than European Portuguese. There’s even American English and British English for those who don’t know, so words like “lift” in British English are renamed “elevator” in American English. Or “colour” in British English is spelled “color” in American English.
Localization is still an emerging market in the video game industry. It’s relatively small and unknown compared to other aspects of gaming, including development, marketing, and music, but there’s actually a wealth of information I’ve been able to find online. I actually made myself a “Localization Information” manual that contains a lot of articles, research papers, and fun stuff I found, but here’s a Wikipedia link that also gives you the basics of video game localization without getting too much into the nitty-gritty of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_localization