Kotaku: Localization

Poorly-Dubbed Trailer Lands Uncharted 3 in Trouble with Brazilians

Owen Good — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 11:00:00 EDT

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As English-speakers, we take for granted a lot of things: One, that every game will either be originally published in our language or localized for it (and woe betide those that aren't...) Two: That the voice acting, if incompetent, will at least sound poorly acted and not read off a page. More »

Localizing Exclamations In Final Fantasy XIII

Radek Koncewicz — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:00:00 EDT

"Gnhhh!" ... "Whhhhaaaah!" ... "Bah….ah...gahhhhhh"... "Hmmmf!"... "Ehiehhh" ... "Mhaemm!".. These grunts, sighs, squeals and miscellaneous other vocalizations compose roughly 1/4 of the dialogues in the early hours of Final Fantasy XIII. More »

Swastika Gets Wolfenstein Pulled from German Shelves

Owen Good — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:40:00 EDT

Nazi imagery is a big nein-nein in Germany, and the localized version of Wolfenstein was supposed to have removed all of it. A small swastika slipped through, and Activision is said to be recalling the game from shelves there. More »

World of Warcraft is Back Online in China

Owen Good — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EDT

After a two month hiatus, World of Warcraft has resumed full operations in China, where a switchover in local operators had been held up by government regulators and content changes. More »

UK Scribblenauts Has Ice Lollies And Nappies

Mike Fahey — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:20:00 EDT

UK Scribblenauts buyers won't have to fuss with our quaint colonial terms, with developer 5th Cell going out of their way to make sure that no one confuses football with football. More »

Codemasters Fills Russia With Love

Mike Fahey — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:40:00 EST

Times have sure changed from when I was a kid. Back when I was growing up, Russia was an evil empire hell bent on my country's destruction, but now I've grown up, and the rest of the world has grown up, and Russia is just another big area filled with potential gamers. Gamers Codemasters is planning on catering to as they announce full Russian language localization for three of their biggest titles - Rise of the Argonauts, Damnation, and Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising. More »

Eternal Sonata's Localization Producer Talks PS3 Changes

Mike Fahey — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:20:00 EDT

One of the coolest things about the Official PlayStation Blog is when they let the people who worked on the games post their thoughts on the process. Take today's posting by Stephanie Fernandez, the localization producer on Namco Bandai's Eternal Sonata for the PlayStation 3, which upon release this week will be the best damn RPG on the system (yeah, yeah). In the post she goes over some of the bigger changes in the PS3 version from a localization perspective, exploring the new story elements and the challenges presented with recording battle voices for the two new playable characters, Crescendo and Serenade, before they actually had any footage of them fighting. More »

The Export Problem: East to West Localization, Collaboration

Maggie Greene — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:30:00 EDT

With a quickly expanding domestic games market, and more companies thinking of making the leap to Western markets, Asian companies are facing some serious issues in the next few years: competition to become gaming 'hubs' for foreign companies, how to localize for foreign markets (something Japanese companies have historically done well, but in other areas, companies are lagging), how to keep up with a big, demanding market. ZDNet took a look at a few of the issues currently facing Asian games companies. On the issue of dealing with Western companies looking to make an entrance into the Asian market, there was this to say: More »

First Wow, Now Age of Conan: Russian Faints From Excitement

Brian Crecente — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT

If Russia were a 5-year-old boy wearing overalls he'd be jumping up and down right now laughing hysterically, waving his over-sized lollipop about in glee. (Yes, that's how I picture Russia) More »

CD Projekt Adds Polish To Age Of Conan

Mike Fahey — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:20:00 EDT

The company behind the PC RPG The Witcher is taking another stab at the swords and sorcery gig as Funcom announces a fully localized Polish release for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures to be handled by CD Projekt, due out in the second half of 2008. The Polish developer, publisher, and distributor will handle the localization and running of the game, including customer service, in-game support, websites and the game's community, while Funcom handles the back end. Age of Conan will be the first subscription RPG to be fully localized in Polish. Says Michał Kiciński, joint CEO of CD Projekt:

"We are committed to providing a new level of game experience through the use of local game masters, community managers and customer support. For years we have waited for the right MMO game to come along and now it is here, in our hands."

CD Projekt has worked with Funcom in the past, localizing and distributing The Longest Journey, and also localized the Baldur's Gate series and Planescape: Torment. I'm liking this company more every minute. More »

The Translation Game: Localization Strategies

Maggie Greene — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:00:00 EDT

Danc of Lost Garden has a lengthy post up on the localization process, most importantly the 'translation game,' and how to use game design and techniques to more easily export games to foreign places: More »

Check Out Game Localizer's Toy Robots in Washington D.C.

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:00:25 EST

Hey people who live near Washington D.C.! There's a groovy exhibition over at The Kennedy Center called, "Japan! Culture + Hyper Culture." It features things like music, anime, fashion, blah, blah, blah. Sorta exciting! Know what's really exciting? It feature toy robots from the collection of video game localizer Matt Alt. Check the exhibit out if you're in the area. It wraps up this weekend. More »

Localization, Korean Style

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 10:00:03 EDT

Improved localization shows one thing: The maturing of a market. In the early days of console gaming in the West, Japanese games often arrived riddled with funny English, grammar errors and misspellings. Those days are all but gone. Korea, where PC gaming rules, has recently turned an increased eye towards console gaming. Voice actor Kang Soo-jin, who voices Shu in the localized Blue Dragon, says: More »

Mobile Games: Fun With Translations

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 07:00:20 EST

Pocketgamer (via GameSetWatch) has a look at bad translations in mobile gaming. While bad localization in console titles is pretty much a thing of the past, the same isn't true for cell phone ones thanks to low budgets. Take this line from Magnetic Joe: More »

The Overlooked PSP Game

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:20:00 EST

It's a crapshoot, really. Some cool games get English localization. Some bad ones get it. Other never do, staying forever out of most Westerner's hands. While tiny percentage of really neat titles already with loads of English never get a US/Euro release. More »

Twilight Princess Dungeon and Length Details

fdemarco — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 16:20:50 EST

Let's face it gamers, no matter what gender or sexual orientation, we all want to know one thing about an upcoming game. How big is it? This intimate question was put to two of Nintendo of America's game localization guys, Nate Bihldorff and Bill Trinen about the highly anticipated Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. More »

Japan Wants Oblivion... In Japanese!

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:24:20 EDT

Whenever Japan gets some exclusive title, the rest of the world sits around waiting patiently for an English localization. Sometimes, we get it, sometimes, we don't. Japanese 360 owners can totally relate. An unlocalized NTSC-J version of the smash hit RPG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has gone on sale in Japan. A petition has been created (with over 250 entries), begging game maker Bethesda for a Japanese language localization. C'mon Bethesda, make this happen and throw these players a bone. There's nothing worse than not being able to play through something because of a language barrier. Brian Ashcraft More »

Make Contact... In English

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:22:07 EDT

Earthbound-like RPG Contact for the DS is odd. It should be. The game is courtesy crazy Japanese game studio Grasshopper Manufacture, who also brought us Killer7. The game is getting English localization thanks to publisher Atlus. Game site Siliconera talked with Tomm Hulett, the game's localization director: More »

Yakuza English Dub? Criminally Bad F*ck Up

Michael McWhertor — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 14:28:46 EDT

When the Yakuza voice cast was announced I was depressed—well, as depressed as one can justifiably be when learning of a potentially bad dub for a video game. Enlisting a handful of B-minus acting talent filled my head with awkward, phoned-in performances from an all anglo cast doing their worst Japanese gangster impression. Since Sony—not to mention the gross majority of Western PS2 owners—would never go for a subtitled localization with the original Japanese language track intact, we're stuck with, well, shit. More »

Interview With Brain Age Localization Team

brownlee — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 14:40:17 EDT

As previously discussed, the disembodied, brain-munching head of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima compels us to post a couple of Brain Age tidbits every day, lest his bicuspids crunch through our occipital lobe and suck out the gooey filling inside. So here's some more Brain Age fever on Kotaku! More »

Interview: The Localization Team of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

lsmith — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 16:42:03 EDT

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Localization: The process of making a game developed in another country/language retain its cultural relevance and storyline in the country it's being shipped to. More »