Why Do You Need Professional Gaming Localization Services

What do you think is common among Nokia, Blackberry, and Kodak? They may appear to be world-renowned brands, but besides this similarity, all of them possess a nugatory market share in their respective industries. Expert marketers proclaim that the reason behind their eventual demise was the fact that they did not change their technology with the evolution of technological advancement. Nokia and Blackberry did not adapt to change when smartphones came in. And Kodak did not switch to digital cameras like Sony and Panasonic. Hence, these companies are now not as successful as they once used to be.

So the analysis we can draw from this notion is that success is a tale of constant adaptation, change, and revision. Henceforth, every organization needs to abide by this concept. Similarly, the global gaming industry has also evolved in the past decade or so. There were times back in 2000 when games were sold in only one language. And the ones that were translated became a symbol of amusement for the world because the translations were so poor and inaccurate.

One example that comes to mind is “Zero Wing”. In this particular game, there was a famous sentence that went by the words; “All of your bases are now under control”. And this sentence was translated from Japanese to English as “All your base is belong to us”. As you can see the level of work that was done was extremely poor as no significant notice was given to the translation process.

Since that time, a lot has changed. And so has the gaming localization services. Dozens of video games are being created by organizations to penetrate foreign markets. And penetration cannot be successful until and unless you localize your content.

So the real question is why do you need professional video game translation services in the first place? Let’s review some aspects that

Boost in Sales

People usually assume that translating your content into English is the only good option when it comes to localization. This is not an accurate assumption because the English language accumulates to only 26-30% of the entire gaming market. Hence, if you decide to translate your language only into English, you would be covering only a small segment of the gaming industry.

Therefore if you want to boost your sales, you have to localize your game into more languages and that’s where you need gaming translation services. There are a lot of popular languages, particularly in the gaming industry. These include French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Chinese.

Translating your games into these languages will not only endorse your game but will automatically increase your sales and market share. Because if more and more people are downloading your game, the sales will be emboldened as well. This is a huge motivational factor for game producers, who are always looking for a fair return on their investments. Hence, if they understand that translating games or localizing them will exponentially double or even triple their returns, they will never think about it twice.

Many businessmen question the causes that lead to an increase in sales post localization solutions. The answer to this query is that people tend to enjoy games that are in their language. Regardless of how much proficiency you possess in the English language, gamers from Asian countries, like Pakistan and China would prefer to play a game that is in their language. And the same is the case with gamers in other European countries.

More Creative Control

One reason that signifies the need for professional gaming language services is that you have more control over your game. The translation process is very delicate and may break or make your video game’s reputation. When you are translating the game’s content, you have the power to make the message more effective or impactful in another language.

The game that might show mediocrity in the original version, can become more popular in another language. This has happened among many Japanese games, which have become more famous after being localized in the European and the American Market.

So what happens when you localize your game is that you get to have complete creative control over the localization process. Hence, your decision can change the entire customer experience for the good or the bad. And that’s your choice to make.

The best way to enhance your customer’s experience for the good is to avail of the services of a professional gaming translation agency. If you partner up with them, your entire decision-making process would become more effective and efficient.

The first thing that gaming language services do is help you save a lot of money. Once the money is saved and used smartly, it helps you become more efficient by saving your time as well. This saved time can then be given to some other important work that requires more energy and resources.

Moreover, you also get an opportunity to get customer feedback from natives language speakers of other countries. This not only gives you a new perspective but helps you to identify things that can make your game more customer-friendly. And by using this feedback you can enter another market with fewer errors.

Market Share

In this world of capitalism, the free market prevails. Everyone has the freedom to compete for the market share in their respective industries. One has to be competitive if he wants a bigger piece of the pie.

Similarly, with technological evolution and globalization, the gaming industry has become extremely competitive as well. And if developers want to compete in the global arena they have to bring something to the table that their competitors aren’t. Compromising content quality is completely unacceptable.

Because content quality enables you to occupy a wider audience and market share. Moreover, you have to sustain this quality for your global audience and not just for a particular market. So the question is what can be done to reach a wider audience. We have already established the notion that you need to localize your video game to reach the international market.

The international market is filled with developers who are fiercely competing against each other to occupy a wider market share. Over 5 million gaming apps are available in the app store, which proves that the competition is real. And if you want to grasp some of that market share, you need to differentiate your video game by localizing it.

So what localizing will do is that it will give you a competitive edge, or simply put, a point of difference that will embolden you to stand out from the crowd rather than standing with it. And if you can stand out, you will eventually get a higher market share as well. But if you don’t, your business will not break even, and unfortunately, you will never be able to expand your business.

Customer-Oriented Approach

Every content creator has to keep his consumer or target audience in mind when he creates a product or service. Organizations that do not follow a customer-centric approach, cannot sustain their business in the long run. However, there are some businesses in which you have no choice, but to opt for a customer-oriented approach. And video gaming localization is one of them.

In the process of localization, you have to keep your customers in front of you. You need to realize that primarily everything you do with your game fits perfectly well with your audience. And to do that successfully, you need to understand the culture, beliefs, interests, and demographics of your target market. If you can do that successfully, the process of game localization will fulfill its purpose. The customer will be able to relate to your game more and understand its context and intended meanings. And if the customer starts doing that, your game would become popular.

Why do you think game developers spend millions of dollars on graphics and customer interfaces? The sole purpose of these endeavors is to increase customer experience in hopes to ameliorate customer satisfaction. Gamers switch from one game to another in an attempt to find a better experience; something that gives them the excitement they crave for. A Gaming translator can understand this perfectly well. Hence, he attempts to translate dialogues in such a way that the user can understand the reference and enjoy the gameplay. Moreover, they try to create a story and its characters in such a way that the user can understand them and ultimately keep on playing.

Conclusion

The end goal and mission of every organization is to earn profits so that they can pay off their investments. However, the aim is also to create an amazing customer experience that enables them to fulfill that end goal.

This article establishes the fact that professional gaming language services can expand your business to its maximum potential. And ultimately help your video game to reach a broader market.

The aim over here is not just to penetrate foreign markets, but to do it successfully and effectively. Hence, it is not an easy process, as some people might think it to be. A lot of time, effort, and resources are required to achieve that goal. Thereby, only professional gaming localization services can do the job for you.

Opting for gaming best translation services will give you a boost in sales. Something that every gaming organization wants is to increase the number of downloads for their application. Moreover, localization gives you more creative control and a chance to make the game user-friendly and customer-centric. Therefore, do not think twice if you want to localize your video game as it will be the best decision you ever make.