Localization
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Five Reasons to Consider Localization
Within the global village, customers have unprecedented access to content from all around the world. To get noticed, your product has to do more than stand out. It has to shine. And there’s no better way to shine than speaking to people in their own language, in a way that fits with their culture and customers. To stay ahead of your competition, and win, you have to be brilliant. But you also have to be real—and native level game localization can help you achieve that.
Here are the top 5 ways localization can help engage your players, and boost your business:
Your market is only as big as you make it, and focusing only on English can be tremendously limiting. Making sure you get maximum market coverage is one of the biggest factors in increasing your sales and reaching a wider audience.
Little things can make a big difference when it comes to inspiring players and retaining their loyalty. Even the smallest spelling mistake, grammatical error, or mistranslation in your promotional content can erode their belief in your game. Players are fickle, and with so many options to choose from, it’s more important than ever to protect their trust in your brand and your game. Native-level localization can help you make sure you get everything right, every time.
Avoiding embarrassing translation issues and copyright infringement should be a priority for every company. And yet, you don’t have to look far to find news items and articles about awkward translations or offensive connotations within global marketing campaigns. These slip-ups can range from an amusing altered meaning, to a serious legal issue—which is why understanding the impact and importance of accuracy in translation and culturalization is integral to the value of localization.
Releasing your game in a limited number of
languages can limit your sales figures, too. English may be spoken around the
world, but relying on this market means you will be overlooking many others.
And while Spanish has even more native speakers than English, if you only
consider localization in European Spanish, you’re missing out on appealing
directly to the huge Latin American market.
It’s another great reason why game localization is
so important. From the outside, a translation may seem to be “good enough”—but
to those who know, it truly isn’t. Your game needs to be more than just
understandable to your players: it should also be native and beautifully
localized.
Many businesses are treating localization as the
integral step it should be. That’s why it’s now even more important for your
business to do the same.
If a player is making a choice between two games, and one is localized to their
language, it’s highly likely they’ll choose the localized option. It’s that
simple.