Getting Localization Quality Assurance (LQA) right for just one game title is a challenging task. But when you multiply that task by all the different languages PTW handles, further multiplied by the number of games per year we work on, the job seems nearly insurmountable. Fortunately, we’ve got Maxim Mizin on our side, and he provides steady, unflappable management for our global stable of studios. Let’s have a look at how he works.

Can you give us a summary of your background and how you got started?

I started in the games industry by following my dream of working at the big game companies that I loved, one of which was Blizzard. I always enjoyed gaming and I always enjoyed languages. That’s how I ended up working as a translator. After spending some time in translation, I noticed I also liked technical stuff – playing through game builds, finding bugs, fixing issues – which led me to Localization QA, and this has been my long-term passion ever since.

Please describe your current role.

As Global LQA Director for PTW, I support our teams in working globally as one big team across our multiple locations. I also focus on providing the best experience for our partners, and helping our teams grow and develop, ensuring that we are continuously improving the way we work and staying up-to-date with new technologies.

What do you see as the key differences between managing relationships with vendors vs. clients?

The key difference between managing client and vendor relationships is the dynamic. When you work on the vendor side, you get much more exposure to different clients. Everybody has different needs and processes that we must adapt to. And it’s our job to adapt to those different requirements, and help our partners solve any problems they might have.

On the developer/publisher side, it’s simpler, at least on the surface – you go to the vendor with what needs to get done, and vendors get it done.

How have you seen the industry evolve?

In the past few years, I’ve seen a lot of change in Localization and LQA in the way that technology is becoming more prominent. There is more machine translation, computer-assisted translation, and other tools that support translation and Localization QA activities.

(You can read more on Maxim’s insights into the benefits of AI & automation for LQA here.)

What’s the difference between good and great LQA?

Definitely the user experience. When you do good LQA, you’re good at finding “black & white” issues and making sure there are no game-breaking issues or errors when the product goes to the customer. When you do great LQA, you make sure the game feels native in the target language. It’s not just the technical issues, it’s also about how you feel as you play the game: does it speak to you? Does it make you feel like it was made for your language, in your language?

What’s the biggest challenge that your LQA teams have had to face?

Being able to gather big teams for a client, for rare languages in a very short amount of time… in 24 hours, for example. We successfully pulled it off, and always manage to find solutions for our partners, but it was a lot of work – ultimately though, it was a great moment of pride for our team.

How do you maintain consistency of quality?

To make quality consistent across our regional teams, there’s a lot of teamwork involved. My job is to connect the teams, make sure they know each other, make sure they talk to each other, and work together to ensure we test in the best ways possible. I empower the teams to have these discussions regularly, to share both with me and with each other the best ways to test and maintain quality. That’s how it works in the end: it’s the people who do the job, they’re the experts. They know how to make it work and you need to give them support to get it done.

Please give an example of a long-term relationship; what were the key factors that made that consistent?

In my experience, maintaining a successful long-term client partnership is about transparency and the information you share. Of course, it’s about getting results, but it’s also about being flexible to client requests, being adaptable to their needs, and really having open communication to keep them informed every step of the way.

What future trends and challenges do you foresee for LQA teams?

That’s an exciting one! It’s all about the rise of AI bringing a new perspective to LQA and Localization in general. We’re going to need to rely on these tools to find faster and more effective results. At the same time, however, I can see the role of LQA changing from someone who acts as a safety net and simply finds issues, to someone who can be like a mixed tester and editor. Not only would they discover issues, but also fix them and tweak the text to ultimately provide a better experience for players.

For teams to adapt to this, we need to be constantly aware of the changes that are happening within our industry. We need to embrace them rather than fight them because I think that’s the future. Technology will always evolve and teams need to adjust to it. And the pace of change is only getting faster and faster.