Gaming localization is designed to serve its target audience: gamers. As in other fields like marketing, the gaming industry is segmented and includes casual games, competitive games, role-playing games and shooter games to name a few. The target audience varies depending on the game segment, which means we make the corresponding adjustments and choose the appropriate translation style for the target end user.

Many games are not based on the real world around us. Whether they take place in a fantasy or science fiction setting or be based in ancient times, there is almost limitless freedom with games to explore completely new worlds. This means translators are often dealing with newly invented content, concepts and words. Our translators need to deliver creative translations that are faithful to the source content, while making appropriate adaptations to ensure it connects with the target market.

Due to the nature of gaming text files where words often appear as orphans without any context, it is sometimes difficult to fully understand the original text and create the best translation. To complete the assignment successfully, we need to have an overall understanding of the game and more in-depth knowledge of certain aspects, such as the GUI, gameplay mechanics and story. Where possible, we actually play the game for a better understanding of the game's content and style. Our translators also actively communicate with you when they have questions and need reference materials for better comprehension.

During the game localization process, we watch out for consistency within the individual project and within the franchise if the game is part of a series. If a previous TM is provided, we can simply follow the existing translations. But if there is no TM, a multifaceted verification is required before a translator determines the target text.

There are many terms and abbreviations specific to gaming, such as "ADC" (attack damage carry/core), "DPS" (damage per second) and "XP" (experience points). There are also words used in our daily lives that have different meanings in the context of gaming, such as a "boss", which in a game refers to a character often found at the end of a level that gamers will find particularly hard to defeat.
We build glossaries and termbases to capture all these specific terms and abbreviations. In terms of localization, we make a judgement call of whether to keep ones that most gamers will be familiar with or localize them if they are not commonly used.

Many games launch without an official Chinese version, so various amateur translation teams composed of game enthusiasts and fans have appeared in China. They publish the localized version of the game for the convenience of Chinese gamers. The Traditional Chinese market in particular has seen more spontaneous formation of these fan translation teams. As professional providers of Simplified Chinese localization, we sometimes find existing translations in gaming forums and other platforms, but we don't copy them indiscriminately or use them extensively because these unofficial translations may damage the company's reputation or result in legal disputes. Furthermore, at the localization stage of development, many games have not been officially released, so the game content is still confidential. We respect your confidentiality agreements and work to avoid any information leaks and ensuing legal problems.