Video Game Localization // Which Languages to Translate Game to

Video game localization is a great way to increase the reach of your game and increase player satisfaction. But which languages should you translate your game to? In this video I will first go through what the common advice is. I will then take a look at my own sales data and give my opinion on the matter.

Mortal Glory on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1097530/Mortal_Glory/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RedbeakGames

Why you should localize your game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A15n8lrpHo

0:00 Intro
1:26 Which Languages to Translate Game to

The most common advice is to start with EFIGS. That stands for English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. The reason for this advice is that these 5 languages are used in rich countries that have active gaming communities. Many of these countries also have habits of dubbing their entertainment content so a lot of people are used to consuming content in their own language.

After EFIGS it’s usually CJK that’s recommended. That stands for Chinese, Japanese and Korean. These countries have massive gaming communities but are not very proficient with English so it makes sense to translate to those languages also.

After EFIGS and CJK, it’s usually Russian ja Brazilian Portuguese that are suggested due to their size and presence in gaming communities.

Those are pretty much all the ones that are commonly suggested. You can always add support for other languages also, but on average they will most likely have a marginal impact compared to the ones I mentioned.

One good general tactic for choosing languages could also be to take a look at EF’s English Proficiency Index and see which countries understand English the least. With your localization efforts, you ideally want to target countries that have a combination of low proficiency of English but have a lot of people who love to play games and have enough disposable income to buy those games.

5:23 Mortal Glory Localization Numbers

Mortal Glory is available in 12 languages. All the ones I mentioned earlier plus Finnish and Polish. Maybe you are interested in seeing what kind of an impact they had on my sales? My numbers are just one example and they won’t give the objective truth but they do give some indication what kind of results you might get with your own localization efforts and what languages you should focus on.

I go into more details in the video, but basically after localization, Chinese sales had a huge increase, going from 3% of units sold to 24% of units sold. Japanese sales had the second biggest increase, going from 0% to 5% in units sold. For other languages it’s a bit harder to tell the difference as the numbers are quite low. Most of the translations probably had a positive impact, but not a big one.

If I look at my sales now from the last 3 months, the top 3 countries are US (37% units), China (14% units) & Japan (6% units).

9:36 My Opinion

If the cost factor is not budget breaking, I would go with EFIGS, CJK, Russian and Brazilian Portugese.

In my case some of the translations might not have been worth the time and money individually if we are looking just at their placement on my sales list. But I got most of them for a low price at the same time as I was adding the other languages so I wouldn’t leave them out even if I could go back in time. I think there’s also some variance involved in which languages end up affecting the sales, so the situation might be different for my next game.

But, if you are tight on money… Then I would definitely prioritize the CJK part first, starting with Chinese. At least in my case there’s no doubt at all that the Chinese localization was by far the most profitable one.

Source