Game Localization Business
In this post, you can find the four primary slides created for our GDC presentation on the business of games localization.
The biggest take-away from these slides is that localization is still in its early days. Companies are still relying too heavily on their home language markets. Between 20% and 30% of publisher income is from localized SKUs. Only relatively small parts of the world speak English or Japanese. Truly global companies will need to embrace the world more fully.
For an example, I’d look to Hollywood’s most recent blockbuster, Avatar. With some $700+ million in US revenues, the film has made of $2.5 billion worldwide. That is a close fit for the market graph at the top of this page. Avatar represents a truly international endeavor, and one which should be emulated by the major publishers in our industry.
These slides are free to use with attribution to Apogee Communications. If you want to see the underlying data, please email us. Click on any slide to see or download the full size image.
Sources of this data are:
Nintendo, Annual Report 2009, Kyoto Audit Corporation auditors. June 26, 2009.
Electronic Arts, Annual Report (Form 10-K) 2009. KPMG auditor. May 21, 2009.
Activision/Blizzard, Annual Report (Form 10-K) 2008. PricewaterhouseCoopers auditor. Feb. 27, 2009.
Konami, Annual Report (Form 20-F) 2009. KPMG auditor. July 31, 2009.
Square Enix, Annual Report 2009. Ernst & Young auditors. July 2009.
Take-Two Interactive, Annual Report (Form 10-K) 2009. Ernst & Young auditor. Dec. 18, 2009.
THQ, Inc., Annual Report (Form 10-K) 2009. Deloitte & Touche auditor. May 22, 2009.
Capcom, Annual Report 2009. PricewaterhouseCoopers auditor. August 5, 2009.
GDP Market Data from Economic Research Services, USDA, 2007.
Quebec GDP Data from Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, Nov. 2008
[...] sales are dwarfed by the vast English language market (or substantial Japanese market), as seen here. Fully 82% of Take Two’s income is derived from English language SKU’s. EA cut back [...]
[...] non-English (or Japanese) speaking customer base. That non-E, non-J base is significant now (see here), and will only grow with [...]