GDC Localization 2010: Winners and Losers

This post is about the surprising changes that came to light at GDC this year. The spectacular rise of Polish, and the disastrous fall of Spanish and Italian. The inevitable, short-sighted contraction of the language basket was indeed severe, but looks to be recovering.

2010 is a year of recovery for the Games Industry. The Great Recession hit with full force in 2009 and few were spared. Nintendo, home of the all-powerful Wii, was hit with a 40% drop in sales in June 2009. Less well-known, less powerful companies dropped even more.

The games industry reacted. THQ reduced their number of SKU’s (“stock keeping unit”, or the number of game variants released) from 1,200 in 2008 to 600 in 2009. Other companies reacted in similar ways.

Localization is an easy target in these times. Translation is seen as a large upfront cost and, given the gaming industry’s nascent international market, 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 from its famous 10 language expansion in Europe, releasing one AAA title with only three full translations. Sometime in the future, when games will be a truly international market, these “savings” would never even be considered. That day is not here yet.

Bioware’s two AAA titles shipping this year had severely truncated language baskets. Spanish voiceovers were dropped from both titles, effectively removing them from the Spanish market. On the right is a slide taken from the Spanish language presentation at GDC; it tells the story eloquently — and the slide is from a pre-recession year. With 43% unemployment of their young people in 2009, Spain last year was perhaps a market best left alone. Italian voiceover was also dropped from the larger Bioware title, Dragon Age, leaving only French, German and … Polish.

Polish? Really? Yes, absolutely. Poland is the only European economy not to have entered a recession. This new powerhouse for Europe boasts the largest population of former communist nations with 40 million people. And the games market is clearly on the rise here. Poland is one of the few languages that certifies and awards well-done localizations (see the award on the left, hat tip to Rolf Klichewski).

Anecdotal evidence at GDC, and by other measures, things are very much improved now. Sales are going through, new releases are coming out, language expansion is being pursued again. 2010 is certainly shaping up to be an improved year over 2009. Possibly, with a little luck, 2010 may be a standout on its merits.