GDC 2011 is over and it’s time to take stock. One of the over-riding impressions of the Conference is the massive change going on in the business of games. Some 90% of industry revenue currently comes from the sale of packaged product: consoles and licensed- or first- party titles for them. The remaining 10%...
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Today we are launching Apogee’s Translator Certification Program. Apogee will query, test and research all applicants to determine their quality of translation and ability to communicate with clients and colleagues. These translators are the best of the best. Publishers can feel assured that their valuable properties are being well taken care of in the...
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The election results are in, and I will be taking the only available non-incumbent seat on the IGDA Localization Steering Committee. The term for the seat is two years. Stephanie graciously conceded yesterday morning in a public email. I look forward to meeting her for the first time at the Summit coming in late...
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The presentation at LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association, see here) went very well. In the participant feedback forms, my presentation was ranked #1, and only one of the plenary sessions (from HP) ranked higher than mine. Pretty good! Personally more important, this was my first trip to China in 21 years. My first localization...
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The Buzz presentation at the end of the Summit was the most energetic of the day. It was given by Vanessa Wood (SCEE – publisher), Sophie Krauss (Relentless Software – developer) and Fabio Ravetto (Binari Sonori – language vendor). Like most of the Americans in the audience, I did not know anything about Buzz....
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We all watched while Bioware gave us the in’s and out’s of how they handle large RPG localization. Two titles in one year with a total of just less than 1.5 million words. Wow! And they did a great job. (A Japanese version of the presentation is available here.) Now, let’s switch gears. Imagine...
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The Economist reports today that the videogame industry had a very mild recession in 2009, with strong indications that growth is now firmly back on track. The article appears here (subscription required) and draws heavily from statistics by Piers Harding-Rolls of the Game Intelligence division of Screen Digest. Relevant points are below. There were...
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Victor Alonso Lion and Diana Díaz Montón gave perhaps the most useful presentation of the day with their Localizing for the Global Spanish Speaking Community. The vast number of Spanish speakers in the world is daunting, made worse for marketers and localizers by the array of dialects. Victor and Diana did their best to...
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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....
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Attendees of GDC this year received a free Android phone. After standing in a long, long line to clear all of the documents, attendees were handed a random choice of phone: Verizon Droid or a Nexus One. I, unhappily, received a Droid. And I am not the only unhappy one. There was a line...
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