1. Does Apogee Certify agencies? No, and here’s why. Agencies don’t do translations, people do. If we certify an agency, there is no way to know exactly who is actually handling translation work. Translations are done by individuals, so only those individuals can be Certified.

That said, we have no problem with an agency that wants to advertise that they ONLY use Apogee Certified Translators (so long as it is true). There are probably other good ways to show affiliation with the program, and we’re open to suggestions. But the understanding is that individual translators are the heroes of our story, not processes or organizations.

2. The Smartphone Requirement. All Apogee Certified Translators must own and use email-capable smartphones. And, yes, that is a requirement.

“Why?”, shout more than a few perplexed people. “What does a high tech toy have to do with our work?”

Let me tell you a story. When Apogee was working in a new language three years ago, we identified three translators to work with us. In the end, all three proved equally capable, but one of them had a Blackberry. He was able to answer any question or issue we had within fifteen minutes. This was gold. That translator is now on our Apogee Certified Translator list. The other two are long forgotten.

I suspect that many, even most, translators who are without instant and continuous access to email have lost work like the two unfortunate and talented forgotten souls in my story. And Apogee Certified Translators need to stand out from the rest of their brethren, not only in quality of translation, but in responsiveness to clients. This is what makes them different. This is what makes them special.

If you want to be an Apogee Certified Translator and you don’t have a smartphone, it’s time to go out and get one.

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 hands of an Apogee Certified Translator.

The website explaining the Certification program is here.

The list of Certified translators is available here.

Translators interested in being Certified should follow this link.

Publishers interested in being part of Apogee’s Client Publisher program should link here.

Below is a brief introduction to the program. The text is a transcription of the video.

Welcome to Apogee Certification! Apogee tests and verifies translators in all languages of the world. We ensure that Certified translators are not only able to deliver excellent translations, but that they are professional businesspeople who quickly respond to clients’ needs.

My name is Edwin Steussy, and I am the President of Apogee Communications. I started my first translation agency in 1989 in Taipei, Taiwan, converting Chinese into English for the computer manufacturers in the region. I’ve been running translations in the United States since 1996 and it has been my exclusive business since 2003, when Apogee was formed.

In all that time, there has been a gradual change in the industry. When I was running translations in Los Angeles in the late 90′s, all of my translators were local Los Angeles residents; professional translators in some cases, self-taught dual language speaking individuals in others.

Starting in about 2000, we converted to using more and more home-based translators working over the internet. It was a new idea at the time to “off-shore” work. We received much higher quality work, typically from much more professional translators.

As time has gone on, more of our clients saw that they could do the same work as an agency; hire translators from abroad directly, and save on the middleman’s profit. It’s called disintermediation.

This is a good thing. Translators now work much more closely with their clients. Clients have direct access to translators to get work done quickly and efficiently. Questions can be answered more quickly – problems solved faster.

The biggest issue in this new set-up is determining who is a good translator, and who is a mediocre or bad one. This is where Apogee comes in. By Certifying truly excellent and efficient translators, and publishing their names and contacts for all to see, we take the guesswork out of translation hiring.

Apogee further assists Client Publishers’ by making them the priority recipients of newly Certified translators, consulting on difficult job problems and providing back-office invoicing and purchase order processing.

Globalization. Direct contacts. Certification. Come here to find the best of the best. Come and be part of us.

The advent of an official Localization Summit has been a major asset to the community at large. And I think it can be made better. As I see it, there are three primary participants in the Loc SIG: Producers, Vendors and the Creators of Tools. All three perform highly necessary functions, and the SIG should work to make them more effective and, collectively, make all of our voices louder.

I’ve spoken with several producers who are fighting inside their companies to gain more recognition; to get more languages and more distribution to bring videogames fully into the world, much as movies are today. It’s an uphill fight. Vendors, both individual translators and agencies, are working to hone their craft and achieve recognition. Tool creators are giving us the implements we need. And all need a little bit of help, which the SIG can provide.

My bio is located here. My official statement is below. I’m proud to offer my assistance in growing our small but essential part of the game community.

My name is Edwin Steussy, and I am the CEO of Apogee Communications. I opened my first translation agency (Ch->En, in Taiwan) in 1988 and began translation for the game industry in 1996. I’ve lived in six different countries (US, Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic , Hungary, as well as Taiwan) and run businesses in five of them. I have an undergraduate degree in Physics from Northwestern University, as well as graduate studies in Mandarin Chinese. The only business I have done since 2003 is game localization.

I see three essential areas for the SIG. In order:

#1. Promote Localization in the Industry.

This should be the primary focus of the organization. The key to promotion is money and the enlightened self-interest of the major publishers. For a business as mature and stalwart as videogames, the industry has not yet fully embraced localization. In fact, during the recent downturn, some of the largest publishers took to reducing the number of languages they publish in. While this was not true of Vanessa Woods’ part of Sony nor Richard Honeywood’s former employer Blizzard, large firms such as EA trimmed their language offerings and other publishers cut back expansion plans.

To that end, I’ve been amassing as much data as possible on the international business of videogames. While final profit and loss numbers will likely be forever shielded from outsiders, we do have access to data from public companies, as well as ancillary information from persons working inside those companies. With enough data, collectively mined from numerous companies, we help localization managers as they fight politically for more and better localizations inside their companies.

#2. Specific Service Promotion.

Further, the SIG should aggressively promote the abilities of its members in assisting publishers in their localization needs, including publishing a database of services, translators and agencies that make up the SIG for easy use and reference by gaming community.

#3. Define Standards

As with other technical SIGS, we should also be the force for rationalizing and standardizing our field. Defining industry standards, recommending essential tool sets for easy use between companies and games, and setting standards of excellence through awards or other forms of recognition.

These are all essential, life-giving activities of the SIG.

With these in mind, I submit my name for the Localization Special Interest Group Steering Committee.

If you did not receive your copy of the new pricelist, let me know right away!

Ed Steussy

I’ve been invited to speak at the LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association) conference in Suzhou, June 28 to June 30. I’ll be the lead speaker in the games track, giving an overview on the rise of the industry, effects of translation/localization and what this means for China. Other speakers are Victor Alonso Lion (Pink Noise) and Rolf Klischewski (gameslocalization.com).

I’ll be sure to leave my impressions here.

Note that contact numbers and email while I am in China will be unchanged. How I so love the digital world!

If you’ve come here trying to figure out how to contact me, my cellphone number is 951-240-1762. Feel free to SMS (preferred) or call.

Looking forward to a big time in the city. Many posts will follow the Conference if it’s anything like last year.

There are a few surprises here. Chinese is a full 26% of our workload, by wordcount. One reason for that, as well as Russian’s place in the statistics, is that a couple of clients decided to translate their backlists into these languages. Another reason is that, for several of our clients, we are one of many translation houses working for them. Either our Chinese work was faster, better or they didn’t offer the language at all, as we were receiving quite a few more requests from them for Chinese than any other language.

It may well be that other houses are seeing more work from the standard French, Italian, German and Spanish combination, but here we’re working quite a bit on the expansion languages.

Looking forward to seeing all of our favorite people again.

See you on the other side.