Living well by playing well: video game localisation and global distribution

Play makes us human. We play to have fun, to socialise, to learn, to destress, and to exercise. There are 2.3 billion active gamers in the world who generate US$137.9 billion in revenue for the gaming industry every year. Video gaming is a global phenomenon that connects people of diverse ethnicities and socio-cultural backgrounds thanks to video game localisation, a process that adapts games technically, linguistically and culturally for different markets. Despite the increasingly diverse nature of global markets, game localisation is often an after-thought in game development pipelines. Translation issues are rarely addressed properly, which can lead to poor localisation, unsatisfactory game experience, and economic loss. Improving translation quality and efficiency has become crucial to the future of the gaming industry. The project brings together researchers and different stakeholders within the gaming community to discuss a range of issues in the localisation and global distribution of video games, seeking to deepen understanding and optimise the practice of this specific type of language translation. This project benefits from the strong presence of the gaming industry in Bristol and builds on the existing collaborations between Translation Studies/School of Modern Languages and the regional translation networks. The project will refine existing research questions and generate new ideas in preparation for future research grant applications.