A little more than a decade ago, the time between the release of a game
developed in Japan and its North American launch would be well over a
year. In some cases, especially for European gamers, classics like Chrono Cross
never saw the light of day. Today, the difference in time for the
launch of a game in Japan, North America, and Europe is rarely more than
a few days. Developers and publishers not only understand the
advantages of releasing games in all regions as quickly as possible, but
they have also started digging into untapped markets that are eager to
spend money.
Which Languages Matter?
Early on, there were essentially two languages used to develop games:
Japanese and English. As the size of games grew and their popularity
expanded, so did the language options. Today, it's extremely rare for a
game not to include EFIGS (English, French, Italian, German, and
Spanish) as language options. Developers and publishers are looking at
ways of getting their games to more markets, but there is no clear-cut
process in place that determines if a game like Prince of Persia gets a Hungarian language track instead of a Greek one.
Today, it's extremely rare for a game not to include EFIGS (English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish) as language options.
Developers and publishers are gauging worldwide interest by listening to
the voices of potential customers through social media. If a large
community of Brazilian gamers really wants the next BioWare game to
feature a Brazilian-Portuguese language track, then the audience needs
to be vocal about it.
Sony is probably at the forefront of language-support options. Most of
its first-party games are produced to support 15 different languages,
and that number is expected to grow. When you add in subtitle support,
the number doubles. This is part of the reason why the PlayStation 3 is
so popular in Europe; there's a good chance someone can pick up a game
and it will have his or her native language on it.
To its credit, Microsoft has improved greatly in recent years. The company's Kinect: Disneyland Adventures
includes full speech in six languages and even takes "cultural
gestures" into account, ensuring certain hand movements don't offend
specific groups of people.
Turkey, Iran, and the Arab World
The single biggest market that appears to be the next logical place for
developers to move toward is in the Arab countries, including Iran and
Turkey. It's hard to believe that a region where a half-billion people
live hasn't been given the attention it deserves.
During a localization panel at the 2012 Game Developers Conference,
Mahmound Khasawneh, CEO of Quirkat, explained just how much potential
exists in that part of the world and that only a small number of studios
have bothered to harness it. Studios like Sony, Epic Games, and Ubisoft
have started to learn of the possibilities in this area, but others are
still behind the times.
