Translation and Localisation in Video Games

This book is a multidisciplinary study of the translation and localisation of video games. It offers a descriptive analysis of the industry – understood as a global phenomenon in entertainment – and aims to explain the norms governing present industry practices, as well as game localisation processes. Additionally, it discusses particular translation issues that are unique to the multichannel nature of video games, in which verbal and nonverbal signs must be cohesively combined with interactivity to achieve maximum playability and immerse players in the game’s virtual world. Although positioned within the theoretical framework of descriptive translation studies, Bernal-Merino incorporates research from audiovisual translation, software localisation, computer assisted translation, comparative literature, and video game production. Moving beyond this framework, Translation and Localisation in Video Games challenges some of the basic tenets of translation studies and proposes changes to established and unsatisfactory processes in the video game and language services industries.

Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino, PhD in the localisation of multimedia interactive entertainment software at Imperial College, is a localisation researcher and writer who lectures at the University of Roehampton, UK and several other universities across Europe. He is the co-founder and elected chair of the ‘IGDA Localization SIG’. He has coordinated the ‘Game Localization Round Table’ (for Localization World), as well as the ‘Localization Summit’ (for GDC) from their conception.