Enhancing Video Game Localization Through Dubbing

This book addresses the hot topic in audiovisual translation (AVT) of video game localization through the unique perspective of dubbing, an area which has so far received relatively little scholarly focus. The author analyses the main characteristics of video game localization within the context of English-Spanish dubbing, and emphasizes the implications for research and localization as a professional practice. The book will appeal to translation studies scholars and students, as well as AVT professionals looking to understand localization processes from a systematized approach.

Localization is everywhere in our digital world, from apps to websites or games. Our interconnected digital world functions in part thanks to invisible localization processes that allow global users to engage with all sorts of digital content and products. This textbook presents a comprehensive overview of the main theoretical, practical, and methodological issues related to localization, the technological, textual, communicative, and cognitive process by which interactive digital texts are prepared to be used in contexts other than those of production. Localization in Translation provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the main practical and theoretical issues involved in localizing software, web, video games, and apps. It discusses the many technological, cultural, linguistic, quality, economic, accessibility, and user-reception issues related to the different localization types. It also provides an updated overview of localization in an ever-changing technological landscape marked by advances in neural machine translation and AI. Each chapter includes a basic summary, key questions, a final section with discussion and assignments, as well as additional readings. Online resources with additional questions and assignments are included on the Routledge Translation Studies portal. This is the essential textbook for advanced undergraduates and graduates in translation studies and translation professionals engaged in localization practice.

This Element takes the initiative to highlight the nascent state of audiovisual translation research centring on users of video games. It proposes ways of advancing the research by integrating numerous related perspectives from relevant fields to guide studies in translated game reception into further fruition. The Element offers an accessible overview of possible relationships between translation and its experiencers, showcasing ways to design game reception studies. Examples, methods, tools, and practical concerns are discussed to ultimately develop a blueprint for game translation user research which aims to consolidate scientific user-centric inquiry into video game translation. To that end, the blueprint captures the three-pronged interplay between the parameters of localisation-reception research in facets of user experience, facets of translated games, and facets of game users.

To trainee translators and established professionals alike, the range of tools and technologies now available, and the speed with which they change, can seem bewildering. This state-of-the-art, copiously illustrated textbook offers a straightforward and practical guide to translation tools and technologies. Demystifying the workings of computer-assisted translation (CAT) and machine translation (MT) technologies, Translation Tools and Technologies offers clear step-by-step guidance on how to choose suitable tools (free or commercial) for the task in hand and quickly get up to speed with them, using examples from a wide range of languages. Translator trainers will also find it invaluable when constructing or updating their courses. This unique book covers many topics in addition to text translation. These include the history of the technologies, project management, terminology research and corpora, audiovisual translation, website, software and games localisation, and quality assurance. Professional workflows are at the heart of the narrative, and due consideration is also given to the legal and ethical questions arising from the reuse of translation data. With targeted suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter to guide users in deepening their knowledge, this is the essential textbook for all courses in translation and technology within translation studies and translator training. Additional resources are available on the Routledge Translation Studies Portal.

This book presents the Cultural Transduction framework as a conceptual tool to understand the processes that media and cultural products undergo when they cross cultural and national borders. Using a series of examples from pop culture, including films, television series, videogames, memes and other digital products, this book provides the reader with a wider understanding of the procedures, interests, roles, assumptions and challenges, which foster or hinder the travels of media and cultural products. Compiling in one single narrative a series of case studies, theoretical debates and international examples, the book looks at a number of exchanges and transformations enabled by both traditional media trade and the internet. It reflects on the increase of cultural products crossing over regional, national and international borders in the form of videogames and TV formats, through music and video distribution platforms or via digital social media networks, to highlight discussions about the characteristics of border-crossing digital production. The cultural transduction framework is developed from discussions in communication and media studies, as well as from debates in adaptation and translation studies, to map out the travels of media and cultural products from an interdisciplinary perspective. It provides a tool to analyse the markets, products, people and processes that enable or constrain the movement of products across borders, for those interested in the practical aspects that underlie the negotiation and transformation of products inserted into different cultural market settings. This volume provides a new framework for understanding the travels of cultural products, which will be of use to students and scholars in the area of media industry studies, business studies, digital media studies, international media law and economics.

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.

Video games are part of the growing digital entertainment industry for which game localization has become pivotal in serving international markets. As well as addressing the practical needs of the industry to facilitate translator and localizer training, this book seeks to conceptualize game localization in an attempt to locate it in Translation Studies in the context of the technologization of contemporary translation practices. Designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the topic of game localization the book draws on the literature in Game Studies as well as Translation Studies. The book’s readership is intended to be translation scholars, game localization practitioners and those in Game Studies developing research interest in the international dimensions of the digital entertainment industry. The book aims to provide a road map for the dynamic professional practices of game localization and to help readers visualize the expanding role of translation in one of the 21st century's key global industries.

Part of the New Foundations of Game Development Series! As games become more popular in international markets, developers and publishers are looking for ways to quickly localize their games in order to capitalize on these markets. Authored by two internationally known experts in game localization, The Game Localization Handbook, Second Edition provides information on how to localize software for games, whether they are developed for the PC, console, or other platforms. It includes advice, interviews, and case studies from industry professionals, as well as practical information on pre-production, production, translation, and testing of localized SKUs. Written for producers, translators, development personnel, studio management, publishers, students, and anyone involved directly or indirectly with the production of localized games, this single-reference handbook provides insightful guidelines to all the tasks involved for planning and executing successful localizations.