However, behind this growth lies a harsh reality: over 60% of global mobile game revenue comes from localized content. Many games still fail in overseas markets due to cultural misalignment, broken interfaces, and inconsistent terminology.
Game localization has thus become a critical step in overcoming language and cultural barriers and winning the favor of global players. Here are six essential localization strategies that enable global success.
1. Market Insights Drive Efficient Localization Planning
Accurately identifying the target market is the foundation of effective localization. For example, before launching in the Middle East, one strategy game conducted in-depth research and discovered that local players strongly preferred social gameplay. The development team invested in optimizing alliance systems and Arabic voiceovers—propelling the game to the top of the best-seller chart within its first month.Before starting localization, gather market data to build a clear target market profile: analyze downloads, monetization metrics, user preferences, competitor performance, and community feedback. This helps prioritize the most promising game features for localization.
In addition, regulatory compliance is critical. In 2023, a major Western studio was forced to delist a title in Indonesia for including religious totems in a character’s tattoo. In contrast, another publisher proactively screened religious and historical content and adapted UI layouts for Thai and Vietnamese script length, ensuring smooth release in Southeast Asia.
Choosing a professional localization partner with deep market experience helps identify high-potential markets, assess legal and cultural risks, and allocate resources wisely—laying a solid foundation for global expansion.
2. Integrate Language Adaptation into UI Design
Language adaptability should be considered from the UI prototyping phase. Import real text samples in all target languages to assess how button labels, menus, and tags render across languages. The goal is to leave enough flexible space for text expansion. For example:Early prototyping and user testing help identify layout issues like truncation, misalignment, and visual clutter. This allows for early adjustment of control sizes, font selection, and line spacing—avoiding costly redesigns later and ensuring consistency across language versions.
- German strings are on average 30% longer than English, often leading to truncation in compact UI elements.
- Arabic and Hebrew require right-to-left (RTL) layout mirroring—not just text translation.
- Traditional Chinese and Japanese may be more compact, but complex characters must remain legible at various sizes.
3. Build a Robust Technical Framework for Localization
Lack of technical planning is a silent threat to localization. In one case, a game hardcoded its in-game text, and a small error in the German skill description required days of developer intervention—delaying the release by two weeks.To prevent such issues, experienced localization teams enforce resource separation during development:
A version control mechanism is also critical. With automated diffing, only new or changed strings need translation for each update—cutting time and costs while reducing errors. One strategy game using this method reduced localization turnaround time by 40% and error rates by 70%. Through standardized processes and reusable assets, both localization speed and quality can be greatly improved.
- Localizable content (dialogs, UI strings, help messages) is stored in resource files, organized by function for easy access.
- Text formats are standardized to prevent encoding issues or character loss.
- Dynamic elements (numbers, dates, currencies) follow token rules (e.g., {currency} auto-replaces with target symbols), avoiding manual edits.
4. Localize Audio-Visual Assets with Cultural Intelligence
Localizing multimedia content—images, videos, voiceovers—is essential for immersive experiences and brand perception. This is one of the most challenging aspects of game localization.Key considerations include:
These best practices ensure the localized audio-visual experience aligns with local aesthetics and cultural expectations while preserving the original artistic quality.
- Editable source files: Access to layered design files (e.g., PSD, AI) allows easy replacement of text elements without clunky overlays.
- Font compatibility: Test character rendering and natural line breaking for target scripts (e.g., Arabic ligatures, Japanese kanji).
- Cultural sensitivity: Review visuals such as icons, costumes, and environments for cultural or religious sensitivities—replacing potentially offensive symbols, color schemes, or animal imagery.
- Voiceover/subtitle sync: Provide time-coded scripts to ensure perfect alignment between lip movement, subtitle, and voiceover.
5. Terminology and Context: The Twin Pillars of Authenticity
Consistency in terminology and contextual accuracy are essential to immersive storytelling. Every term and line of dialogue must fit seamlessly into the game’s universe to engage local players on a deeper level.
Terminology Management: The Game's Cultural DNA
Establish a dynamic, multilingual termbase early in the project to ensure coherence. From skill names and item labels to lore-specific nouns, terminology must be consistent. For example:The English term Backstab must consistently translate to Attaque sournoise in French to avoid confusion with Ambush (Embuscade).
The fantasy race Elf may be split into Forest Elf (森の精霊) and Dark Elf (闇夜のエルフ) in Japanese, depending on lore context.
Regularly updating the termbase ensures alignment across updates and new content.
Contextualization: Breathing Life into Translation
Without context, in-game text loses its meaning. Localization teams must provide:
- Cultural notes: Idioms or jokes (e.g., "Knock-knock") require localized equivalents (e.g., Japanese ドアをトントン) and annotations.
- Visual references: Dialogues accompanied by facial expressions or animations (e.g., a taunting laugh) help translators choose accurate tones.
- Mission flowcharts: Branching paths and trigger conditions (e.g., “Choose Option A, defeat Boss, then unlock Quest C”) help maintain logical consistency and prevent player confusion.
Collaborative Ecosystem
Effective localization requires close coordination between developers, translators, and QA teams. Terminology updates, contextual adjustments, and quality checks must function within a single feedback loop. Only when narrative, voice, UI, and visuals are fully integrated can a game resonate authentically with its global audience.
6. Precision QA: Polishing for a Seamless Global Experience
The ultimate goal of localization is to deliver a flawless, immersive experience to players worldwide. This depends on a rigorous quality assurance process:This three-pronged QA system—covering language, visuals, and logic—ensures a high standard of localization quality. It detects issues early, from mistranslations and UI misalignment to gameplay disruptions caused by inconsistent logic. By polishing every detail, developers can build global trust and deliver a refined product tailored to each market.
- Bilingual review: Text is reviewed by two specialists—first for accuracy and terminology consistency, then for stylistic polish by a native linguist familiar with local gaming conventions.
- Terminology asset maintenance: The termbase and translation memory must be continuously updated to maintain coherence and reduce future workload.
- QA testing: Professional testers play through the game to evaluate linguistic quality, technical rendering (e.g., text overflow, layout), and functional accuracy (e.g., correct text-behavior alignment).
About Glodom:
Glodom is a Global Top 100 Lanquage Service Provider. It has accumulated profoundknowledge in the field ofgame localization and has reached long-term and stable cooperation with many well-known game companies around theworld. Glodom has more than 300 full-time employees, and its service network covers over 40 countries worldwide,supporting more than 150 languages, We always attach equal importance to innovation and service. with advancednumerous enterprises achieve theirtechnology and rich project managementultilingual processing, Glodomglobal strategic layouts. Whether in the accuracyhas always been at the forefront of the industry.
