The Increasing Importance of Localisation in the Videogame Industry: A Translation of “The Game Localization Handbook”

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the history and processes of videogame localisation and is accompanied by the translation of the first three chapters of the book The Game Localization Handbook. The aim of this work is to highlight the importance of localisation in the videogame distribution process, invite videogame developers to take the localisation process into account and encourage gamers not to undervalue locally adapted versions of the games they play. The thesis is divided into five different chapters.

Chapter one is divided into two paragraphs. The first one describes the localisation process and compares it to translation while highlighting similarities and differences. The second paragraph consists of a brief overview of the history of videogame localisation, from the origins of the videogame industry to the latest developments in the field. This section aims at explaining the importance of the localisation process and encouraging the reader to recognise all the advantages that it offers to companies.

The second chapter is an analysis of the book The Game Localization Handbook by Heather Maxwell Chandler and Stephanie O’Malley Deming. The analysis examines the structure, language and stylistic features used by the authors and considers the type of target reader. It is divided into three paragraphs: the first is an overview of the book itself, the second focuses on its syntax and the third analyses its lexicon.

The third chapter offers a translation proposal from English to Italian of the first section of the aforementioned book. This section of the book is divided into three chapters and suggests how to tackle the localisation process; the translation follows the same structure of the original text. The aim of the translation is to provide an Italian version of the handbook in order to make it accessible to a wider public. The translation revolves around following topics: how companies work on the localisation process, its complexity and importance in the videogame industry.

The fourth chapter consists of an analysis of the target text, the main problems and difficulties encountered during the translation process and the solutions adopted in order to produce the Italian version of the text. Discoursive features are analysed while taking into consideration examples from the source text. The chapter is divided into four paragraphs, each one analysing one of the following specific issues: stylistic, syntactic, lexical and cultural problems.

The last chapter concludes the paper and resumes its objectives and analysis.

A bibliography, sitography, gameography and the source text of the translation can be found in the appendix at the end of this paper.