Christmas is always an exciting time for gamers from all over the world. This is even more true this year with the release of two new gaming systems: Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4.
With these releases and the large flow of games coming for existing systems, there are lots of English to French video game localization projects I get to work on, whether this is for translation or proofreading. Although the emergence of smartphone/tablet and social games has transformed the industry, one thing that hasn’t changed is the incredibly busy pre-Christmas holidays time. Looking at the sales charts peaks at that time of the year, you can’t really blame editors for that.
Having been a very active gamer myself in a previous life, it’s always an immense pleasure to translate games and imagine players enjoying titles that I have worked on. It’s funny how game localization differs to other types of translations I do. To me, pre-Christmas time means the return of “character limitations” (also known as “would you please butcher your language to make this fit?”), manufacturer terminologies and the like. It’s a bit of a different world, and this diversity allows me to enjoy my job and fight routine.