The world gaming industry is experiencing a boom for the past couple of years. The post-Covid era has expanded the gaming market. Hence, increasing the number of international users. 

However, there is one prevalent issue that has stood as a barrier. And that is the language barrier. Though video game is a visual entertainment medium, it still needs to be localized and translated for the audience to give them a better experience. Now, one may wonder which languages to localize the video game in 2022?

Well, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will discuss the top languages that video game publishers should localize their games into. So let's discuss them;

1. Finnish 

If you are a video game publisher based out of England and want to penetrate the Finland market and other European nations, then to be successful in this endeavor, taking assistance, from professional Finnish translation services to localize your video game, is preferable. 

Language service providers will ensure that your game is adapted to the specific needs of the target audience. Moreover, the Finnish language has its linguistic preference and nuances. The players have to decide, among themselves, how to utilize the language for gaming purposes. 

2. Danish 

Danish people speak very good English. But they prefer to view content in their local language. This preference opens up a market of over 6 million people, who would like to play a video game, that has been localized for their region.  

For some, it may be an unnecessary endeavor, if they wish to translate their video game for only 6 million people. But if you look at it strategically, it can help expand your consumer traffic in the long term. 

Professional Danish translation services can help video game publishers to localize their video games with the help of professional human translators that are gamers themselves. Plus, they have expertise in the Danish language with sound translation experience as well. 

3. Chinese 

Mandarin is officially the most spoken language in the world. Hence, it has huge market potential for video game publishers. The revenue and customer traffic, that one can generate, by localizing his game into Simplified Chinese are comparatively greater than any other market, because of the volume. 

A lot of the video games translation services are offered to localize in Mandarin. The reason is, forty-two percent of the total revenue earned by video games is generated from the Chinese market. 

However, it sounds amazing and profitable, but it's also very difficult to sell a video game in this market. The level of competition is very high. And one needs a lot of resources, time, and money to effectively offer a product that can be adapted by the Chinese culture. 

4. Japanese 

If we are talking about the global video gaming market of the world, then it would be unfair, not to mention, the Japanese market. It is the third-biggest market in the world. And is fiercely following the leading number one and number two markets, that are China and US. 

There are over seventy million video gamers in Japan. And back in 2019, the Japanese gaming market was able to accumulate over $20 billion in revenue.

Every gaming industry has its intricacies that need to be addressed and tackled by the translation agency. Japan is not entirely alien to the English language. Therefore, one does not have to localize every text. Because at the end of the day, complete translation may hamper the gaming experience of the video game.

It's better to keep the original characters and dialogues in the English language. 

5. German   

German is another language that is profitable for video game translation. The fact that there are over 45 million players in Germany alone makes it a big market for games. Back in 2019, the market was able to generate over $5billion, hence it's a lucrative market for video game localization. A lot of agencies, such as Finnish translation services, offer German translation as well. 

One of the largest video gaming events, that take place in the world, is called Gamescon, which is based out of Germany. And the entire local population, especially, the youth, is fanatic about the event. And if you ask any one of them, they might tell you all the latest trends that are taking place in the gaming world. 

Moreover, the German video game players want a full experience that allows them to fully engage with the storyline and visual graphics. Therefore, the process of localization needs to take place at the same time a video game is developed by the engineers. 

Conclusion

Video game localization can help video game publishers to introduce their video games to a broader audience. However, market penetration is never successful without attempting to localize your product offering.

There are different states with numerous languages. Hence, one needs to find out the best one for its organization. In this article, we discussed some of the best languages for game localization in 2022. For instance, Danish is one of the top languages. But to do that, taking assistance from Danish translation services is also recommended.